I attend a church. I am also a member of that church. In fact, I serve that church as a pastor. I often invite people to visit that church or to visit our church’s website. As you can tell, the church is a big part of my life. I love the church and spend a lot of time helping other churches. Church means a lot to me.
Unfortunately, I’m not even sure what the word “church” means.
Let me back up. It is well known that the Greek word that is translated as “church” isย ekklesia. This means that whenever we read our New Testament and see the word “church,” ekklesiaย is the corresponding Greek word. In other words, Jesus said that he would build hisย ekklesia (Matt. 16:18) and that unrepentant sinners should be brought before theย ekklesia (Matt. 18:17). St. Paul said that Christ is the head of theย ekklesia (Eph. 5:23) and that Christ’s body is theย ekklesia (Col. 1:24).ย It is where we get the word “ecclesiology,” the doctrine and study of the “church.”
The majority of “modern” English Bible translations renderย ekklesia as “church” (e.g., ESV, NASB, NET, NIV, NJB, RSV, and NLT). Of the “older” English translations, the KJV and the Geneva Bible both also translateย ekklesiaย as “church.” The only translations that differ are David Stern’sย Complete Jewish Bible, which translatesย ekklesiaย as “community” or “Messianic community” or “congregation,” the Tyndale New Testament, which translatesย ekklesiaย as “congregation,” or Young’s Literal Translation, which translatesย ekklesiaย as “assembly.” The majority of English translations stick with “church” forย ekklesia.
But what is a “church”? What’s the background to this word? It certainly isn’t a transliteration of the corresponding Greek word, like the word “baptism” for the Greek wordย baptizo. So how did English word come into use? Theย Merriam-Websterโs Collegiate Dictionary notes that before the 12th century, the word’s background is from the “Middle English chirche, from Old English cirice, ultimately from Late Greek kyriakon, from Greek, neuter of kyriakos of the lord, from kyrios lord, master; akin to Sanskrit ลลซra hero, warrior.”
Let me explain to you what this means: there is noย significant reason as to why we translateย ekklesiaย as “church”.ย The word’s background is no longer relevant to the issue.
Why the word “church” is unhelpful…
My children used to always ask me if we were going to church. I’dย alwaysย respond by saying, “We don’tย goย to church; weย areย the church. The church is the people.” I’m going to assume that there are a bunch of you out there that can identify with that simplistic response.
You see,ย ecclesiology really matters to me. I’m happily in a church tradition that needs to creatively develop and engage toward a deeper ecclesiology. This applies to both the Vineyard movement as well as both the evangelical and charismatic influences in the background. We need to think deeply about ecclesiology.
After all,ย whyย do we actually tell people that the churchย isn’tย the building? Is it possible that churchย is a building? The way that many of us treat the concept of “church” certainly seems to imply that the “church” is the building. Our practices often reinforce the bad theology that we hold. Perhaps one of the reasons why we have such deficient ecclesiologies and fundamental misunderstandings about the purpose of theย ekklesiaย is because we can’t actually translate the word beyond “church.”ย
The word “church” isn’t a neutral word anymore. It has way more negative baggage than we often care to admit.ย Insideย theย ekklesia, plenty of people assume the “church” is the building or the pastors. Plenty of peopleย inside believe that followers of Jesus are no different than those who areย notย followers of Jesus. Outsideย of theย ekklesia, plenty of people assume that the “church” is a group of hypocritical hate-mongers who are advocates for right-wing politics.
As David Kinnaman, author ofย unChristian, has stated, “Christian has an image problem.” I think a strong case can be made that the word “church” has an image problem.
Moving Up, Moving Forward
On Monday morning, Kenny is going to share a proposed way forward in regards to our understanding ofย ekklesia. I know he’s stepped on some of our toes and his brutal honesty has challenged some of our assumptions about theology and praxis.ย This is, however, very helpful for us.ย It might sting a little bit and you might not agree with him on everything, but he’s helping us all think about better ways to fill gaps in our ecclesiology.
Kenny’s current working definition for “church” is as follows:
- The multi-ethnic (Jew-Gentile) People of God,
- intentionally gatheredโฆ
- around Jesus as Lord,
- announcing together the reign of God in Jesus โ
- and calling the nations (by teaching them) to follow Jesus as the worldโs only legitimate King.
I love this. I think it’s a great starting point. I wonder if we might be able to fit into his definition some of these concerns too:
- The men and women who are the People of God,
- including the disabled and marginalized,
- advocatingย and working towardย hope for the hopeless and justice for the oppressed.
I realize I’m buildingย on top ofย and looking for a wayย forward in regards to our ecclesiology, but I think these three issues, which are likely assumed and implied in Kenny’s working definition,ย need to be articulated because they still are either overlooked or misunderstood.
*********************************************
What do you think?
Is the word “church” helpful for you at all?
What definitions would you offer?
Luke is a pastor-theologian living in northern California, serving as a co-lead pastor with his life, Dawn, at the Red Bluff Vineyard. Father of five amazing kids, when Luke isn’t hanging with his family, reading or writing theology, he moonlights as a fly fishing guide for Confluence Outfitters. He blogs regularly at LukeGeraty.com and regularly contributes to his YouTube channel.
I wonder if Jesus ever had to correct His parents on that.
“No, Joseph and Mary, we aren’t going to the synagogue, we ARE the synagogue.”
or His disciples…
“No, Peter, James, John and the whole lot of you — we aren’t going to the Temple, we ARE the Temple.”
If ekklesia simply means “gathering” or “assembly”, how weird would it be to tell your kids,”we’re going to the gathering/assembly”, and have them NOT assume you mean that building where the gathering/assembly always takes place? (Even if you are house-church types who met in the same place week in and week out — usually the house with the largest living room or rec room?)
yes..yes…yes… totally agree! the word church is not helpful. It is not even in the Bible, but in Christian Culture we describe ourselves with this term ignorantly not even knowing that.
I think the term is WAY more confusing than helpful. It blew my mind when I stumbled upon the idea that the “church” wasn’t a novel to the New Testament, but that it is a core theme in the Old Testament as well. It brought the covenants together in an incredible way for me. I mean, I get the idea that you might want a unique title for the assembly of believers as opposed to the general term assembly, but I think it causes more problems than it solves. It detracts from the continuity of the gospel IMO or at least it did for me.
*a novel idea
Luke – I’m totally with you on this. The word “church” doesn’t convey anything of the true meaning of ecclesia, nor the message we want to send as the group of peope who gather in “assembly” as followers of Jesus. Similarly, as you mentioned, the word Christian is also unhelpful, and it’s not even a word that His followers used of themselves (in the Bible) to self-idenitify, but rather was used by outsiders in mockery of those “little Christs” (little anointed ones). I would also toss out “gospel.” Most people in the church associate the word with “receiving Jesus Christ as their personal Lord & Savior” (not what it means at all). Similarly “preaching the gospel” is associated with the making of converts to Christianity (as is “evangelism” – from euangelion ==> greek for our word ‘gospel’). Outside the church the the word has little relevance or meaning and may be borrowed and secularized in phrases like “gospel of _______.” No one really thinks “proclamation of good news” when they hear the word gospel!
Totally with Brad on this one all the way down. Church, Christian, and Gospel = no longer helpful (if “church” ever was). SO much needs to be said about this. Someone should start a blog!!!
Yep, dislike the words “church,” “evangelism,” “Christian,” and “disciple” because they’ve lost their meanings. However, what do we use instead, AND how do we keep those words from losing their meaning too? It’s a dilemma, especially when talking to those outside the “church” (and here I go, struggling with what word to use).