YOU ARE THE CHURCH.
By Frank Walton. Have you ever heard the statement: “You don’t go to church, you are the church.” This is only partially true, as we will show from Scripture. There is confusion as to what exactly is the Lord’s church. Someone will see a building where Christians assemble for worship and call the building the church, which is the 1st definition in an English dictionary. However, the New Testament never uses the term “church” to refer to a building. It’s good to clearly understand how the New Testament uses the word “church.” Jesus made a grand promise, which is our hope today, that “I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18). The English word “church” comes from the Middle English chirche that was derived from the Greek kuriakon, meaning the ‘Lord's (house). The real concept is found in the original word used by the Holy Spirit underlying “church,” which is ekklesia, meaning “the called out (group of people). It is used 115 times in the New Testament. It is used in Acts 19: