First off I am not saying anything against meetings. Every time two or more people get together they are meeting. However how we view church is often based on either the institution or the meeting on a Sunday. We use phrases like ‘if only the church…’ or ‘I’m going to church…’.
We use these expressions all the time, I do but they don’t really convey what church is and sometimes it is helpful to use a different word to express it. So the word ‘Ekklesia’ can help to redefine what He means by The Church.
How we define it as traditionally a meeting of people in a certain place at a certain time on a certain day to sing praises to Him and hear someone teach from the bible. That is a gross oversimplification but the elements are there. There is structure and there is purpose.
We even measure people’s performance by their attendance. We mark the worship team out of 10 and the preacher/speaker out of 10, and even dream up better ways for the pastor or vicar to do a better job. The focus centres around the meeting on Sunday and everything else flows from that. The prayer meetings, the children’s work, youth or the Homegroup during the week.
Often this can mean a separation of the secular and sacred. That is church, this is work and this is family. Church becomes something we go to or have done to us. That is not His deepest desire or His ultimate plan. There is more, far more.