Purpose

What is the root idea of the assembly of Christians for "church."? The Greek word is "ekklesia", so this is what we really care about. But even more important than "ekklesia", covering both old and new testaments, what is the Christian assembly supposed to be doing? What is the nature, purpose and character of the ekklesia/assembly/church? Is it supposed to be primarily for "worship" or are there other ideas that scripture encourages for the ekklesia/assembly/church? Most Bible translations use the word "church" for the Greek word "ekklesia", but there are subtle nuances with each example and term of this assembly/congregation/gathering. There is an interesting history in the KJV English translation with King James. There are interesting uses of the secular use of the word "ekklesia." There are interesting assemblies in the old testament elders gathering at the gate of a city. The idea of meeting to "worship" is also interesting, like the individualized prostration in the old testament and the lack of this in the new testament ekkelsia meetings. Of course the "church/ekklesia" is not "the building", when we "go to church", but there are other ideas about the "ekklesia" that are interesting.

Introduction

At this point, this article is primarily gathering sources of information. This article is focused on collecting sources and starting to present research on this topic. We think understanding "ekklesia" better may help you know how to live the Christian life within God's Kingdom more in alignment with his way of doing things. We think the "ekklesia" helps to expose issues with traditionalchurch and supports the othertrend. But this is an ongoing study.

Observations from the Bible

Robert Banks has a good introduction in the Greek "ekklesia" on page 27 of his famous book... that mentions verses like: Acts 19:21-41, 1 Samuel 11:4-7, 2 Chron 28:14, Ps 26:5, Eccles 26:5, etc.

Independently, we observe a similarity with the elders at the city gate with Boaz in Ruth 4:1-11.

But we would like to gather other verses using the word "ekklesia" to better understand what Jesus meant when he introduced the concept in the New Testament.

YouTube Video Sources

This is a rather shallow explanation of the history and roots of ekklesia.
youtube.com/GotQuestions-ekklesia

This goes a bit deeper.
youtube.com/BenGrist-Ekklesia

This also goes deeper, but also gets into "organized religion" (a bit of a distration), and is a bit harsh on the traditional church.
youtube.com/TreasureSeekers

This is just a reminder that we should gather with other Christians, just in case any comments of previous links make you think something else. youtube.com/MikeWinger-church

This is a more balanced perspective that seems to fit well with what D. A. Carson is saying with considering both trends othertrend. We agree with a lot of what Stephen Crosby is saying to encourage the church to work together better rather than one extreme or the other. youtube.com/StephenCrosby-ekklesia-I youtube.com/part-II youtube.com/part-III

These sources seem to be less accurate

This website argues that "church" is the best translation and that the KJV is perfectly good. They say ekkesia should be translated "The Lords House". We disagree. We think the word studies above are better. We think this is a distorted pro-KJV argument and is hiding the true history of King James and his controlling tactics with the KJV translators. It appears that King James wanted to control the church. We agree the word church may be the best, for people in general, because of the confusing history. But think the studies above show that ekklesia is best translated as "assembly" or "congregation" or "ekklesia".

youtube.com/TruthMercyBaptist