Ecclesia=Church?

After my last post it was suggested that I add some scriptures and other information so that people know that I'm not just saying things randomly, that I do have some scriptural and other evidence to support what I say. Some of my ideas are just that, my ideas. But they are based on my understanding of words and scriptures. So, here we go.

First, the definition of the word Church from the Websters English dictionary.
1. A building for public Christian worship.
2. Public worship of God or a religious service in such a building: to attend church regularly.
3. The whole body of Christian believers; Christendom.
4. Any division of this body professing the same creed and acknowledging the same ecclesiastical authority; a Christian denomination: the Methodist Church.
5. That part of the whole Christian body, or of a particular denomination, belonging to the same city, country, nation, etc.

Now, the definition of the word that “Church” is translated from.
Ecclesia
1. To summon forth
2. Ones called out
3. to call

So, every time that you see the word Church in the Bible it is translated from this word, Ecclesia. But now just look at the difference in definition between these two words. In the Church definition the closest one to reality is number 3, “the whole body of Christian believers” because who are the summoned? They are the believers, the body. “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you” 2nd Cor 6:17. But, still the overall English definition of the word Church isn't really close at all to it's original meaning.

Some might say that the word Ecclesia has as it's foundation a meaning of gathering together for a singular purpose because it comes from the the assembly of citizens of the ancient Greek state. This is true, in it's meaning is not simply a summoning or calling, it is a summoning and a calling to a gathering. So using this logic you could say that Church is a gathering of believers and thus it is an accurate use of the word.

However, I don't believe that the call or the summons in the Biblical context is to go to a building on Sunday, the calling and the summons is for us to come to HIM.  "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28 And again “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John 12:32 and again  "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day." John 6:44 and again “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you” 2nd Cor 6:17. and again “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” It is a recurring theme throughout, a call, a summons to Himself. He is calling, He is drawing, He is knocking. These are just different ways to say he is summoning us. Summoning us where? To a denomination? To a building? To a service on Sunday? No, He is summoning us out of the world system and to Himself. The word Ecclesia is calling us and summoning us to a gathering, but not in the way you might think. He is summoning us to be gathered into himself. When we are truly the Ecclesia of Jesus, the summoned forth, the called out ones of Jesus then the assembling together of the believers happens automatically, it is not something that needs to be scripted or formated, it is just our normal life. Sometimes we might need to scheduled a meeting of believers but that is not the Ecclesia, that is simply a larger assembly, but no more or less important.

As for the statistics I posted on my last post of how statistically the Church has become totally indistinguishable from the rest of the world, that is from real research and real hard statistics gathered from the Barna research group.

The Definition Of Insanity

They say that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. If this is in fact a true definition than we, the followers of Jesus, must be the most insane people on earth. At some point we decided that our gatherings should be scripted, our worship contained and our fellowship formatted. We decided that we would call this gathering the “Church” when the word we translate as Church simply means “the Called out”. The “Called out ones”are of course supposed to gather together, but to call that gathering itself the Church I don't think is accurate or even close to the original meaning. We decided that a building with a name on it is the place that we should gather. We decided that one day a week was the time when we get closer to God. We decided that daily life could and should be separated from Church life, that these are two very distinct things. We decide that to be involved more at “Church” that we need to spend more time at that building.

We have totally failed to see it. We have failed to see what it's really all about. We see that there is a problem so we try to change, we try to redefine Church but at it's essence it is still the mindset of Church as a place or as a gathering of believers. We keep doing the same things over and over again just adding or subtracting things here and there and expecting things to get better.

Right now, statistically there is absolutely no difference in between “the Church” and the rest of the world. In other words, all the bad things, the drugs, the abortions, the alcoholism, the adultery, the violence, the murder, the rape, pornography, all of the bad things in our world happen at the exact same level within the Church as they do outside the Church, statistically there is no difference. Is this really what Jesus described the Church as? Of course people are going to fail, of course people are going to sin BUT we (the believers and followers of Jesus) should NEVER be indistinguishable from the rest of the corrupt world.

So, what can be done? First I think we need to just forget the word Church, throw it out. If it ever had any significance in scripture in the past, it has lost all of it's true meaning and been so misused that most people can not separate that word from the image that it now puts in their mind of a nice little white building with a cross on top. Instead of using the word Church, use “the called ones” or even “The Believers” would be a good description of what the word “Church”really means. The word describes us, the believers and followers of Jesus, not a gathering of believers, but the believers themselves. The called ones are told to “Assemble together” but the assembling itself has no title, it is simply an assembling. There is nothing that says it has to be formatted, scheduled, or held under any name or banner. There is absolutely nothing in the Bible that describes anything close to the basic format we now call “Church”. The Bible simply says that we are to assemble together, maybe worship, maybe share a word, maybe pray, maybe encourage. It never says it has to be at a certain building at a certain time. There is nothing that says that it has to be planned out at all.

If we get together with some friends for dinner and we pray for each other and we share with each other what God has done for us, how is this not the assembling of the believers? If we get together with family and have great fellowship and maybe sing some worship songs together, how is this not the assembling of the believers? If you share the word of God with a neighbor how is this not the assembling of the believers? You see we need to break free from the restraints of what we understand as “Church” and realize that It's not someplace you go, or something you do, it is who we are. The assembling of the believers should happen all the time, in many different forms and in many different ways.

This is a tough sell for many. The leadership isn't interested in these changes because it would take much of the power (and money) out of their hands, while the masses are not interested in this change because it would require them to do more than show up for Sunday services. But I believe this is the first step to the next level of Christianity that needs to be taken. We need to stop trying to fix something that just needs to be done away with altogether otherwise we are just trying to do the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.