In this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
Ecclesiology is the study of the church. Various aspects of the church and church governance are covered in ecclesiology, usually in abstract terms. This is good and necessary, but I want to take a more practical approach. I want to talk about ecclesiology from a layperson’s perspective: What does it mean to be the church? How do we function together? What are our duties toward one another? In this series, I hope to lay forth an outline of how the church is to be the church. I will not be focusing on outward-facing ministries of the church (e.g. evangelism), but on inward-facing ministries.
Defining terms
First things first: What does it mean to be a part of the church? To answer this question, we must first determine what the word “church” means. Most Christians know that the church isn’t a building, though we sometimes speak that way. “The church is people!” we rightly proclaim (Matthew 18:17, Acts 11:26).
From there, we might say that the church consists of anyone saved by the atoning work of Jesus (Ephesians 5:25, 1 Corinthians 1:2). In this usage, any self-professed Christian – anyone who believes in Jesus – is a part of the church.
But more fundamentally, the church is an “assembly” or a “congregation.” The word translated as “church” in our Bibles is the Greek ekklesia, which literally means “to call together” or “to assemble.”
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