For much of my life I was taught that the English word “Church” which comes from the Greek word “ekklesia” means, “Called Out Ones”.
 
After this definition is given, the speaker will typically go on to tell his audience how the Church is “called out”, to be different. So, far there would seem to be little reason for a disagreement on this, since the Greek word does indeed have etymological roots of “called out” but it is not just word origin that determines what a word means, but context. The context of “ekklesia” comes from secular Greek, which defined the word as “called FORTH ones”, or “gathering” which would equate to our “town meeting” or perhaps even political bodies such as the Senate. Thus, the Church is more of a Body than we suppose. Read more...