Our English word “church” is derived from the Greek word “kuriakos,” meaning “belonging to the Lord” or “pertaining to the Lord. It is used in the expression, “the Lord’s supper” in 1 Corinthians 11:20. It is the supper belonging to the Lord. While “kuriakos” can be translated “church,” “ekklesia” should not be translated “church.” Granted,…
Being together is as natural as syrup on pancakes. Yet, let’s not assume that until they do gather, they are not the “called out body” or that meeting with each other infers the formation of a local church organization. I knew a family in Arkansas that consisted of nineteen children. The majority of children in…
If such brothers and sisters live in the same area, is there any doubt that they will be together when possible? Unquestionably, they will gather together because they not only have a common relationship and response to God, they have a common cause. To illustrate this commonality that unites us, imagine the similarity of other…
The body of Christ, the called out (Greek, ekklesia) had its beginning in Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:2-3, Luke 24:47) because the gospel was first preached there. When one referenced “the called-out”, it was only the called-out living at Jerusalem for a time because that is where the seed of the kingdom had been sown. It was…
The presence of a church in any community is seen when individual saints are hard at work being the light and salt in a world lost in sin. When the world sees the consistent and harmonious pattern of Christians in their unity, love for one another, and their life-style of faith, they are seeing the…
In the absence of local church organizations, there is still a distinction between individual action and a plurality of other individual saints in the same community. The principle of autonomy, i.e., independent accountability, is biblically applied to the individuals that together make up the body, not to local church organizations. For the sake of illustration,…
1. The Effect of your teaching is Isolation From Brethen Someone may have the idea that this writing may lead to disjointed individuals who may or may not be joined together. This is a typical response of an institutionalized person. It is certain that no member of the human body can function if it is…
1. Institutional Staff (Continuation) In Catholicism, the clergy/laity is more pronounced than protestant churches. Yet, it exists in both. In Catholicism, the order of clergy is equated with the church institution to which people must come to enjoy blessings from God. In Protestant churches, the institution stays intact while the people with their clergy are…
One of the best ways to define anything is to describe its features or characteristics as we have described “the ekklesia.” The institutional concept of the church has the following marks of identity: Official Positions of Authority Invariably, someone will say to me, “You have to have a local church or nothing gets done.” Or,…
Few Christians realize that the central concepts and practices associated with what we call ‘church’ are not rooted in the New Testament, but in patterns established in the post-apostolic age and/or our own culture. In any of the figures of speech describing the church, none of them refer to an institution organized along the lines…