A Called-Out Assembly
The word church only appears in the New Testament. It’s the translation of the Greek word ekklesia, which means a called-out assembly.
By definition, ekklesia is a generic term, but it usually applies to a political assembly or an assembly of citizens. By extension it could be an assembly of businesspeople or of the trades. Or it could be a social assembly. And it could also be a religious one.
Given the context of the New Testament, an ekklesia is therefore an assembly of Jesus’s followers. More accurately, it’s a called-out assembly.
Eklesia always refers to a community of people and never to a structure. And the implication is that it refers collectively to all believers and not specifically to one local group.
In the Bible, ekklesia is translated as church, over one hundred times. Part of me wishes that it wasn’t. I wonder if we’d be better off if translators had kept the word assembly and not rendered it as church. That might have enhanced our understanding of the text and minimized confusion.
Church in the Bible
Interestingly, Jesus rarely talks about church. The word only appears twice in the gospels, both in the book of Matthew (Matthew 16:18 and Matthew 18:17).
What Jesus does talk about is the kingdom of God (kingdom of heaven in Matthew). Maybe we should do the same. Let’s shift our attention away from church and more toward the kingdom of God.
Jesus’s followers, however, don’t pick up on this. They use the word church a lot and rarely talk about the kingdom of God.
Church appears often in Acts and in Revelation. Paul also mentions church frequently, with it appearing in eleven of his thirteen letters.
of Paul’s letters, only 2 Timothy and Titus don’t mention church, which is interesting given that both those letters are to pastors. This fact is worth contemplation.
Called Out
Let’s set our discussion about church aside and circle back to ekklesia. The first part of the definition is called out. As followers of Jesus, we are called to follow him. That is, we are called out.
We should understand our calling out as being summoned into service or action. Jesus doesn’t want passive followers or those who align with him in name only.
Our Lord wants active and committed followers who will tell others about him with their words and point others to him through their lifestyle.
We are called out to be his witnesses and his ambassadors.
Assembly
As being Jesus’s called out followers, we don’t do it in isolation. We do it in community. We do it as an assembly.
As with ekklesia, assembly also carries a political connotation, such as a legislative body. But given our biblical context, we see our assembly as one with a spiritual focus, a Jesus focus.
Our assembly for Jesus could be our church community. Yet it could also be a small group or Bible study. It could be any Christ-centered service group too.
In fact, our assembly is anywhere we gather in his name (Matthew 18:20). And this doesn’t have to happen in a church building.
Called-Out Assembly
Combining these ideas of being called out for Jesus and an assembly of like-minded believers, we end up with a called-out assembly, which is the definition of ekklesia.
As Jesus’s ekklesia, we are a group of his called-out followers. May we act accordingly. Let’s stop going to church and start acting like his ekklesia.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront a status quo faith and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.
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