When I
first wrote on this subject a couple of years ago as an entry on my blog,
tevyebird.blogspot.com, it was entitled “8 definitions of the word “church”,
but over time, I’ve found definition 9, then 10, 11, 12, and then 13. If after hearing this, you notice another
that I have missed, please, let me know.
It is very easy in the western form of Christian society for the
impression to be made that the person speaking “knows everything,” even if such
person overtly says that we are all together on this journey of growing in
following Jesus, in part because the person speaking as recently studied
through the subject to put together the speech, and, usually, the audience is
unaware of what will be presented to them, and, even if they were aware, are
not given an opportunity to interject additional information or ask questions
or challenge statements made by the speaker, notably unlike how Jesus presented what He said to the world.
As you will see, though, what I am about to say, in a way, is saying
something subversive to that cultural attitude.
I hope I do this in a manner that does honor to the Holy Spirit desiring
to direct us to follow Jesus as He would wish.
I should
tell you a little about myself. I grew
up in the Midwest United States to parents who, if you asked, would have said
that they were Christians, but never went to church except for social
reasons—weddings, funerals, me being in the
Christmas play. At about 8, they
started dropping me off for Sunday School at a nearby church. Between my freshman and sophomore years in
high school, I came to faith in Jesus, as the Holy Spirit spoke into my spirit
about the things I was seeing in the world.
After high school, I went to a state supported college, and was involved
in an Inter-Varsity group, which subtly established in me a respect for what
scripture said over and above what was the status quo attitude within whatever
group of believers I was around. I have,
over the years, been involved, first, with churches in a Calvinistic
denomination, later undenominational charismatic churches, and over the past
few years, simple, organic churches. I
am sure what I am about to say reflects something out of all these parts of my
walk in desiring to follow Jesus, but my desire is that what I say touches your
spirit in bringing out some points of God’s Word that just may be
underemphasized in our culture. Some of
what I will say might just be more obvious if we were in a culture that was
more overtly oppressive to us believers, which, at least as I see it, is
somewhat more the historical norm.
As I said
when I started, I have noticed 13 different definitions of the word “church”
and its rough equivalent in the Koine Greek of the New Testament, ekklesia,
with consideration for the cultures and languages it has passed through from
then to now. Of these 13, I would divide
these definitions into two groups—1) definitions which are rightly definitions
of the word that Jesus, when He said it to whomever He was speaking to, meant,
and the apostles, as they wrote and spoke it to the early church, and 2)
definitions that cultures, both within and outside the true church have,
intentionally or not morphed, distorted, and changed the word to mean. These are
definitions that Jesus, the apostles Jesus sent out into the world, and the
early church would not have recognized or had any thought of as being the
meaning of that word. Such definitions,
read into scripture, distort the Word of God into something other than God’s
Word without our realizing it. Some of
this has been done by well meaning brothers and sisters, but, that is no excuse
for our living in that once the Spirit points it out to us.
First, I
will start with the second group, those definitions that, at least some,
persons in our culture, both believers and non-, would recognize as a meaning
of the word “church” that were not and could not be something Jesus and our
early brothers and sisters in Him would have thought of as being what that word
meant. In all cases, these are
definitions that did not begin to evolve into the word until early in the
fourth century. These are changes whose beginnings are co-coordinated with
politicians in the Roman Empire legalizing
Christianity in the early 4th Century, with an eye to controlling
it, possibly unintentionally, and then again, possibly intentionally for their
own purposes.
The first
definition is the Roman Catholic Church.
I’m not trying to say anything overtly anti-Catholic, or pick on this
tradition. Others have done those
things, sometimes malevolently. It is
just that, in this culture, approximately one-quarter of the people were born
to families that consider themselves Catholic, and within that background, with
some, just the word “church”, usually capitalized when in print, implies
everything connected to that organization and tradition, whether said in a
positive, negative or neutral manner.
