We need to see that the church is not something "in the air" but is very real and practical. In the New Testament we do not have much teaching about the church, but we surely have the practicality of the church. In the New Testament the church was a matter that was put into practice. Therefore, we today must have the practice of the church.
We should not say that the church is invisible or that it is something for the future. The church is certainly visible. In the New Testament we do not read about an invisible church nor about a church in the future. In the future there will be not the dispensation of the church but the dispensation of the kingdom. Do not postpone the church. The church must be today. If you do not have the church on the earth in this life, then where and when will you have the church? After you die will you go to a place where you will have the church life? If the church life is postponed until the future, where will this future church life be? Can you show me a verse or a passage of Scripture which tells us that after we die we will go to heaven and there have good church meetings with Paul and Peter? Can you show me where the Bible tells us that we will have the proper church life, the so-called invisible yet real church life, in the future in heaven? There is not such a verse. Neither is there a verse which tells us that the church will be in the future.
Why do people take in the thought that the church on earth today is not the real church, that the real church is the so-called invisible church? Why do people accept the teaching that the church is something for the future? The church must be practical today. We all need to see the vision of the practicality of the church.
The church is also local. Since the church must be local, wherever you are is the right place for you to have the church. The church should be in the very place where you are. A place may seem to be good, but if that place is without a church, it is a hell. On the contrary, any place with a church is a heaven.
This reminds us of Jacob's experience in Genesis 28. "He dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it" (v. 12). When Jacob awoke he said, "How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven" (v. 17). Then he called the name of that place "Bethel," which means "the house of God." Today Bethel, the house of God, is the church (1 Tim. 3:15). Wherever there is the church, the house of God, that place is the gate of heaven. The only place that is good for us today is a place where there is the church.
Wherever we go and wherever we are, there must be a church. Concerning this matter of the church, we should be troublemakers. We should trouble others for the producing of the church. If there is not a church in a particular locality, we should not let the people there be at peace. Rather, we should cause trouble so that there may be a church in that locality. We should declare to the universe, "If there is no church in this place, I do not have a dwelling place. I must have a home, and for this I must cause trouble."
I expect that the day will come when we all, like Paul, will be troublemakers. We need to trouble the entire country for the sake of producing the church. Wherever Paul and the other apostles went, there was trouble. Before they came to a particular place, the people were at peace. But after these troublemakers arrived, the whole city was troubled, disturbed. Acts 17:6 says, "These men who have upset the world have come here also." It is by upsetting the world, by causing trouble, that we establish and build up the church.