The first printed English translation of the Bible (Tyndale’s Translation circa 1526) accurately translated the Greek word Ekklesia as ‘congregation’ or ‘assembly’. However, most modern translations of the Bible translate Ekklesia as ‘church.’ This is done out of out of convenience to the readers since ‘church’ is the common cultural word used for an assembly of believers. However, this does not mean it is an accurate translation of Ekklesia.

William Tyndale's translation did not translate the word "ekklesia" as church. Tyndale's translation correctly used the term "congregation." Tyndale completed the translation of the New Testament and part of the Old Testament before he was martyred. John Rogers, an assistant and friend of William Tyndale, completed the translation of the Old Testament using some work from Coverdale and published the first entire Tyndale Bible under the pen name "Thomas Matthew." This Bible was called the Matthew's Bible (1537) and also used the term "congregation." The next English Bible, the Great Bible (1539), also used the term "congregation." However, in 1557 the Geneva New Testament, produced by William Whittingham, was the first to translate "ekklesia" as "church”.

The word "church" was first used by Theodore Beza in 1556, a Protestant, who followed John Calvin at Geneva, Switzerland. As a Presbyterian, Beza believed in the idea of a catholic church and its hierarchal form of government and therefore chose to support this false concept by using the word "church" instead of "assembly." The reason is obvious in that the use of the word "congregation" or "assembly" would not support his church's hierarchical form of church government. William Whittingham's Testament of 1557 followed Beza's usage of "church" and was actually the first edition of the Geneva Bible and was a revision of the Tyndale New Testament.

Because the Geneva Bible was printed in Europe and not in England the English people desired a Bible published in their native country. This was the reason for the next English Bible, the Bishops Bible (1568) which was a revision of the Geneva Bible and this translation continued the use of the term "church" as has majority of subsequent English translations including the King James Version. This shows that the use of the word "church" instead of "assembly" or "congregation" came from those who had a bias towards a hierarchical and unscriptural form of church government. To have translated the word "ekklesia" accurately into "assembly" or congregation" would have exposed their form of church government as being in error.

I suggest using older translations like, Darby or Youngs or younger translations like ‘The Source’ (which was translated by a Greek scholar rather than a theologian or denomination and was taken from the actual meanings of the Greek words rather than from the use of those words in previous versions of the bible)