Defining What Church Is
- Ritchie Carbajal
- Apr 25, 2007
The word “church” can have many connotations or conjure up many different feelings. It can be a reminder of the day you tied the knot, when you were baptized, or the funeral of someone very close to you. You might associate it with all kinds of nostalgia such as the Easter sunrise service, the choir singing carols on Christmas eve, or the ringing of church bells. If you are not into the church-thing, it is probably an idea still shrouded in mystery or negativity—the last place you’d want to be.
What it is not
Did I say “place”? Well, that’s just the problem. We all have some preconceived idea of what “church” is and I’m thinking that 9 out of 10, we think of it as a place! Or a building. Another idea what church is not: a meeting. Okay, let me explain. What if I was to say that your kid’s Boy Scout or Girl Scout club was the meeting itself. What happens to the club after the meeting? No meeting, no more club? I don’t think so. How about this: traditionally, at least in Western civilization, church is identified as the activity that takes place on Sunday morning, somewhere between 9 o’clock and 12 noon. Is church defined by a specific day or time slot? I hope not.
Background
This gets a little technical so please bear with me—it’s all good. The word “church” comes from the Greek word “ekklesia”. This is where the English word “ecclesiastical” or the Spanish “iglesia” come from. It is actually made up of two words: “ek”—“out of”, and “kaleo”—“to call” or literally “the called-out ones”. In today’s English vocabulary, “assembly” or “gathering” are close equivalents.
Its original use in Greek society had no religious overtones, not even when first used by the apostle Paul although he did refer to individuals gathered in a specific location for a religious purpose. Examples of this are when Paul addresses the believers in Galatia (Turkey) and Thessalonica (northern Greece). In Galatians 1:2, he starts out his letters this way: “To the churches [ekklesiais] in Galatia…” and in 1 Thessalonians 1:1 “To the church [ekklesia] of the Thessalonians…”
However, this use of the word “church” yet ‘evolved’ into something much deeper. Later on, Paul refers to the church as the “body” of which Christ is the head (Colossians 1:18). In Ephesians chapter 5 alone, he uses the word “ekklesia” six times in this context. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Paul crafts a new definition of a common word to define a larger and more permanent reality—God’s Kingdom on earth. The church is now this living, breathing organism made up of people just like the human body has many parts.
Summary
To summarize, we have two ways of defining the word “church”:
- In a universal sense, “church” is the worldwide collection of Christ-followers since His resurrection.
- In a local sense, “church” is any given group of Christ-followers in any given location united in purpose and yet diverse in many ways.
At Crossweave, we take both of these views of church very seriously. It is who we are—Christ-followers—that defines us and not a place, a meeting, or a schedule. We also recognize that we are one among many groups in a movement that spans the entire globe. We are united in our goal to serve God and minister to people while recognizing our diversity in backgrounds and abilities. Because church is essentially people, it cannot be defined by the confines of a building or a gathering. This is what church is.
