March 04, 2012

Horse 1284 - In church (or place of worship) - 10 points (Total: 28)


The most comprehensive definition of the word "church" I could find was in Oxford English Dictionary.
Church. 3. (n) - the body made up of a congregation, its members and clergy

The word "Church" probably comes to us via the Old Norse "kirkja" which itself is a derivation of the Greek word "kyriakos" which is the neuter gender form of the word and means "of the master". The word is therefore a pretty good description of the Church's relationship to Jesus as the master of the church global as an organisation.
The word usually used in the bible though is the word "ekklesia" which is a closer approximation of the current words "assembly" or "congregation".

If you take a more general view of how the church operates in the New Testament we find something different to just a mere assembly or a corporate body though. We find people who on occasion long to see each other, people who care for each other, pray for each other, who support each other with extreme gifts of money, time and on occasion travel vast distances; people who greet each other. We also happen to find squabbles and disputes on occasion.
The church in the bible is portrayed as much much more than a an assembly. Descriptors of it include concepts like the family, interconnected parts of a human body, the concept of citizenship and most importantly the idea of being adopted, having an inheritance and being called sons and daughters.
The evidence suggests that the church is much more like a family than either the Greek words "kyriakos" or "ekklesia" would suggest. Certainly my experience in attending church extends well beyond the four walls on a Sunday, and I would suggest that that's a common experience for anyone who's been in a church for any real length of time.

This photo is not necessarily of a place of worship as the instruction would suggest; I don't think that any photo which adequately describes a church is going to be of the inside of a building. Rather this photo is a candid snapshot of part of a church family, taken surreptitiously so as not to disturb.

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