To vary
only slightly, the second meaning I will mention is “denomination” of which one
might argue that the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, in eastern Europe and Middle
East, and Thoma, in India, are the originals, somehow forming by the sixth
centuries, with many others coming later.
In modern business terminology, denomination is to a local church of
that denomination as a business franchisor is to a franchise, a concept that
the early church couldn’t have dreamed of being a meaning of the word.
The third
meaning is a certain building, or certain type of building. As the early church was considered in the Roman Empire to be an illegal organization, once the
Empire decided that it wasn’t part of Judaism, they couldn’t have had buildings
if they wished to, because, to be legal, a belief had to be ancient. As much as we know how Jesus existed back to
eternity past, the Roman government saw it as beginning with Jesus on earth,
and they had their own paperwork about his death on the cross. From what the books of the Bible that describe the New
Covenant era, Acts through the early part of Revelation, we see one meeting at
the side of a synagogue, and other meetings in homes. With that part of the church today that lives
in areas in which it is illegal, we know that they meet in homes, in the woods,
or wherever. Jesus taught the church to
be people, his followers, who met together.
The fourth
modern meaning of church is a local organization, which in a denomination, as
referred above, is the equivalent of a franchise, or if not connected to a
denomination, looking otherwise similar.
Usually that includes an owned or rented building, a name, such as XYZ Church,
its formation as a not-for-profit corporation, in many countries tax-favored
status for giving to it, and oftentimes a payroll and corporate officers. For the same reasons I said earlier, none of
that were things the early church associated with the New Testament word
ekklesia. These were things associated
with most other beliefs the Roman Empire was familiar with, and helped give those to
the Christian faith upon their legalization of Christianity.
The fifth
meaning is one aspect I just mentioned, the special tax-favored
corporation. This came from the Roman Empire. In
the days of the early church, the Empire had already given special tax status to the temples
of Roman paganism, and special tax favored status to the pagan priests. When the Empire legalized the Christian
faith, they gave that same favored status to the church. As the church didn’t have buildings, they got
them, and to the degree that they didn’t have occupational leaders like the
other beliefs that Rome
saw, they got them, originally in the form of persons to be in charge of the
buildings. History shows that, when the Roman Empire created those jobs, many orators
conveniently “converted” to accept a regular speaking position that went with
the church coming to look like other beliefs.
The sixth
meaning is unique to the U.S.,
in that church can refer to the persons who set policies for a church
corporation, insofar as the IRS will take certain of the benefits away
from
urorganizations that make certain policies, such as overtly recommending
political
candidates publicly within official meetings or performing certain types
of
protest activity, particularly referring to the activities of Westboro
Baptist Church of Topeka, KS, the church that goes around protesting at
funerals of deceased soldiers and homosexuals. Since this is so
current, it is obviously not a meaning of church like the early believers would
recognize, or even believers today in many parts of the world. One can recognize that, in everything I said
above, there is not even a vague connection to any part of scripture.
That
covered, here are seven meanings of “church” that the early church would
recognize. I can make this statement
because of the context in which they are referred to in scripture. Number seven is all believers in history. In the book of Hebrews, chapter 12 verses 1
and 2, the writer of this book wrote, “Therefore we also, since we are
surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and
the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race
that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the
shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” While this passage does not use the word
typically translated church in it, it describes all believers who have passed
on before us as being a part of us, and relating to running the race of faith,
a thing only us, the saved, do.
Number
eight is all believers in a city or area.
The first place we see this is in Romans chapter 1 verse 2, where Paul
wrote, “To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to
you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul makes an equivalent greeting to the
church in Corinth
in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 2 and 2 Corinthians 1 verse 1, and other books
directed towards all the believers in a city.
