What is the Church?

In Ancient Greece the more common use of the world Ekklesia, was for an assembly of people.

In the book Pagan Christianity?  the authors say this of the word:


"Strikingly, nowhere in the New Testament do we find the terms church (ekklesia) used to refer to as a building."

To the ears of a first-century Christian, calling an ekklesia (church) a building would have been like calling your wife a condominium or your mother a skyscraper!"

The first recorded use of the word ekklesia, refers to a Christian meeting place was penned around AD 190 by Cement Alexandria (150-215).  Clement was also the first person to use the phrase "go to church"-which would have been a foreign thought to the first century believers.  (You can not go to something you are!)
(page 11 & 12)


The authors goes on to tell us that in all of the 114 places the word Ekklesia is used in the New Testament that it always points to an assembly and that the word church was originally derived from the word kuriakon which has the meaning of, "belonging to the Lord."


In their book ReJesus Hirsch and Frost say this about the term Ekklesia.

"Most dictionaries will tell you that ecclesia literally means 'the gathering of the called-out ones'.  It comes from two words, ek meaning 'out' and kaleo, meaning 'to call'.  But in it's original usage an ecclesia was not just an assembly or a gathering, as many suppose.  If that's all Paul wanted to convey, he could have used agora and panegyris  as well as heorte, koinon, thiasos, synagoge and synago, all of which refer to an assembly. 

The word ecclesia had a political aspect to it.  In fact, it wasn't a religious term, and neither was its use limited to a religious gathering.  In Paul's time, an ecclesia was a gathering of the elders of a community.   In smaller villages and towns across Judea, local elders would gather regularly to discuss and deliberate over a variety of social and political dilemma's facing the community....

....It brought wisdom to the village. It helped the village be a better village. 

... How interesting that Paul takes this term and Christianizes it for his fledgling communities.  Of course, he adds to it the idea of ecclesia being a body, striving for unity and diversity."


I love this quote from the above authors, because it takes us back to the purpose of the New Testament church, to see the spread of the gospel and to radically impact their local communities for the glory of God.


How then do we so easily interchange the word to day between a body of people and a bricks and mortar place of worship?

How did the translation get lost along the way?

Was it due to the fact that when the bible was translated and printed that 'church' as the building was already firmly established 'culturally'?

Last week I took a 22 hour flight from Sydney Australia via Abu Dabi to arrive in Manchester about 7 am.

As I stood haggard with 3 of my children at the baggage claim I was people watching. I spied one woman who had taken extreme care in how she dressed that morning unlike myself who was feeling every second of the trip.

The lady had some how managed to do her make up and hair, and was looking gorgeous even after a long haul flight. However by her body language I could tell so much more about her than I could her clothes. She was becoming increasingly impatient, worried, frustrated at her lack of luggage.

As I walked further down to collect my stroller, I heard someone approach from behind me. Her high bling laden heels tap tap tapped on the floor as she approached the man in charge of stroller collection.

As she opened her mouth to ask him about her luggage I was knocked over by what came out of her mouth. She let 'rip' as us Aussies say, with a whole host of language that would make an outback shearer blush.

I was gobsmacked.

As I watched the scene further unfold I saw her go to ask somebody else about her luggage.

It turned out she was standing on the wrong conveyor belt and her luggage was coming out on the opposite side of the room.

This morning as I regain some of my senses and jet lag lifts I wonder if sometimes as a Christian I am like this.

We can dress ourselves up in all kinds of attire as Christians. Our ministries, our worship, our churches, can become the external 'blings' of Christendom for everyone to see.

We may be presented in our Sunday best physically and symbolically, yet our body language and our speech maybe saying more about what is happening on the inside of us than we would often care to admit.

And then, having all of that together and looking fine, we find ourselves becoming increasingly frustrated and irritated at God not showing up where we are...... but rather is at the opposite end of the building with those other people. We too may just be in the wrong spot.

Where are we standing today? In a place where appearance matters or where our words actions and behavior reflect Jesus? Are we impatient when God does not show up? Or are we ever seeking where we should be standing?