The "church"?

What is it?
Who is it?

What does it mean in the new testament?

Is the church simply just a building? When you think of church, do you think of the building you go to on Sundays or the people that join you there?

Lately it has become "hip" to say "I am the church" or "nobody goes to church, because you are the church". While there is a measure of truth to the latter of those two statements, the former is simply theologically impossible, according to NT theology based of the words of Jesus and the writings of Paul and the other Apostles.

The reason the former statement, "I am the church", is so dangerous is that it focuses itself on the wrong thing. To understand this we need to go to the first mention of the word in the Bible...

Matthew 16:18 - "I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hades will not overpower it.

The word Jesus uses in this passage is the Greek word "Ekklesia" which is defined as...

an assembly of Christians gathered for worship in a religious meeting

a company of Christian, or of those who, hoping for eternal salvation through Jesus Christ, observe their own religious rites, hold their own religious meetings, and manage their own affairs, according to regulations prescribed for the body for order's sake

those who anywhere, in a city, village, constitute such a company and are united into one body

Notice any theme in those definitions? They all refer to multiple people in some form of assembly or gathering or group that comes together in unity. The statement "I am the church", is not only theologically incorrect, it goes directly against the definition of the word "church" that Jesus Christ used Himself. Church happens when multiple people get together...not just one.

This theme is found all through the new testament as well. Almost every one of the Pauline Epistles was written to a "church" of a specific area or town. Not the church of one individual person, but of a group of people. Jesus addressed the "churches" again after His resurrection, in the book of Revelation. He addresses seven churches, He doesn't address seven individual people who consider themselves to be the "lone rangers" as the church themselves, He addresses a group of people who exist in community and have a common goal with a unity of beliefs.

The church is NOT a building. But the church is not individual people either. The NT tells us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, but that is not the same as the "church" as defined by Jesus Christ and the Apostles. The church happens when people gather together in community with a common goal, the furtherance of the kingdom of God on earth and the glorification of Jesus Christ.

Be weary of anyone who tries to convince you otherwise...

peace,
glo