In Galatians 1 verse 1 through 3, Paul wrote “Paul an apostle (not from
men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him
from the dead), and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches in
Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God
the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that he
might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will our God and
Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” In this case, Galatia
is an area in what is now northern Turkey. It is a point of note that Paul addressed his
letters to all the believers, and not a specific leader, and that in his
greeting to the church in Galatia,
he specifically referred to himself as an apostle, and clarified that that came
from God and not any man or group of men.
Corollary to that is that, if one is gifted to a ministry, you are
gifted even if no man recognizes it, and you aren’t gifted even if some person
or organization gives you a title referring to such a spiritual leadership gift. Acts chapter 5 verse 12 is the one verse,
mentioned earlier, in which we see the New Covenant church meeting at a
religious building, Solomon’s Porch, an addendum to a synagogue, but the notable
feature was miracles occurring in connection to the presence of the apostles,
with a subsequent increase in believers and unbelievers respecting them, but
not daring to join them, except upon belief.
Definition number nine
is, simply, a group of believers, as we see described in Acts chapter 2 verses 40 to
47, which says, “And with many other words he (Peter) exhorted them, saying,
‘Be saved from this perverse generation.’ Then those who gladly received his
word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the
breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then
fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had
all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them
among all, as anyone had need. So
continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house
to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising
God and having favor with all the people.
And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” This group of verses is one many traditional
churches of our day are sometimes hesitant about quoting due to the statement
in verse 45 about sharing all things in common.
You and I need to search the scriptures for oneself. I see
this as a quality mentioned just this once, but I see it as a quality that
appears consistently in the true church when almost everyone is extremely poor
and/or suffering from political or social oppression, which over history is far
more common than what we who live in this culture can relate to. For our culture, key words here are
“received” and “believed.” We live in a
culture in which many so-called “Christian” organizations have administrators,
professors, and so-called pastors who do not believe the historic faith Jesus
delivered to the church. By definition,
an unbeliever is not part of any church. The church is believers as a group or
groups. We can respect an intellectually
trained person’s human rights, intellect, abilities, and other positive human
traits, but such a person is not, by scripture, part of the church, nor has
received spiritual gifts for the benefit of the church.
Number ten
is a group of believers who comfort and edify, or build up, each other. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 9 through
11, Paul wrote, “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation
through our Lord Jesus Christ, who dies for us, that whether we wake or sleep,
we should live together with Him.
Therefore, comfort one another and edify one another, just as you are
doing.” Now, I could have quoted just
verse 11, but it’s important to read any scripture in its context. The sentences just before it help with that,
in that Paul makes reference to the previously mentioned definition of all
believers in history. In verse 11, Paul
tells us of the church doing two things—comforting one another and edifying,
which means building up, one another.
Both these things can only happen when believers are interacting with
one another, and caring for one another. A prerequisite for this is at least
knowing one another. This is probably
little mentioned in our culture due to almost all traditional churches being
structured such that people don’t really know each other and rituals are set up
such that it isn’t possible for all believers to build up one another. Let me point out that that isn’t the fault of
most of our church leaders. They were
taught how to do things by the previous generation, who were taught by the
previous generation, and in some cases are directed to do things a certain way
by the denomination/franchisor. On the
converse side, many small group Bible studies, and even some traditional
churches’ home or cell groups more closely meet this definition of church than
our society’s traditional churches. I’m
attempting not to say this in condemnation of any particular group, but if one
has found that the Holy Spirit has seemed to do the greatest things with regard
to you and others you know growing in faith in meetings and situations outside
traditional services, I would encourage you to consider that this may be the
Holy Spirit also attempting to say something to us about what church is. This
idea also negates the traditional
structure of that one person oftentimes referred to as a pastor being
the one
through which most to virtually all of the “edifying” goes through, in a
manner that makes most
others contributing nearly impossible, and that person believing that
he/she is responsible for doing, or at least coordinating, it all.
The
eleventh definition of church comes from a teaching of Jesus to the disciples
in Matthew chapter 18 verse 20. As we
know, the culture Jesus was walking in was far different than our own. Why didn’t people think it strange that this
group of twelve men followed Jesus around?
