MORE ABOUT THAT FIVE-FOLD THING

Since the post about Paul being a pioneer for the Gospel by opening up new areas, I have come to consider the implications for the Five-Fold Ministry.

One aspect of this is the chronological appearances of these ministries within a given geographic or demographic area.  Once an apostle opens up the area, prophets then appear to support the Apostles' doctrine to give direction to the new disciples' assemblies.

Once a sufficient number of disciples have been trained, elders are appointed, or recognized, to shephard, or pastor the flock.  All the elders are pastors, and not a board that rubber stamps the actions of a single leader.

Of course, other people in the given area still need to hear the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus.  So, comes the need for evangelists.  I am not a Greek scholar, but I have looked into the meaning of evangelist.  The English word is taken directly from the Greek word.  The best I   can determine is that an evangelist is a Good Newser, someone who is full of good news, and not just a travelling preacher.

The new disciples need a foundation of sound doctrines.  The elders may not be able to explain the truth of Scripture to every new disciple, possibly because of the number of new disciples.

This might have been the pattern of the early disciples of Christ.

This chronological view might also apply the list of gifts at the end of 1 Cor. 12.

A WORD ABOUT CHURCH

That word, "church," gets thrown around a bunch.  It has come to have many meanings.  In its broadest meaning, we use it as a synonym for religion.  We also use it to designate a building dedicated for the instruction and practice of a religion.  A worship service is also called church.  

Those are okay uses for the word, but I  need to point out that we also use the word to mean the people who follow a religion, whether it's a local or worldwide group.

Do those other uses match what the Bible means when that word appears on its pages?  No.  Not at all.

When ever "church" appears in the English Bible, it is always a translation of the Greek word "ekklesia."  Ekklesia refers to people, especially citizens, that have been called out to assemble for a purpose.  At no time does it refer to a building or a religion.

You might be thinking, "So what?  Why is this information important?"  It is important so that we don't misinderstand God's Word.

So, why do we use "church" to mean so many different things?  Some of the words in Christianity have been taken from the Greek New Testament and transliterated into English, such as "baptism" and "Christ."  Why didn't that happen with Ekklesia?  Where did "church" come from?

The English word "church" does come from a Greek word, but not "ekklesia." The original Old English word was "chirchon." It came from the Greek, "kyriokos.". That word comes from two root words that mean "lord" and "house." So, it means "lord's house."

I surmise that once Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire, the government let Christians use government facilities, or even gave them buildings. Some of those buildings where called "basilicas" in Greek. That word means, "king's house."

Since Greek was the predominant language of early Christians, they changed basilica to kyriokos.  Then any building used for Christian worship became kyriokos.  The word then migrated through other European langues, including German, "kirche."