The Definition of the Church

The definition of the Church is very vital and essential for our study. Our definition of the
church will affect our understanding of the church and consequently our practice.1 Therefore, we
will start our study of church by defining what it essential is.2 In other words, how does God
define a Church? And how will we know God’s definition of the church? Well, by turning to his
revelation.
Theologians vary in their definition of the church. It is possible to agree with the function
of the church while disagreeing with its essence. Thus, the definition of the church is taken for
granted or assumed. However, God cares how we define his bride for whom Christ died to
purchase and cleanse her (Eph. 5:25).
Let us glance through some definitions of the Church.

Inadequate Definitions

Wayne Grudem defines church as follows, “The church is the community of all true
believers for all time.”3 Grudem, further, argues that since Christ died for the church so church
must include all saints for whom Christ died i.e. believers of all ages. So for Grudem
regeneration constitutes the church.
Similarly, Millard Erickson defines church as “the whole body of those who through
Christ’s death have been savingly reconciled to God and have received new life. It includes all
such persons, whether in heaven or on earth. While universal in nature, it finds expression in

1
Orthodoxy leads to Orthopraxy is not a popular adage but biblical truth. For instance, Apostle

Paul spends first three chapters in his letter to the Ephesians in asserting the principles and then in the last

three chapters he commands them based on the indicatives or assertions. Apostle Paul does this in the book

of Romans and Colossians as well.

2
I personally think a solid theology is impossible without an accurate and consistent philosophy.

We will do ourselves a favor by defining the church ontologically.

3
Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids:

Zondervan, 2015), 1228.

local groupings of believers that display the same qualities as does the body of Christ as a
whole.”4 Erickson, like Grudem, maintains that regeneration constitutes the Church.

Adequate Definitions

Gregg Allison provides an excellent definition of church in his book Sojourners and Strangers. It
is a lengthy definition but it is worthy of being quoted in its entirety. Gregg Allison maintains:

“The church is the people of God who have been saved through repentance and faith in
Jesus Christ and have been incorporated into his body through baptism with the Holy
Spirit. It consists of two interrelated elements: the universal church is the fellowship of
all Christians that extends from the day of Pentecost until the second coming,
incorporating both the deceased believers who are presently in heaven and the living
believers from all over the world. This universal church becomes manifested in local
churches characterized by being doxological, logocentric, pneumadynamic, covenantal,
confessional, missional, and spatiotemporal/eschatological. Local churches are led by
pastors (also called elders) and served by deacons, possess and pursue purity and unity,
exercise church discipline, develop strong connections with other churches, and celebrate
the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Equipped by the Holy Spirit with
spiritual gifts for ministry, these communities regularly gather to worship the triune God,
proclaim his Word, engage non-Christians with the gospel, disciple their members, care
for people through prayer and giving, and stand both for and against the world.”5

Gregg Allison notes that the baptism of the Holy Spirit as essential in constituting the church. He
even argues that the universal church includes saints from the day of Pentecost to the second
coming of Christ. However, he does not distinguish between the Rapture and the Second coming
of Christ.

4
Millard Erickson, Christian Theology, 3rd Edition (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013), 1111)
5
Gregg R. Allison, Sojourners and Strangers: The Doctrine of the Church (Illinois: Crossway,

2012), 31.
Rolland McCune asserts, “The church which is the body of Christ is the whole spiritual body of
true Christian believers of this age regardless of location or circumstances. It is the total number
of Spirit-baptized believers—those saved between the Day of Pentecost and the Rapture—
whether they are in heaven or on earth.”6 McCune encompasses all elements in defining the
essence of the Church. Another reason why we are adopting McCune’s definition for our class is
that he includes the saints from the day of Pentecost to the day of rapture in the universal
church.7

Instructor’s Definition, “The Church is the composition of all the Regenerated and Spirit-
baptized saints from the Day of the Pentecost to the Day of the Rapture either present in heaven
or localized in congregations on earth. The localized congregation, then, is the gathering of the
regenerated and Spirit-baptized people who gather around a covenant, confession, and
constitution to exalt the triune God, to edify each other, and to evangelize the unsaved by singing
the gospel, praying the gospel, reading the gospel, listening to the gospel being preached, and
seeing the gospel through the ordinances being administered, under the supervision of the Elders
(Pastors) and the service of the Deacons.”

