Brentwood Church of Christ

The word “church” in the New Testament comes from the Greek EKKLESIA, which comes from two words, EK, “out,” and KALEO, “to call,” thus, “to call out.” Therefore, the word refers to a group of people who had been called out of some place or relationship into another one. In the case of the church of Christ, it refers to people who have been called out of the world into Christ by the gospel II Thessalonians 2:13-14). The word is not always used in a religious sense, but at times refers merely to a secular gathering or assembly of people.

The important thing to understand about the word is that it is a collective noun. Examples of collective nouns are: covey; herd; flock; troop; jury; team; crew; family; assembly; school; committee; company; crowd. One herd of cows is many cows. One cow cannot be a herd. So when the Lord spoke of the church He simply spoke of people. The church is not an institution or organization that people join. The church is a group of people. They are organized, but the church is simply people. The Bible speaks of the church in either a universal or local sense. Either way, it is still just people.

In fact, we can count four ways the word church is used in the New Testament to refer to the Lord’s people:

1. Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 1:22; Colossians 1:18 refers to the church in a universal sense, that is, all of the saved whether dead or alive. The universal church has no earthly headquarters, earthly organization, or earthly meeting place.
2. I Corinthians 1:2; I Thessalonians 1:1; Colossians 4:15 refer to the church in a local sense, that is, a group of the Lord’s people who have agreed to work and worship together in a specific location.
3. Acts 8:3; 9:31 (ASV, NASB) uses the word church in a distributive sense, that is, “the church throughout all Judea” is neither the universal church nor a single local church, but individual saints distributed throughout a region.
4. I Corinthians 11:18; 14:23 refers to the church as saints assembled in one place. A local church already exists before the saints assemble, so here is a way the word is used to specifically mean all the saints of one location when they are in their assembly.

It is important to remember that “church” is a descriptive term for the Lord’s people. It describes them as “called out” of the world. “Body of Christ” is descriptive of God’s people as members of one another with a head, Christ. “Bride of Christ” is another descriptive term for the Lord’s people showing their relationship with Christ as a woman espoused to a husband. “Family” also describes the Lord’s people showing our intimate relationship with God as our Father and to one another as brothers and sisters. “Temple” describes God’s people as the place where God’s presence and blessings are given. “Kingdom” describes the people of God as citizens with God as the monarch who delivers laws to be followed. Each of these terms are simply different ways of describing the people of God. Do not try to turn these descriptions into any more than the people of God.

When teaching an unbeliever, we do not want to get overly complicated in our explanation, but we do want to change the denominational concept that is so prevalent. The Lord’s church is simply all of the saved. When you are saved the Lord will make you a part of His church (Acts 2:47). You will then want to join yourself with a local group of people who are serving the Lord, which will make you a part of a local church (Acts 9:26). God expects His people to do certain things as a group: pray (Acts 12:5), sing (Ephesians 5:19), partake of the Supper(Acts 20:7; I Corinthians 11:20), study/teach/preach the word (I Timothy 3:15), and give to provide for needy saints and the spread of the gospel (I Corinthians 16:1-2). Though some of these things can be done individually and therefore apart from a local church, all of these things are to be done collectively with a local church.