Ekklēsia

What is the church? Growing up in church, it was a word that was used fairly often. On Sundays and Wednesdays we all went to church. My mom had keys to the church. As I grew up and started my own family, we would have birthdays and other kinds of parties at the church.

It was a common phrase, and most of the time when we used it we were referring to the church building. However, in Sunday School and on Wednesday nights, we would repeatedly be taught that the people are what really make up the church and not the building. This didn’t stop us from using the word church when referencing the building, but there was always that distinction in my mind.

As we continue looking at the foundational doctrines of the Church of the Nazarene, we come to this very topic of the church. As with any biblical word, the best place to look for answers is in the Bible. Particularly, since Scripture states that Jesus is the head of the church, it would be a good idea to see what Jesus had to say about it.

You may be surprised to discover that Jesus really had little to say about “the church.” In fact, within the four gospels, Matthew; Mark; Luke; and John, the word church is used only three times. All three of those instances appear within two verses which are both contained within a single book. In Matthew 18:17 Jesus gives instructions on dealing with sin in the church, and in Matthew 16:18 we see one of the most well-known instances of the word church in the bible. Jesus states, “on this rock I will build my church.” Unfortunately, he doesn’t go into any more detail than that regarding what the church is except to say that “the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

In order to better define the church we will first begin by taking a look at the word “church.” In the greek language from which our english bibles are translated, the word used by Jesus in Matthew 16:18 as well as Matthew 18:17 is the word ekklēsia. In all modern translations of the bible, this word is translated as “church,” but that’s a mistranslation.

The history of the word “church” is quite fascinating. I’ll try to briefly cover it, but I would encourage you to Google it for yourself. Our word church actually stems from the greek word kuriakos, which means “belonging to the Lord.” This word is found in 1 Corinthians 11:20 when Paul speaks of the Lord’s supper. Usage of this word originates in the fourth century and the Roman Emperor Constantine.

After his conversion he began ordering the construction of churches which were called kuriakos, or the Lord’s. This word eventually morphed into the word church, and seeing as how this word specifically used for the building, this is was the beginning of the confusion about what is the church.

Coming back to the word ekklēsia, when translated it means an assembly or a congregation. This lends credibility to the idea that the real church is not the building, but rather the people. This is the same word that was used by Jewish scholars translating the Old Testament into greek when they referred to Israel at the foot of Mt. Sinai. So, if you wanted to have a more accurate translation, each instance in which ekklēsia is translated as “church” in the bible should technically be changed to “assembly.” Doing so may actually clear up the whole church building confusion.

However, the meaning of the word ekklēsia goes deeper than a simple gathering of people. Ekklēsia is actually a compound word made up of the words ek, meaning “out of” or “out from” and klēsia meaning “to call.” So, the rough translation would read, “those called out from.” This wasn’t a word that Jesus made up just for the purposes of God. It was a common word used throughout the Roman empire for a group that was called out from among the community for a specified purpose.

I grew up in a small town. The town wasn’t big enough to have its own fire department, but it was also far enough out-of-town that it couldn’t rely upon the surrounding cities in the case of house or brush fires. Instead, what we had was a fire station that was completely staffed by volunteers. My dad, being one of the volunteer firefighters, would spend time training and preparing to fight fires within the community. They would have weekend training events and drills to help prepare them for the real emergencies.

When a real emergency arose, everybody in town knew it. The town wasn’t very big, so the siren on the fire station could easily be heard from all corners. However, at my house we often knew what was going on well before siren sounded. Each volunteer firefighter carried a pager that would alert them to local emergencies. When that pager would go off my dad would drop whatever he was doing and head straight for the fire station. It didn’t matter if we were eating dinner or doing yard work. When that pager went off, he was gone, called out from the community in order to accomplish a mission.

This was the idea of ekklēsia. Common, everyday people who have been called out from their daily lives in order to accomplish a greater mission, whether it was to deal with a local emergency or to make decisions for the community. This is the context in which Jesus stated that he would build his ekklēsia, “those called out from,” his church. Obviously, we are called to different roles and levels of authority, but each member of the ekklēsia has been called out from their lives of sin for the purpose of accomplishing the same mission. Jesus gave us this mission when he commissioned the apostles telling them, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20).

Making disciples takes on many forms, from evangelism to education and acts of compassion to bearing witness to the kingdom of God. We have been called as Christ’s church to confess that he is Lord, to be in unity with each other and fellowship with the Spirit, but ultimately our is plain and simple, to make disciples.

We talk about this a lot in the church. I could stand out in the foyer on any given Sunday and ask people as they leave, “What has the church been called to do?” The vast majority of people would tell me that we are to make disciples. However, as much as we know that it’s our task, as much as we know that it’s our mission, the church in America is failing to do just that.

Nine out of ten churches in North America are losing ground in the communities in which they are located. They are either declining or growing more slowly than their respective communities (Thom Rainer, Who Moved My Pulpit? http://thomrainer.com/whomovedmypulpit/). Reaching out and making disciples is not an option. It is the purpose for which we have been called out, both at our local church as well as in the global church. If we are not working toward the mission given to us, can we really consider ourselves to be the ekklēsia?

When was the last time that you were actively involved in mission of the church? When was the last time you told a non-believer about Jesus? When was the last time that a new believer walked through the doors of your church? If you have to think too long about these questions, I dare to say it’s because we aren’t fulfilling our mission. We gather each week in church buildings, but can we honestly say that we are the church, the ekklēsia, if we aren’t working toward the church’s mission?