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Beyond Church: The Lost Word Of The Bible- Ekklesia Paperback – October 22, 2015

by Steve Simms (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 132 ratings
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Have you ever wanted something more from your faith? More than religion? More than church? One lost and forgotten biblical word, "ekklesia," holds the key to a more vibrant and life-changing Christianity. --Modern English language Bibles quote Jesus as saying, "I will build My church." However, the earliest Bibles have Jesus saying, "I will build my ekklesia." For hundreds of years, this Bible word-switch has misdirected the way the body of Christ meets for worship. --So what does ekklesia mean? Ekklesia was the name of the city council in ancient Greek city-states. It was a democratic, interactive, participatory body of equal citizens sharing their concerns and needs with one another.--In the Western world, traditional church is in decline. Religious categories now include millions who are "Dones" (done with church) and "Nones" (have no church affiliation).--Perhaps it is time for more than church. Steve Simms invites you to go "beyond church" and experience ekklesia, HEAVEN's CITY COUNCIL, not as a theological concept, but as a practical and living reality.
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  1. Print length
    211 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    October 22, 2015
  4. Dimensions
    6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1518744567
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1518744563
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (October 22, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 211 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1518744567
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1518744563
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 132 ratings

About the authors

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  1. Steve Simms

    Steve Simms

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    Steve has been on a life-long journey searching for a way of worship that goes beyond church and religious tradition. He has been a pastor, a salesman, a writer, and a motivational speaker. Currently Steve and his wife Ernie help lead a non-traditional Christian fellowship in Nashville, Tennessee, that is based on the biblical concept of "ekklesia." Steve writes a regular blog called "Free Gas For Your Think Tank."

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  2. Steve Simms

    Steve Simms

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    Steve Simms loves people and creativity. He likes to come up with original ideas to inspire and motivate people and to take fresh, new approaches to familiar topics. He has had a varied career as a salesman, a motivational speaker, a writer, a recovery counselor, a pastor, and an administrator in a major charitable organization. He lives with his wife in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
132 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Must read for all true disciples of Christ!
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2023
Verified Purchase
This book highlighted the fact that God is calling his followers to so much more than most have experienced in their Christian lives. Christianity for the most part, has become a spectator sport in which we rely on other professionals to feed and work for us.

Instead, God intended for our lives to be completely led by the Holy Spirit to empower us in our daily lives, for service and for us to be in a community with other believers in unity. In the New Testament we have the pattern of how to live out true ekklesia or church life.

The word "church" has so much institutional baggage and when it was placed into our English Bibles to replace the transliterated word Ekklesia it did much to cloud our understanding.

Instead, Ekklesia life is when Christ followers gather as a priesthood of equal believers who are led and prompted by the Holy Spirit to openly participate and share as they are prompted. No one person dominates or controls. God speaks through all which build up and edifies all there. Examples of this may be each person may read a scripture, ask questions and discuss, give a testimony, lead a song, a prayer, ask for prayer, share a story of God working, give a prophetic word, a tongue, or an interpretation. However we have so been trained to not have open sharing that it can be hard to let the Spirit flow through us and surrender.

Thank you Steve Simms for describing this beautiful picture of a Spirit empowered, joyous Christian life shared with our fellow disciples! May more Christ followers wake up and seek this out!
One person found this helpful
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Todd A. Hooper
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!
Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2020
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I read this book after first reading Unchurching by Jacobson.
It's a great book that talks about Steve's time as overseer of a free flowing, spirit guided ekklesia in Nashville, TN.
I long to be a part of a group like this, even though it may require my wife and I to move out of Chattanooga.
I believe the Lord is calling His bride out of the institutional church with all it's hypocrisy and falsehoods. He's calling those who are listening back into true, deep, Jesus guided relationship with Him.
I'm heeding the call thanks to these encouraging, heartfelt books.
I highly recommend you read this book. It touches on a lot of different things and it will bless as well as challenge you!
6 people found this helpful
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Bruce Dickey
5.0 out of 5 stars Searching for Ekklesia (will the authentic church please stand up?)
Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2015
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I am submitting a book review today in it's simplest form. I know Steve Simms. I trust Steve. He is a wonderful believer in our common savior Jesus. Steve wrote this book on ekklesia (the real church of the new testament) I went straight to the chapter on My Search for Ekklesia. In the next couple of sentences is his take on the real church. "I did see the Son that night and I’ve never been the same. He rose in front of my eyes from a gathering of ordinary people who seemed as common as water. In His Presence, I experienced His warmth and felt it deeply – peace, love, compassion, sincerity, openness, reality, and meaning. It was wrapping around me and soothing my pain." It is not easy to find ekklesia, that is my experience. It is much easier to be ekklesia. We only have ekklesia to the degree we are ekklesia to others. That is why for years I have enjoyed my friend Steve over in Nashville. He is a person of peace and in his book you will find a photograph of what the church is like. Like Steve, we can all have ekklesia, which is kin to another term koinonia. Fellowship and gathering are part and parcel of authentic ekklesia. I recommend this book, because it will point you in the right direction. Thanks Steve for sharing these powerful thoughts with a waiting world, to those who also are searching for ekklesia.

