What is the Church?
Like many people in Africa, I grew up attending church. These are the first memories I have of my childhood: I was helped to put on my best Sunday clothes and I was driven in the family car to go to church with my parents, brothers and sisters. I remember the years when I attended Sunday school, and discovered the fascinating stories of Samson and Delilah, David and Goliath, Daniel in the lions' den, Moses and Pharaoh, etc. I remember the stories about Jesus that touched my heart when I was still an unconverted young boy.
I also remember the pastor's eloquence. What stands out from my childhood memories is how the women of the Church would sing in unison halfway through the Sunday sermon, allowing the pastor to pause for a little water. I was always waiting for this invigorating moment in the midst of preaching. This time in church was the highlight of my week, and this singing in the middle of the sermon
was the great crescendo of that climax.
This context defined what the Church meant to me. It was a place, a building. It was there that we went in our best clothes to meet similarly well-dressed people and listen to wonderful Bible stories. More often than not, these stories ended with a moral application of how one should live in a way that pleases God. They also helped us become more loving people towards those around us.
It wasn't until many years later that I finally understood that a church is not a building. It's not even a place. It is a group of people who come together to worship Jesus Christ and fulfill the mission He has entrusted to them. In this sense, it is different from a bank or a store. This change in understanding occurred when I became a true Christian through regeneration and conversion. The more I studied the Bible, the more I understood that the Church was not the building you go to on Sunday, but rather the group of people involved in the activities that take place in this place. The Church is the people who meet there. I can go even further and say that the church does not even refer to all those who gather there, but only to individuals who have experienced conversion to Christ and have come together to live together as a family under the law of Christ. This is the Church, and the concept was new to me.
A church is not a building. It's not even a place. It is a group of people who come together to worship Jesus Christ
and fulfill the mission He has entrusted to them.
Ekklesia and the Body of ChristDuring the forty years of my Christian life, I realized that my misconception of the Church was, in fact, the most widespread understanding around me. The first image used in the Bible for the word "church" is best rendered by the Greek word ekklesia, which means "the called." Perhaps the closest expression in French would be the word "assembly," which refers to people called from everywhere and gathered in one place. Sometimes this word was used to refer to other congregations that were not the Church. This is what we see in Acts 19:32,39,40c:
Some shouted in one way, others in another, for disorder reigned in the assembly, and most did not know why they had gathered. And if you have other objects in mind, they will be settled in a legal assembly. After these words, he dismissed the assembly.
The New Testament Church had chosen to use this Greek word translated here as "assembly" to designate its own gatherings.
In the Gospels, this Greek word is used only three times. Once when Jesus said, "And I tell you that you are Peter, and that on this rock I will build my church, and that the gates of the dead will not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). Twice when Jesus says, "If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church; and if he also refuses to listen to the Church, let him be to you as a heater and a publican" (Matthew 18:17). In both cases, these are the words of Jesus. In the rest of the New Testament, the term ekklesia is mentioned more than 110 times. The use of the word emphasizes that the Church is not a building, but a people. It also points out that these people are separated, by salvation, from other people. They are "called" from the middle of the population. Thus, believers are called to live lives separate from what the Bible calls "the world." Finally, this word emphasizes that God's people are called to form a whole. It is an assembly. The sense of unity is evident
in the following description of the early Church:
All those who believed were in the same place, and they had everything in common. They sold their property and possessions, and they shared the proceeds among all, according to the needs of each. They were all together every day assiduous in the temple, they broke bread in the houses, and took their food with joy and simplicity of heart, praising God, and finding favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church every day those who were saved (Acts 2:44-47).
I also remember the pastor's eloquence. What stands out from my childhood memories is how the women of the Church would sing in unison halfway through the Sunday sermon, allowing the pastor to pause for a little water. I was always waiting for this invigorating moment in the midst of preaching. This time in church was the highlight of my week, and this singing in the middle of the sermon
was the great crescendo of that climax.
This context defined what the Church meant to me. It was a place, a building. It was there that we went in our best clothes to meet similarly well-dressed people and listen to wonderful Bible stories. More often than not, these stories ended with a moral application of how one should live in a way that pleases God. They also helped us become more loving people towards those around us.
It wasn't until many years later that I finally understood that a church is not a building. It's not even a place. It is a group of people who come together to worship Jesus Christ and fulfill the mission He has entrusted to them. In this sense, it is different from a bank or a store. This change in understanding occurred when I became a true Christian through regeneration and conversion. The more I studied the Bible, the more I understood that the Church was not the building you go to on Sunday, but rather the group of people involved in the activities that take place in this place. The Church is the people who meet there. I can go even further and say that the church does not even refer to all those who gather there, but only to individuals who have experienced conversion to Christ and have come together to live together as a family under the law of Christ. This is the Church, and the concept was new to me.
A church is not a building. It's not even a place. It is a group of people who come together to worship Jesus Christ
and fulfill the mission He has entrusted to them.
Ekklesia and the Body of ChristDuring the forty years of my Christian life, I realized that my misconception of the Church was, in fact, the most widespread understanding around me. The first image used in the Bible for the word "church" is best rendered by the Greek word ekklesia, which means "the called." Perhaps the closest expression in French would be the word "assembly," which refers to people called from everywhere and gathered in one place. Sometimes this word was used to refer to other congregations that were not the Church. This is what we see in Acts 19:32,39,40c:
Some shouted in one way, others in another, for disorder reigned in the assembly, and most did not know why they had gathered. And if you have other objects in mind, they will be settled in a legal assembly. After these words, he dismissed the assembly.
The New Testament Church had chosen to use this Greek word translated here as "assembly" to designate its own gatherings.
In the Gospels, this Greek word is used only three times. Once when Jesus said, "And I tell you that you are Peter, and that on this rock I will build my church, and that the gates of the dead will not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). Twice when Jesus says, "If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church; and if he also refuses to listen to the Church, let him be to you as a heater and a publican" (Matthew 18:17). In both cases, these are the words of Jesus. In the rest of the New Testament, the term ekklesia is mentioned more than 110 times. The use of the word emphasizes that the Church is not a building, but a people. It also points out that these people are separated, by salvation, from other people. They are "called" from the middle of the population. Thus, believers are called to live lives separate from what the Bible calls "the world." Finally, this word emphasizes that God's people are called to form a whole. It is an assembly. The sense of unity is evident
in the following description of the early Church:
All those who believed were in the same place, and they had everything in common. They sold their property and possessions, and they shared the proceeds among all, according to the needs of each. They were all together every day assiduous in the temple, they broke bread in the houses, and took their food with joy and simplicity of heart, praising God, and finding favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church every day those who were saved (Acts 2:44-47).
