What exactly is the church?

Saggy:
The word "church" in the original meaning is
" a calling out". Thus the body of believers is the church. The building we choose to meet in, be it a million dollar structure,
or someones home is ( or mabey I should say
should be), set aside for the worship of our
Father. We have to be careful about how we treat it. It should be Holy to us, but then too each of our homes should be set apart for God, thus nothing that could bring reproach to his name should ever enter, or take place in our home, or what we happen to call the churchhouse. I know we don't even have to use a building to "gather together",
but even if it's in a pasture then that ought to be considered Holy Ground!
And YES... the lost most assuredly belong
there. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word. How shall they hear without a preacher?

[ July 16, 2001: Message edited by: preacher ]

 

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> SaggyWoman writes: “What exactly is the church? Is the church a building or is the church a body of believers??” <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The Discipleship Series Bible Study book has the following information on this subject: “People have all kinds of ideas as to what a church really is. Some people think it is a building (a cathedral, or some place of worship). Others think of a church as a denomination (a human organization) and speak of the “Catholic Church,” the “Presbyterian Church,” the “Baptist Church,” etc. Some Christians conceive the “Church” as consisting of all born-again believers in the world, a kind of “invisible, universal” church.”

“Look up Matthew 16:18. This is the first mention of the Church in the Bible. This institution, the local New Testament church, was built upon Jesus Christ. It is new and is not to be confused with the nation of Israel. The Old Testament is primarily addressed to Israel, and the New Testament is mainly written to churches. Don’t confuse these two institutions (church and nation). The Bible distinguishes the two in 1 Corinthians 10:32.”

“The word ‘church’ (or churches) is found 114 times in the New Testament, and is translated from the Greek word ‘ekklesia.’ This word ‘ekklesia’ means – ‘a company of people called out for a specific purpose.’ It has its roots in the democracies of the Greek city-states, when the town crier would call out the citizens to a meeting to conduct business. In Matthew 16:18, the Lord Jesus did not change the meaning of ‘ekklesia,’ but He distinguished it from other assemblies of the day with the personal pronoun ‘my.’ Thus, a New Testament church is the ‘Lord’s Assembly’.”

[ July 16, 2001: Message edited by: B. J. Halo ]

 

And I see "ekkesia" also as a very LOCALIZED body of Scriptually Baptized believers whose mission is clearly laid on in the Gospels & Acts. Most of the rest of our NT addresses things that pertain to this LOCALIZED assembly, not some unknown conglomeration of people with any number of false notions of what God's Word in context has indicated. They call it the "Invisible" Church because you won't SEE it in the NT.