is the church the building or\u00a0is the church made up of its members?<\/p>\n\t
In English, the word “church” can refer to either the building or the people worshiping God in a local. For example, one set of definitions is:<\/p>\n
\n\n
- one of the groups of Christians who have their own beliefs and forms of worship<\/li>\n
- a place for public (especially Christian) worship; “the church was empty”<\/li>\n
- church service: a service conducted in a house of worship; “don’t be late for church”<\/li>\n
- the body of people who attend or belong to a particular local church; “our church is hosting a picnic next week”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
[From:\u00a0http:\/\/wordnet.princeton.edu\/perl\/webwn?s=church]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The word “church” is used to translate the Greek word\u00a0ekklesia<\/em>. That word literally means an assembly of people. For example, when there was a riot in Ephesus, “Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the\u00a0assembly<\/strong>\u00a0was confused, and most of them did not know why they had come together<\/em>” (Acts 19:32). Even though it wasn’t an assembly of the Lord’s people, it was still an assembly. So as used in the Bible, when you read “church” you should think of the people, not a physical structure.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: is the church the building or\u00a0is the church made up of its members? Answer: In English, the word “church” can refer to either the building or the people worshiping God in a local. For example, one set of definitions is: one of the groups of Christians who have their own beliefs and forms of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[448,76],"class_list":["post-13718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-church","tag-terminology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":33450,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-a-church-have-time-in-worship-for-members-to-pray-quietly\/","url_meta":{"origin":13718,"position":0},"title":"Should a church have time in worship for members to pray quietly?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am a member of the Church of Christ in a local congregation. Of late, when we pray in the church, we do allow individual members some time to say their prayers adding that we should not speak loud. I am perplexed now. Answer: I don't blame you for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25391,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/since-the-church-isnt-the-building-you-cant-make-rules-about-how-the-building-is-used\/","url_meta":{"origin":13718,"position":1},"title":"Since the church isn’t the building, you can’t make rules about how the building is used","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You are right in that you say the church is not to be an entertainment organization. But the picture you put on that site is not the church! You started out by saying that the church (Did you mean that building in the picture? That isn't the church!) had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30095,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/fellowship-halls\/","url_meta":{"origin":13718,"position":2},"title":"Fellowship Halls? (Dunagan)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mark Dunagan Somewhere in the past, the idea entered the Church of Christ that it would be all right to take the funds collected on the first day of the week and construct a church building which would include such things as a kitchen and a large dining room\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92920,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/splitting-a-church-or-working-out-your-salvation\/","url_meta":{"origin":13718,"position":3},"title":"Splitting a Church or Working Out Your Salvation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jim Ruff via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 19 No. 3, September 1993 It is a serious matter to be a party to \"splitting a church.\" Christ demands unity and peace (I Corinthians 1:10; Ephesians 4:3). Our salvation is also a serious matter (Matthew 16:26), and we are each responsible for working\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16773,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-can-give-communion\/","url_meta":{"origin":13718,"position":4},"title":"Who can give communion?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have a doubt about administering communion; that is, who can give communion? We are seven who as started a church and now it has grown to 30 people. We have one leader but none of us is ordained. Now, who can give communion? Or should we find an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33269,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/because-of-road-construction-our-church-is-split-into-two-groups-are-they-still-one-church-or-are-they-two\/","url_meta":{"origin":13718,"position":5},"title":"Because of road construction, our church is split into two groups. Are they still one church or are they two?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: May God continuously guide you as you continue your service to the lost. I need to ask some questions about the autonomy of the church. Allow me to relate our situation. My home congregation is a large congregation and members come from different areas. At the moment some of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}