CAN AN INTERNET CHURCH BE A CHURCH?
ARE CHRISTIAN WARRIORS FOR GOD A CHURCH? To answer this we have to ask what is the meaning and origin of the word church? The word CHURCH is a noun, which has many connotations/interpretation attached to it.
Some examples 1. Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
2. Church (congregation), a congregation gathering) of a Christians, , body of Christians, taken as a whole
3. Christian denomination, a Christian organization with distinct doctrine and practice
4. Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
But which of these is the exact meaning and origin of the word church?
As with many ecclesiastical things we have to go back to the Greek. The word translated “church” in the New Testament is ekklesia.
A literal translation of ekklesia would be “a called an assembly.”
Well given that Christian Warriors for God qualify as an assembly, for although there is much distance between us, we assemble (through technology) to praise, worship and honour God and to follow the teaching of Christ. We are registered as a church in the Pentecostal movement and have our own church board/council. Indeed we actually do have physical churches in several countries. We train qualify and ordian our own ministers.
How we got our English word church is a different story, but that, too is rooted in Greek.
The first recorded use of the Old English word is from the thirteenth century, and it could refer to either a body or a gathering of Christian believers OR to the place (building) where they gathered. Unlike the Ist Century AD, today we have technology that allows us to
The early Quakers, as a matter of principle, refused to call the buildings where they met “churches,” since the biblical word church referred to people, not a building.
Going further back than Old English, the word church ultimately traces its origin to a Greek term, kūrikón, which was related to kurios,
In the Middle Ages, the Greek term for “house of worship” was shortened to kūrkón. And that’s the word that was loaned to West Germanic as kirika and eventually to Old English as cirice.
Old Norse borrowed the Old English word cirice to form kirkja, and that’s where the Scottish word for church, kirk came from. Hence during the Middle English period, the word kirk was borrowed from the Scots, so now Modern English has both church and kirk as synonyms.
Interesting to note that many English words, especially those related to Christianity, came from Greek and passed through early German dialects. The word church is one of those words. Other English ecclesiastical words that share a Greek origin include Christ, angel, evangelism, baptize, episcopal, apostle, Presbyterian, and charismatic.
To summarise Christian Warriors for God is a church insomuch as it is an assembly of believers – all seeking to follow Christs command. Its not traditional, I would argue its leading edge, because when God anointed me he gave me the word REVOLUTION rather than revival. We don't do Religion, we do RELATIONSHIP. This means through His leading we do things differently, but be assured our roots are firmly embedded in historical and biblical fact.