Thanks so much to you all for reading. The AtoZ is always good for the ol’ visitor stats, and I’m enjoying reading other blogs doing the challenge 🙂

Today’s word is one of my favourites -Ekklesia
In grammar terms, it’s a feminine noun. Strong’s Concordance defines it as, “an assembly, congregation, church; the Church, the whole body of Christian believers.” The original greek breaks the word down into ‘ek’ meaning ‘out’ and ‘kaleo’ meaning to ‘call.’ The Ekklesia is a collective term for the ‘called out’ ones. Not a super spiritual holy huddle, not a band of perfect saints. Oh no, not even close 🙂 Just a group of ordinary people who have responded to the call of God to follow Him.

This particular word for ‘church’ is not just as assembly of the gathered throng. It seems to me that you can go to church, without necessarily being part of the ekklesia.

Yesterday morning, Easter Sunday morning, our little part of the worldwide ekklesia gathered in our church building to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and to watch three people being baptised. Three ordinary people who proclaimed publicly the call of God on their lives, and their response to it. One of them, is a young teen I’ve known since she was a born; she’s now my sister in Christ! (Not because she was baptised btw – baptism is an outward sign of an inner change.) Amazing tho.

As Christians, we don’t just go to church – we ARE church.   The whole thing blows my mind to be honest.

More tomoz xx