The Narrow Path Ministries

Your perspective:

Does the word "church" have more negative or more positive connotations to you?

Negative.

I prefer to use the word "ekklesia", since it doesn't carry all the baggage that the word "church" does. Only problem is people tend to think I'm talking about a skin disease.

Quakers use the word "meeting", which I also like. The place where a meeting takes place is referred to as a "meeting house".

The word "Church" has gone through a spectrum of connotations for myself.

Of course, prior to meeting the Lord Jesus, it was a place for stuck up do-gooders
At the time of salvation, a local church was the only thing of any importance in my life, since it was the conduit through which I learned of the Messiah
As I studied and worked in the church as a layman, I found inconsistencies, but excused them since I wasn't perfect either, and I was busy making disciples - or so I thought
As I continued studying, I hit a wall in my "church" life that brought about me and my families rejection by the "church", in the form of asking us to leave the body
Through this experience, we sought to join other bodies, but something nagged at me. We found that we became unsettled and struggled with the exercise of "church" until one day I did the unthinkable - I just stayed home from Sunday services.
Since then, through study and some great believers and some strange experiences, I sense a new appreciation for the real CHURCH, ie His Body throughout the earth. I have found greater freedom to seek truth without the concern of the denominational confines and realize that He wants us to live daily in His presence, and I am truly humbled by the patience of the Lord and His people.
Right now, realizing that the CHURCH is HIS BODY, I am thankful and in awe of His ways.

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Jill wrote:Church can be hard, and personalities, and different levels of commitment can be abrasive at times. I think that sticking with an established or unestablished church body is your choice, but the abrasiveness is certainly much more usefull to getting things in you all worked out than the loner who turns psycotic at the least provocation or internal upheaval as if its "REAL" but is most certainly not. The Bible can sure stir it all up, and a stable and regular church each week can be a great little check in with those you can slowly get to know "in Christ" and slowly get to know you "in Christ".

But suit yourself.

Jill
May the Lord guide you and bless you, and may His peace be on you.

Thank you for granting me the freedom to exercise "my choice" and to "suit myself", but I think I hear more than a simple statement of how church life can be abrasive, but possibly some concern for my faithfulness to a church body, or my turning "psycotic"

Since I have left the institutional church, I have found great peace, and challenging fellowship with believers in various formats. I need to learn much about having to deal with things in a Godly manner, but find that He is faithful in my day to day life since I no longer have to wait for the church doors to open to "connect" with Him.

I challenge you to consider all who call on the name of the Lord to be of His Body. Even those who are a bit uncomfortable to you, not as mature as you, or present a different viewpoint.

Thanks again for your concern, and may God bless you and yours.

Mostly good for me

My church has been the place where I've made the greatest friendships
My church has been the place where I've most often encountered a sense of God's presence
My church has been the place where I've been ministered to most often
My church has been the place where I've been able to minister most often
My church has been the place where I've heard the word of God preached most often
My church has been the place where I've heard the prayers of the saints most often
My church has been the place where I've received direction for my life most often
Etc, etc.

Of course, by 'the place' I don't mean to refer to one specific building, but the atmosphere of God's people that are part of our local church body.

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The English word “church” had its origins in the Greek word “κυριακoν”, the neuter form of “κυριακος”, meaning “lordly”. The neuter form means “lordly thing”, and that word was used to describe Christian building of worship since around 300. The Swedish word for "church" is "kyrka". The first three letters are identical to the Greek (The Greek letter "upsilon" transliterates into the Roman character "y").

The word occurs only once in the New Testament (Rev 1:10), where it is found in its feminine form since it modifies ἡμερα (day). The writer said that he was ἐν τῃ κυριακῃ ἡμερᾳ (in the spirit on the Lordly day). Possibly this was the first time in which Sunday is called “the Lordly day”. In any case this appellation was continued right to the present time where in Greece, the name for Sunday is still “κυριακῃ”.

The word “ἐκκλησια”, on the other hand, which means “called-out assembly”, had been used to describe a group of people who congregated as a result of a town crier calling out to them. Thus William Tyndale in his translation in 1526 correctly translated “ἐκκλησια” as “congregation”. Matthew’s Bible of 1537 also translated the word as “congregation”. This isn’t surprising since Tyndale’s pen name was “Thomas Matthew”. The Great Bible (1539) also rendered the word as “congregation”.

The first person to translate the word as “church” was William Whittingham (1557), a strong Calvinist, in his Geneva New Testament. The Bishop’s Bible (1568) followed in suit, as well as the 1611 King James Bible. largely based on the Bishop’s Bible.

Of course NO ONE renders “ἐκκλησια” as “church” in the following verses. For if they did, then the gathering of citizens in support of the goddess Artemis, would have been called a “church”:

Acts 19:32 Now some cried one thing, some another; for the ἐκκλησια was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.
Acts 19:39 But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular ἐκκλησια.
Acts 19:41 And when he had said this, he dismissed the ἐκκλησια.
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Great range of responses.

I, for one, like the word mainly because I have personally associated it with a lot of positive things- things akin to the things mattrose shared. And, when I first read C.S. Lewis' The Pilgrim's Regress and encountered "old mother Kirke" (with a nod to Paidion's post), I thought, yes!!!! That's the church. The old grandmother on the rocking chair who you'd assume was feeble and had been around the block one too many times, but who, nevertheless, the Landlord had enabled to sit right at the edge of the canyon and help weary travellers to the other side.

I realize this won't make much sense if you haven't read the Pilgrim's Regress, but, hey, if you haven't, maybe it'll inspire you.

Anyway, when I think of "church" I think of the "mystery of God":

Ephesians 3:8-11

8Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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