The Unshakeable Church 

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said,
“I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”    

Just this past week we celebrated Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the church. As we close in on the 2000th birthday of the church, I think even the most hardened skeptic would have to admit, “The Church has prevailed.” 

In December, 2008 an article was published in the British publication The Times, by famed politician, activist, and journalist Matthew Parris, entitled “As an Atheist, I Truly Believe, Africa Needs God.” 

Parris, having been born in South Africa to British parents, had made a trip back to Africa on behalf of The Times and subsequently published this piece. Having travelled there to observe and report on “development charities” he said,

It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities.
But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief too: one I’ve been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I’ve been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly  refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God. Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve  become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and internationalaid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do.
In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.

This week as we look at the “The Unshakeable Church” you may be wondering why so much space would be given in this blog to the words of an avowed atheist. The fact that Parris could not deny the unmistakable impact the church has had on the continent of Africa, is worthy of observation.

Christianity changes people’s hearts

This is a remarkable confession and observation of the work of the church. A mere philosophy can affect the thinking of its proponents, but it requires something supernatural to change the heart. We’re all very much aware of Peter’s denial of even knowing Jesus. While it’s easy to stand in judgement of Peter at that moment, I think if we’re all honest, there have been times we’ve all denied our Lord. In the case of Peter, something remarkable happened over the next forty days, and on that birth-day of the Church that we referred to earlier, a transformed Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit and with a new heart, preached one of the most powerful sermons in all of history and the church was birthed. Peter went from being a denier of Christ to a history maker, all in a moment. What happened – Peter experienced a transformed heart.

What Peter experienced was the fulfillment of a promise God had made hundreds of years before:

“I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you.
I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.  And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. 

Ezekiel 36:26, 27 NLT  

As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun.”

On our Alpha course at Coastal, with our team training, we stress over and over, “You can’t change anyone, so don’t try. It’s your job to love people. God is the only one who can transform hearts.” At Coastal we have this saying, “It’s an inside job.”   

Matthew Parris was correct: “Christianity changes people’s hearts.” But what Parris falls short in is the understanding that it’s not a religion that changes people’s hearts, but an encounter with the living God. God has left Himself with only one means of drawing people to Himself for that encounter – the church. 

“God has given us [the church] this task of reconciling people to Him.
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back  to God!””

2 Corinthians 5:18-20 NLT 

A Spiritual Transformation  

Parris noted that NGO’s could not do what the church has done as he saw that there was a spiritual transformation in the culture. That is still happening in Africa to this day, as Sub-Saharan Africa now contains the largest and fastest growing Christian population globally. 

It is not unique to Africa, as in 2026, the worldwide attendance to an Alpha Course was 2.83 million people, up 35% from 2024 which itself was a record breaking year for Alpha attendance. 

Several years ago I was walking through the terminal at Heathrow airport and as I walked by a newsstand, I saw rack of magazines, and the European issue of GQ magazine caught my attention as the Alpha logo was blazoned across the cover. The cover was highlighting the feature article, six pages exploring why Alpha in prisons in the UK was transforming lives.  

There are currently 2,100 schools throughout Asia running Alpha for youth, led by youth. Let me make it clear – this is not a promotion for the Alpha course, rather it is a declaration that people all over the world are searching, asking questions, and they are open to the Gospel. The media will not tell you that, but as Matthew Parris said, the facts can’t be denied. And where the Gospel changes hearts, society is transformed. 

Having been at Coastal in the early days, I can say from experience, downtown Vancouver was not the easiest place to plant a church. People didn’t seem open to the Gospel. There was one other church preaching the Gospel in downtown Vancouver at that time, First Baptist Church. Many told Pastor Dave that this was a graveyard for pastors that tried to plant a church in this spiritually barren wasteland.  But as quoted above in the Scripture from 2 Corinthians 5, “we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us.” Slowly we witnessed lives changed, and bit by bit, the Spiritual climate of downtown Vancouver was changed. 

Today there are several healthy and thriving churches in our community where the Gospel is being proclaimed. Count yourself privileged because you’ve been able to see that “where the Gospel is preached, a Spiritual Transformation will take place.”

Nearly two thousand years later, despite opposition, skepticism, and cultural shifts, Jesus’ words still stand true: He is building His Church, and the gates of hell have not prevailed against it.