Leaving Church Becoming Ekklesia

Book excerpt: Church - the central identifying word that encompasses the entire religious spectrum. It is the buildings we go to, the sectarian ideology we adhere to, the core of our spiritual identity. Church - the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the called-out ones. Church - Evangelical, Pentecostal, Catholic, and Non-Denominational. Church - the guardian of doctrine, the ark for lost souls, the social bastion for the righteous. We have embraced and perpetuated a culture around this single word - church; a word that should have never existed.In this this book, Tim Kurtz challenges the use of the 'word' church found in most bibles by suggesting it is a willful mistranslation of the original Greek word ekklesia. This book does not 'beat up' the church world, but rather explores how powerful believers would be if they embraced their true identity as the ekklesia - the ruling council of God.