Because that was how a rabbi taught his group of students, and for that
manner, how the Greek teachers taught their students. The modern university concept began evolving
around 1200 A.D. Being taught in that
manner, no one was going around attempting to check Jesus’ transcripts as to
whether he was accredited by the rabbis in Jerusalem somewhere to do this; they saw Him
walking around like a rabbi who was teaching a group of students. Further, they were in a culture where the
rabbis debated whether women counted as humans.
As such, they had made a rule, which cannot be found in the Old
Testament, that to begin a synagogue, it took a minimum of ten men. Now,
we know that Jesus certainly indicated
that women were equal to men before God, as indicated in John chapter 4,
the story of the woman at the well, and Luke 10, the story which
contains Mary sitting and listening to Jesus teach, which is something
the rabbis of the day would not have allowed.
In this passage, it appears that Jesus was teaching the disciples
without others around them at the time. In Matthew 18 verses 19 and 20, Jesus says, “Again I say to you that if two of you
agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by
my Father in heaven. For where two or
three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” We have heard it taught that this is telling
us about the importance of believers agreeing in prayer. Might I suggest that Jesus is also defining
as few as two believers making up a church.
How do I get this? Well, what is
Jesus going to be doing in the midst of them?
He knew that the Holy Spirit was going to be sent to earth to indwell
believers. Paul tells us in Colossians 1
verse 18, “And He (Jesus) is the head of the body, the church, who is the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the
preeminence.” Nowhere in scripture does
it tell us that any human, even if we label him or her by a name like pastor or
priest, is the head of the body. The
word "priest" in a variety of religions around the world, ancient and
modern, means a person who is an intercessor between God and man, but
Revelation chapter 1 verse 6 tells us that all believers are kings and
priests. Pastor, as a title of a church leader, did not develop until
after the Reformation, as it was obvious to the leaders of the
Reformation that the title priest was theologically inappropriate to the
Christian belief. Jesus
is and wishes to direct the church. My
understanding is that western traditional church leaders will maintain that
they must do the leading, and that Jesus leads in some spiritual manner, but
that implies that the Spirit doesn’t actually, in an everyday manner, direct
us, and He does to the degree that we allow Him to. Now, I understand that in
western culture, some brothers and sisters in Jesus who I know love Jesus and
His church may subliminally or overtly feel threatened with regard to their
paycheck by this. Let me just say that
this isn’t nearly as upsetting in the areas where there is official or societal
opposition to believers in Jesus. We
will get to paychecks a little later.
Definition
number twelve is merely “group.” In Acts
chapter 19, we have the story of the idol makers’ guild in Ephesus organizing a protest against Paul’s
presence in the city. In that city, the
religion was the temple
of Diana (or
Artemis). This was a fertility
cult. It was a worship of sexuality, and
that included cult prostitution. It was
a key part of that city’s religion, which had turned into a major
moneymaker for the city. In most cultures of the
day, except Judaism and the small groups of believers in Jesus, sexual
abstinence outside of marriage was unheard of, at least for men. In Roman culture, married
relatively late in life, and previously had a variety of sexual experiences
(hetero- and homosexual). In Jewish and
almost all the other cultures, sexuality in women was controlled by their being
married off between 12 and 16 years of age, just as a girl was beginning to
have sexual feelings. In Ephesus, an exception was
made, in that women were expected, at least once, to be the object of a sexual
sacrifice in the temple. As Ephesus
was a portage place, as it had been determined over time that ships
sailing in that area were safer portaging at Ephasus, having the ship
rolled over about a hundred yards of land, and put into the other side,
as opposed to sailing through a narrow rocky channel, of which there was
about a 10% chance of sinking the ship.
