Ekklesia not Kircha

‘But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light’ 1 Pet.2:9 [NIV]

Once the church was legalized, the church that started as a movement became frozen. What was once unpredictable became predictable. What was once unexplainable, the Christians that no one could understand or predict became predictable. And the movement became an establishment. When you say the word church today, what comes to people’s minds is a building because the movement has been frozen. The German word called kircha became the word that the whole empire adopted for the church. Kircha means the house of the lord. It could mean the house of a demon god or whatever god. It was from the adopted kircha that the word church emerged. So the word church is not a translation from the original Greek like all the other parts of the Bible but a substitution of the original Greek word ekklesia. Rather than translating ekklesia, it was substituted with kircha. Kircha is a location; ekklesia is a purposeful gathering of God’s people regardless of the location – huge difference. Ekklesia will make use of a building but ekklesia is not the building. Kircha is the building – huge difference. For instance, when the early church started, they met in people’s homes. So people’s homes became the church, not kircha but ekklesia. We will still use the word church but we must now view it as God intended. The Jerusalem [early] church would meet not only in houses but also in the temple. They had an arrangement with the priest to rent and perhaps pay for a period of time for the part of the temple called the Solomon’s porch. Theologians say it can sit [stand because the early church used to stand throughout service] about forty-five to sixty thousand people. So they would meet in the temple and meet in the homes. Some people still cannot wrap their minds around the idea of a mobile church. We are a church, an Assembly of God’s people – totally different concept. You can lock the kircha but you cannot lock the church. You can burn down the kircha but you cannot burn down the church. You can give legal permit of operation to the kircha but you cannot legislate a church because the church is a representation of the Kingdom of heaven.

Prayer: Father, I ask for the grace to embody the ekklesia mentality, to stay fluid before you always, in Jesus Name.