For Christ to exert His supremacy as Head of the Church, He must have supremacy as Head of the family (1 Cor 11:3). Thus, the ecclesiology of a church ought to demonstrate an understanding of the church’s ‘filial DNA’. Filial means what is befitting of a son or daughter. Our sonship in Christ ought to be mirrored in our spiritual parenting of our children. We ought to ask, ‘is our church made up of Christ-centered families in which fathers are shepherding their families’? Rather than merely, ‘is the church relevant for the family’? Indeed, a church is a family of families. It is a corporate family made up of smaller individual families. Both the church and the family are created to be cohesive units vivified and ruled by Christ.

In terms of belief, a conviction is the mental state of being convinced—the fixed state of belief. To hold a conviction is to ‘be held by’ an unshakeable belief without need of further proof or evidence (see Hebrews 11:1-3). Biblical convictions are the very core and foundation of godly character and virtue.

The Great Commission is not only Christ’s mandate for world missions it is also His pattern for the local church (Acts 14:21-22). “After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God’” (Acts 14:21-22).