I've been thinking a lot about 'church' recently. It began in earnest when talking with Alan Hirsch the other week, and we both expressed dissatisfaction with the word 'church' and all its current connotations.
Looking back into my 'Dictionary of NT Theology' and other resources, I find that the word used in the NT that is usually translated 'church' is 'ekklesia'. Literally this means the 'called out ones' (ek = out of, and kaleo = called) and is also translated as 'assembly' and 'congregation'. Note that it does not equate to an institution, but a group of people. Some people stop there, and see the church as being called to come out of the world as if it were the equivante of the 'remnant' in Israel's exilic history.
As I read more, I discovered again that the 'ekklesia' was used back in the 5thC BC to refer initially to the calling out of the army to assemble, and then as an assembly of competent full citizens of a city. This 'assembly' is known to have met routinely about 30-40 times a year in Athens in the 5th Cent. as well the occasional extra-ordinary 'ekklesia'. The topics discussed at these meetings generally concerned local policy. Every citizen had the right to speak and be heard, and to raise matters for discussion.
In summary, years before the OT was translated into Greek and well before the birth of Christ, 'ekkelsia' was clearly used of a political assembly of full citizens, rooted in the constitution of the democracy, at which political and judicial decisions were made. Only occasionally were other words used for this political assembly of the people - eg: 'halia', 'agora'. Only three records have been found where it is used in a religious connotation - referring to the business meeting of a cultic guild - otherwise it is used exclusively of a citizens assembly. A number of other greek words were usually used of a religious assembly - 'thiasos', 'eranos', 'koinon', etc.
Another important Greek work to bear in mind in this examination is 'synagoge' - derived from synago = to bring together. This word was used extensively of cultic assemblies of various sorts.
In the OT the Septuagint (LXX) uses 'ekklesia' some 100 times (of which 22 are in the Apocrypha). It represents the Hebrew word QHL and is usually translated 'assembly' or 'congregation'. However there are other passages where QHL is rendered by the Gk 'synogoge', 'ochlos' (crowd) or 'plethos' (multitude). At the same time 'synagoge' occurs 225 times for the Hebrew 'eDH' - a word which is given a different meaning only 3 times in the OT.
'QHL' means a summons to a meeting or the actual act of assembling for a meeting. The meeting is not neccessarily religious - it is used in the OT of the mustering of the army, and to refer to nations other than Israel. 'QHL' can refer to the call-up for military service, a meeting for judicial or political consultation, or an assembly for worship. The specifically religious uses are usually denoted by the noun that is added to the adjective - eg Duet 23:2 "No one born of a forbidden marriage nor any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD" (NIV).
'Ekklesia' in the LXX for 'QHL' indicates the assembly of the people, a judicial assemblt, or the political body (eg the returned Exiles in Ezra & Nehemiah). The few exceptions all refer to the peple as God's assembly, answering His call. "Synagoge', apart for some uses as assembly or place of assembly, was the word of choice for the religiously defined community of God.
It appears that the early church carefully avoided the use of the word 'synagoge' of itself due to its use as a technical term for a Jewish assembly or the place of a Jewish assembly.
It seems as if the 