Ekklesia: Some Assembly Required

There’s a growing sentiment in our culture that says, “I love Jesus, but I don’t need the church.” People talk about finding God in nature, in quiet moments, or in private devotion—and to be honest, I understand some of that. I’ve been in churches that felt more like obstacles than pathways to Christ. I’ve seen the pain and the politics, the hurt and the hypocrisy. But even with all that, I still say this: I love the Church.

Not because it’s always perfect, but because it’s God’s idea. It’s not a social invention or a man-made institution to control people or preserve tradition. Jesus said, “I will build my church”—not a building or a program, but a people. A people called out, brought together, and empowered by the Spirit to carry His Kingdom into the world.

The word Jesus used there in Matthew 16:18 is ekklesia. It’s a word that’s been around for centuries, but it doesn’t mean what most people think. Nowhere in the Bible is the word “church” used to describe a building. Ekklesia never referred to a structure—it meant a gathering. Specifically, a gathering of people brought together for a purpose.

In Greek civic life, an ekklesia was a summoned assembly—citizens called out from their homes into a public meeting to deliberate, decide, and act on behalf of the city. So when Jesus said He would build His ekklesia, He was deliberately choosing a word that described people actively coming together with intention and purpose. Not just believing the same things, but gathering to live it out together.

When Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica, he begins his letter: “To the ekklesia of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 1:1). That word ekklesia isn’t referring to all the Christians in the city wherever they might happen to be on their own. It’s not some invisible network of individuals scattered across homes and coffee shops. It’s a gathered people.

And if you look at Paul’s letter to the Galatians, the greeting makes something else clear. He writes, “To the churches [ekklesiai] in Galatia” (Galatians 1:2). That’s plural. He doesn’t address one big, unified church—but multiple gatherings across the region. This wasn’t one oversized group meeting in secret—it was a network of local assemblies, each functioning as an ekklesia in their own right. That small detail carries weight: from the very beginning, the Church was expressed in visible, local gatherings of believers. It wasn’t just “the Church in Galatia” as a spiritual idea—it was actual, multiple gatherings of people meeting regularly to live out their faith together.

Honestly, Paul wouldn’t have known what you meant if you said, “The Thessalonian ekklesia didn’t meet today.” That would have been nonsense to him. They wouldn’t have been an ekklesia if they didn’t actually gather. The ekklesia in Thessalonica didn’t exist unless the Christians in that city were together. That’s how central gathering is to the identity of the Church.

This has real implications for how we view our role in the church today. If we see the Church as a podcast to consume or a livestream to tune into when it fits our schedule, we’ve lost something vital. The Church isn’t just about shared belief—it’s about shared life. It's a people who show up—physically, spiritually, relationally—to worship, serve, encourage, and live out the Gospel together.

The writer of Hebrews put it plainly: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25). Gathering was already becoming countercultural in the early church, just like it is now. But it was never optional. It was part of their identity. They met to pray, to eat, to hear the Word, to use their gifts, and to care for one another.

And here’s the hard truth: you can’t fulfill most of the New Testament’s commands for the church without actually being with other believers. You can’t “encourage one another” or “bear one another’s burdens” or “spur one another on toward love and good deeds” if you're not showing up. The Church doesn’t function as the Body of Christ unless the members are connected.

The ekklesia is not just a theological idea or a historical artifact—it’s God’s ongoing strategy to reach the world through a people who gather, love, serve, and go. So yes, you can meet God on a hike or in your quiet time, but you can’t walk out the full life of a disciple without the people of God gathered around you.

Don’t settle for a detached version of church. Be part of the ekklesia. Gather. Bring your piece. And watch what God does when His people come together.