The New Testament believers called themselves the ecclesia. The 'ecclesia, is a Greek word translated as church in the English Bible. The literal meaning of the ecclesia is the "assembly of the called out one's". The word originated from the Athens democracy. Athens was a Greek city and regularly a meeting is held and all the adult assemble together. The assembly was responsible for declaring war, military strategy and electing the strategoi and other officials. It was responsible for nominating and electing magistrates, thus indirectly electing the members of the Areopagus. It had the final say on legislation and the right to call magistrates to account after their year of office. And this assembly was called 'ecclesia', yes the ecclesia was a civil governmental body.

This brings us to the question, why did the early believers called themselves the ecclesia? Are they not other words use to term a religious group or a religious gathering?

The truth is that the early believers never saw themselves as a religious group. In fact they didn't know they have started a new religion, instead they thought they were still under Judaism which was the established religion of the Jews. All they knew was that God has promised the Israelites for hundreds of years that He would establish His kingdom on earth through His anointed one and this anointed one shall be the king of the everlasting kingdom of God on earth.

The early believers came to believe that Jesus is this anointed one that is why they called him Christ (Christ is a Greek word that means the anointed one while the Hebrew word is Messiah). To the early believers the kingdom of God on earth has started and they are the one's called out to come rule together with Christ and as a result they called themselves the ecclesia i.e the assembly of those chosen and called out by God to govern His kingdom on earth under the Lordship of Jesus.

So they meet to govern the affairs of the kingdom of God on earth through the leadings of the Spirit of Christ. They distributed food to those who are poor among them, they gave shelter to those who have no home, they decide on how to go forth and declare the reign of Christ and they all edify or build up themselves to fight spiritual war and to stand strong in the kingdom and for the kingdom, they come up with military strategies for spiritual warfare and the church have the final say on any issue that may arise. They were the ecclesia of God's kingdom on earth.

we have lost the true meaning of church today