The word church really should be put in the dustbin of history. The correct word is assembly, ie, a gathering
Yeah.
I wrote this here some time ago:
Didn't know if this had been covered yet;
The Greek word for “church” is ekklesia. It’s derived of two words: ek which means “out of” and kaleō which means “to call”. So, ekklesia, a noun, literally means “those called out”.
Here are some examples of the word “church” in other languages:
Spanish: iglesia
Latin: ecclesia
French: eglise
Greek: ekklesia
See how similar they are to the original Greek word?
Let’s look at the English version.
English: church
*record scratch*
What’s going on?
Why is ekklesia replaced by a word that has no structural or phonetic similarities to the original Greek word?
You can blame the original translators of the King James Version of the Bible. They were influenced by the traditions of their day. In their day, the building where the people of God met was called a “church”. This word was derived from the Germanic word kirche (there’s a whole story here that probably involves sun-goddess worship and maybe anti-Semitism but that’s another post). The translators simply used what was already familiar to the people. This is just one example of how they were influenced by the traditions of their times.
Today, we call buildings by a name God never intended: churches. And this adds confusion to the people of God.
Some blame lies with the translators of the KJV.