Jesus’ Ekklesia

“The choice of ‘ekklesia’ as the designation of the Christian community suggests that the New Testament believers viewed the church as neither an edifice nor an organization. They were a people—a people brought together by the Holy Spirit—a people bound to each other through Christ.” —Stanley Grenz

The Congregation is the spiritual Body of Christ (its Founder, Head, and Shepherd)¹ and family of God.² “Church” is a terrible translation for the Greek ekklesia, which literally means “to call out” (a compound of ek—a preposition meaning “out of”—and kaleo—a verb signifying “to call”), and it has only served to foster confusion. Outside of the New Testament, ekklesia was originally a government word, which meant a political assembly of a Greek city-state that was regularly convened for the purpose of making decisions. It was for full citizens only! You can see three secular uses of the word in Acts 19:32, 39, 41.

The New Testament use of the word has the same weight. It is “a gathering,” “an assembly,” or “a congregation” (as the word came to mean) of those “called out from” the world and to God. There is a decision-making mandate involved. It is for members only, for citizens of Heaven only!

The word “church” is derived from the Greek kuriakon, which means “belonging to the Lord.” (So, technically, yes, you can be the church all by yourself, because you belong to the Lord. You cannot, however, be the Congregation—the ekklesia—all by yourself.) Over time, the word “church” came to refer to “God’s house,” meaning a place. A building, or a religious institution, is not the “Church”! You cannot “go to” something that you are! People say that they know that the Church is the people, but then their language betrays their ignorance; they keep referring to the building as the “church.”

The Congregation is made up of saved and baptized (barring circumstances that prevent this) believers who acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Saviour,³ and who regularly join together for worship, fellowship, and ministry.⁴ The Congregation exists across the world and throughout history, made up of believing Judaites and believers from the nations; Old Testament saints and New Testament saints.⁵ Jesus has only one Congregation, and all local congregations belong to that Congregation and should be viewed as such. There should be only one congregation per location,⁶ even though it will likely exist in several meetings.

Congregationalism is the only true biblical form of congregational (“church”) government, as evidenced from New Testament Scriptures and the first three centuries (A.D. 90-300). Each individual congregation is independent and autonomous, determining their own affairs apart from some higher human “authority.”

The gathering of the saints has three distinguishing marks:

1. faithful reading, exposition, and discussion of the Word (including making disciples of the nations, known as the Cultural Mandate);
2. application of, and participation in, the sacraments or ordinances (baptism and the Lord’s Supper); and
3. congregational discipline.

Those who have placed their faith in Jesus and trust in Him alone for salvation belong to the Congregation. This community of believers is made up of people who are neither perfect nor sinless, but by the work of the Holy Spirit their lives are conformed more and more to the image and likeness of Jesus. The non-negotiable, irreducible, bare minimum requirements that determine whether a “church” is biblical or not are:

1. meeting once a week on the first day of the week—Sunday;⁷
2. assembling in houses;⁸
3. being completely open, spontaneous, and participatory in their every-member-functioning corporate worship and sharing for the spiritual well-being of everyone present,⁹ with no one leading from the front;
4. partaking of the Lord’s Supper as a full meal;¹⁰ and
5. functioning as an extended family, a living organism—not an institution, organization, or corporation.

Today’s “church” can be carried out without commitment to anything beyond going to a building, singing some songs, listening to a sermon, and putting money in a plate. Jesus’ Ekklesia (the Congregation), on the other hand, is present when a body of Jesus-followers are committed to Jesus and to one another in all aspects of the Kingdom and kingdom life. Ekklesia involves spiritual commitment with others to pursue the will of King Jesus. It is the life of Jesus flowing through the saints to carry out His purposes. The fellowship and community of believers is to walk in all of the “one another” commands in the New Testament. (There are over 60 of them!)

We can see from several New Testament passages¹¹ that Jesus' ekklesia came to fruition primarily in homes. There was no compulsion, necessity, or mandate to construct a separate place “to go” and gather around the Lord. You can call your organized religious institute whatever you like, but the one thing it certainly is not is the ekklesia. Cognitive dissonance is required to embrace an institutional “church” paradigm. Cognitive dissonance occurs when people hold two conflicting ideas. When people say the Church is the people, but constantly use “church” to refer to a building, they suffer from cognitive dissonance.

When speaking of the actual Body of Christ, that spiritual temple, we should use the word congregation for authentic ekklesia. When speaking of the religious world, the organized religious institutions, we should continue to use the word church, just as William Tyndale did. In William Tyndale’s 1526 New Testament, he correctly rendered ekklesia as “congregation” or “assembly.” On two occasions he translated it as “churche” (Acts 14:13 and 19:37) because it referred to pagan places of worship. Is that not fascinating? In the New Testament of the 1611 King James Version, 112 out of 115 occurrences of ekklesia are rendered as “church.” On three occasions it is translated as “congregation” (Acts 19:32, 39, 41) because a non-Christian gathering was in view. Is that not interesting?

The true Israel becomes the Congregation of Christ, and the Congregation of Christ emerges as the true Israel. It is not “Replacement” theology; it is Expansion theology, through the inclusion of the nations. It is Fulfillment theology, in that Jesus fulfilled all that the nation of Israel foreshadowed, and the nation of Israel prefigured the spiritual community that would one day display God’s eternal nature on the Earth—that is, the Congregation, the Body of Christ, His Bride. The Congregation is the fulfillment of national Israel.

¹ Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12-14; Eph. 3:6; 4:15-16; 5:23; Col. 1:18, 24 ² Eph. 1:5; Gal. 4:4-5; Heb. 12:7-10 ³ Rom. 10:9 ⁴ Heb. 10:25 ⁵ John 10:11-18; Rom. 2:28-29; 9:6-8; 11:17-24; Gal. 3:6-29; 4:28; Eph. 2:1-22 ⁶ 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1; 1 Thess. 1:1; 2 Thess. 1:1; Rev. 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14 ⁷ Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2; “Wherefore, also we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead” (Epistle of Barnabas, A.D. 100); “Be not deceived with strange doctrines, nor with old fables, which are unprofitable. For if we still live according to the Jewish Law; we acknowledge that we have not received grace. ... If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and By His death.” (Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians, A.D. 107); “And on the day called Sunday all who live in cities or in the country gather together in one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read..... But Sunday is the day on which we all hold a common assembly, because it is the first day of the week on which God....made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead” (Justin Martyr, c. A.D. 145-150); “The Mystery of the Lord’s Resurrection may not be celebrated on any other day than the Lord’s Day, and on this alone should we observe the breaking off of the Paschal Feast.” (Irenaeus, c. A.D. 155-202) ⁸ Acts 2:2, 46; 5:42; 16:40; 20:20; Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Phile. 1:2 (and if you would like to eisegete it, you can include Matt. 18:20 here) ⁹ 1 Cor. 14:26, 29-31 ¹⁰ Acts 2:42, 46; 6:1; 20:7; 1 Cor. 11:17-34; 2 Pet. 2:13; Jude 12 ¹¹ Acts 2:46; 5:42; 8:3; 12:12; 20:20; 21:8; Rom 16:5; 1Cor 16:19; Col 4:15