the Church
bring together or into contact so that a genuine link is established • join together so as to provide access and communication
About
“The Church” are those connected to one another by a belief that Jesus is who He said He was.
The Church is not a building or even just a system of beliefs. The word “Church” or “Ecclesia” is more accurately defined as “assembly” or “congregation” or more specifically “gathering” of people. It is a concept that is closer to a family instead of a company or corporation.
Business?
The larger a gathering grows the less it tends to be an Ecclesia and the more it tends to function as a Corporation. Corporations require well established rules, organizational hierarchy, systems and processes to ensure quality or control and a static building or rigid structure to ensure consistent identity.
The ecclesia or ekklesia[1] (Greek: ἐκκλησία) was the principal assembly of the democracy of ancient Athens during its “Golden Age” (480–404 BCE). The biblical reference of the Greek word is believed to derive from the parts of the word that would suggest.
In Strong’s Greek Concordance, the word ekklesia (word #1577) comes from the word “ek,” (word #1537) which means “out of”; and the word “klesis” (word #2821) which means “a calling.”
This would give us a picture of “the Church” to be an assembly of people that has been called out. If we look at what Jesus actually did we can get a better picture of what this would mean. He “called” disciples to “follow Him” – He called them “out” of their ‘normal’ way of doing things and sent them out with a new purpose.
“In such a fearful world, we need a fearless church”
C.S. Lewis
Author