Simms, Steve (2015-12-06). Beyond Church: The Lost Word Of The Bible- Ekklesia (Kindle Locations 203-205). Harper Simms. Kindle Edition.
9 people found this helpful
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Dennis A. Brown
5.0 out of 5 stars Ekklesia: A Decision-Making Community
Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2016
Verified Purchase
I recently purchased Beyond Church. Excellent!!! Steve has managed to articulate very clearly things that have been crystallizing in my heart and mind for years. His explanation of ekklesia is exactly on target. Steve not only provides a description of the Greek concept of ekklesia in the time of the Apostle Paul (in smaller villages and towns across the Roman Empire, local elders would gather regularly to discuss and deliberate over a variety of social and political dilemmas facing the towns an villages). Steve also describes how the NT vision of ekklesia refers to a particular body of people called out of the Roman and Judean system to come together into a separate, politically autonomous community with the living, resurrected Christ as the head. I Corinthians 14:26ff is explicit that in the Christian ekklesia everyone was expected to seek revelation from the Lord, contribute to the meeting and exhort one another to love and excellent works. Most importantly, they were seeking direct instruction from Jesus on pressing questions specifically faced by the ekklesia. When I read the New Testament one fundamental aspect of ekklesia that I walk away with is the idea of receiving instruction directly from Jesus. In Ephesians 3:10 Paul writes concerning the purpose of the ekklesia - “that, through the [ekklesia] the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (Eph. 3:10). Ekklesia clearly refers to a called-out group of people whose primary purpose was to make decisions for the community in which they lived and this was to be a witness to the larger world. Not only does Steve's thesis support this understanding, Steve clearly articulates a vision of how to create and sustain that vision of ekklesia today that does not merely give lip service to the concept of following Jesus, but provides a clear pathway and model to follow.
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

chur bro.
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring
Reviewed in Australia on October 25, 2019
Verified Purchase
This book could of been written from the cry of my heart. So relavant if you are sick and tired of the status quo. If not ignore this and the higher call not just to join but to participate
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A. Price
5.0 out of 5 stars It examines the reason why the New Testament uses the word "ekklesia" to describe gatherings of disciples and why the word "chur
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 22, 2016
Verified Purchase
this book has an important and thought provoking message for disciples of Jesus. It addresses the gap or contradiction between the empowering spontaneity that the Hoy Spirit brings and the over-programmed predictability of many church meetings where most people take the role of observer. It examines the reason why the New Testament uses the word "ekklesia" to describe gatherings of disciples and why the word "church" is a poor translation. Ekklesia suggests a calling together of citizens to take decisions about the town or city they live in- a sort of town council - where every person can play a part and have a voice. This was the style of the early gatherings of disciples: no separation into clergy and laity, no hierarchy and no predetermined programme to govern everything that happens. Instead, everyone could bring a prayer, a testimony or teaching etc.

The book encourages us to give back the leadership of our gatherings to Jesus and uses examples from church history, from the Anabaptists to Azusa street to show the need for this.

Steve Simms' enthusiasm spills over onto the page - this is no dry academic text - and challenges us to rediscover ekklesia
One person found this helpful
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Rod Campbell
3.0 out of 5 stars I share his excitement for ekklesia
Reviewed in Canada on May 23, 2016
Verified Purchase
I enjoyed how Steve shared from real life experiences. He helped me realize how I have experienced ekklesia many times. Experiencing it outside of the constraints of Christianity with its varied and opposing doctrines is refreshingly representative of what Jesus, the Christ established for us. He helped me realize that ekklesia can start within the institutional setting. It did for my wife and I and then we were called on from that point. Removing the one man clergy / Pastor model and letting Jesus be the only Head means removing the denominational / doctrinal headship of man too. I recommend this book for those seeking to see God at work through the priesthood of believers.
2 people found this helpful
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Lin Newton-Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 4, 2016
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I enjoyed reading this perspective on 'Church' and learning more about how Steve Simms runs his meetings.
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JohnT
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2016
Verified Purchase
A good read.
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