Sailors, never throughout history known to be a moral lot, were willing
to
contribute significant portions of their salary to the temple for the
opportunity to “sacrifice.” Ephesus, as a city, made big money from the portaging
ships and via their temple, getting the sailors’ money, to the degree that, by
50 or 51 A. D., when the incident described in Acts 19 happened, the temple of Diana had 22 branch temples scattered
around the Mediterranean region, making money for some people in Ephasus.
The idol makers sold idols. Because it isn’t easy to find in books, a
question might be asked, “Were the idol makers making idols which we might
consider pornographic?” The answer is
that, as of this time, archeologists have not found any idols made that can be
definitively connected to these idol makers, so the official answer is, we
don’t know. We can say from what we know
about similar groups in other parts of the world and persons of all cultures
who have given themselves to immersing themselves into this type of life,
probably. Anyway, Paul was leading
persons to faith in Jesus, and those persons turning from the cult of Diana was
cutting into the idol makers’ profits.
They could claim that, in their protest, they were defending their
city’s civic and cultural pride and the economic status of the city. It is reasonable to say that they were
looking out for their own pockets.
Either way, they organized a protest.
The Roman Empire didn’t much care what cities and areas outside Rome did, so long as they
received their taxes and that there were no protests or rioting. Organizing
a protest threatened the city
officials’ jobs, which explains the city officials’ actions in the
chapter, which seems to us in our culture to be strangely inconsistent.
Now, in
Acts 19, this mob or protest in most English Bibles is referred to as a
“gathering” or “assembly” in verses 32, 39, and 41. In the original Greek, the word Luke used was
“ekklesia”; the same word in all other places is translated “church.” What this tells us is that ekklesia had a
secular meaning, that an ekklesia was impermanent, and that it was a vague
term, as there is no reason to believe that the mob ever met before or after—like our word, “group”. The extra
meanings we have added over the centuries are exactly that, added, and not what
the writers of scripture were communicating.
To this
effect, the theologian Jon Zens has made the observation that, if we were
translating the word ekklesia into English for the first time right now, the
most exact word would be the phrase, “town meeting” which I mention as
definition thirteen. In the early church’s
local bodies of believers, believers all knew each other, didn’t meet in a
religious building, had as their only ritual baptism, which was the initial public sign of being a
believer. They shared with each other as there was need, and shared a simple meal,
from which centuries later the ritual of communion was made out of. Spiritual leadership came out of believing,
maturity, and gifting. The power of
communion is, and is today, as believers shared their lives with each other
while sharing food. As they had no
buildings or payroll, any money was collected as needed to help the poor, both
within and outside the church, and to send mature believers to go where people
had not heard the message of Jesus. Even
then, as now, one main example was Paul, who had a skill which would support
him in missionary work without financial help from other places. Worship was not a ritual, but how one lived
one’s life.
If I have
said some things that you have not heard before, I encourage you to not only
check out scripture, but also what we know of the history of the day, which is
significantly more than some would have us believe. Also, I believe that it is a sign of the end
of the age that we average everyday believers without portfolio have available
the resources, which includes the Bible, but for this purpose, is also various
historical documents, both by believers and unbelievers, to confirm what Jesus
taught the disciples, who taught the early church, in both literary context of
the Bible and the cultural context indicated by historical documents of the
time, and how they practically lived out the direction of Jesus, through his
apostles and other believers in the first few generations.
As I said
in the beginning, I have come to believe that we learn better from discussion
than lecture, so are there any questions?
------
All
quotations of scripture are from NKJV.
Much of
this can be found in George Barna and Frank Viola, Pagan Christianity,
Present Testimony Ministries/Tyndale/Barna Books.
The
reference on “town meeting” came from John Zens, The Pastor Has No Clothes, Lincoln, NE:
Ekklessia Press.
The information about the
idol makers of Ephesus
comes from, www.vision.org/visionmedia/article.aspx?id=2268
www.formerthings.com/dianaephesians.htm
www.biblebb.com/files/mac/sg1928.htm