Understanding the words Ekklēsia and Church

Many Parishioners are unaware that the English word “Church” is not a direct translation
of the Greek word “Ekklēsia”, in fact, the word Church does not mean gathering in its truest
sense. The word Church is a very flexible word. It can encompass many meanings. Whereas, the
6
Rolland D. McCune, “Systematic Theology III.” (course notes, Detroit Baptist Theological

Seminary, Fall 2001), 112.

7
The term “universal church” is used to refer to all the saints from the day of Pentecost to the day

of Rapture. And the reason why it is known as invisible is because we cannot see all these saints at once, in

one location and at one time, except in heaven. Some also refer to them as “invisible church” since we

cannot view them at once. But for our purposes, we will be using the term “the body Church” to refer to all

the saints who are not localized in one place.

Greek word “Ekklēsia” always means a gathering or congregation. The English word “Church”
comes from the Greek word kuriakos which means “belonging to the Lord” or “the Lord’s.” Cf.
1 Cor 11:20 (Lord’s Supper) and Rev 1:10 (Lord’s Day).8
Jonathan Leeman rightly captures the etymology of the word “Church” in his book One
Assembly. He writes,
“It roots back in the Greek word kyriakos (an adjective for “of the Lord,” kyrios) or
kyriakē (oikia), referring to a house of the Lord, which was sometimes used for houses of
worship after AD 300. This eventually passed on through to the proto-Germanic kirika to
the Old English cirice to the Middle English chirche to our own “church.” As such, our
English word “church” has spent centuries, like a slow meandering river, picking up all
kinds of flotsam and sediment, from the idea of a building to the idea of a hierarchical
structure (e.g., Roman Catholic Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church). So our English
Bibles use “church” to translate ekklēsia, but the English word bears a much broader,
more complicated range of meaning and resonance. Where ekklēsia possessed the
comparatively brick-like clarity of “assembly,” “church” is a more elastic word, carrying
two thousand years’ worth of accumulated intuitions and associations.”9

Hence, there is a need to rightly understand the words “Ekklēsia” and “Church” in order to aptly
understand the doctrine of Church. One of the reasons people think about a building, any saintly
gathering, organization, etc., when they hear about the word “Church” is because of an
inadequate understanding of the meaning of the word.
The Meaning and Usage of the word Ekklēsia

The Greek word Ekklēsia is a combination of two Greek words ek and kaleo and when we
combine both they mean “called out ones.” Thus, we can say that the church is the called out
ones. But we should be careful not to stress the usage of this word too much. Mark Snoeberger
writes, “Too much emphasis of the idea of “calling out,” however, can be detrimental to our
8
Rolland D. McCune, “Systematic Theology III.” (course notes, Detroit Baptist Theological

Seminary, Fall 2001), 106.

9
Jonathan Leeman, One Assembly: Rethinking the Multisite & Multiservice Church Models

(Illinois: Crossway, 2020), 20.

thinking. Like many Greek terms, ekklesia has both a general and technical meaning. For
instance, all people who follow are not technically “disciples,” all people who are sent are not
technically “apostles,” all words that are written are not technically “Scripture,” and all books are
not “Bibles.” The term ekklesia is similar to these terms. The term can mean generically any
group summonsed for assembly (the term is used to reference Israel dozens of times in the
Septuagint and even in the NT—Acts 7:38; Heb 2:12), but technically denotes THE NT
assembly of believers in most of its uses in the NT.”10 Thus in its basic form the word “Ekklēsia”
means congregation who are called out.

The Usage of the word Ekklēsia

1) It can refer to the Universal Church (Matt 16:18; Eph.1:22; 3:21).

2) It can refer to the Local Gathering (Matt 18:17; Acts 2:47, 5:11)

3) It can refer to the Religious Gathering (Acts 7:38)

4) It can refer to any civic gathering (Acts 19:32, 39, 41)

5) It can refer to the Historical Church (Acts 9:31)

10
Mark A. Snoeberger, “The Doctrine of Church” (course notes, Community Bible Church,
Trenton, Michigan), 1.