Just what Bible version are you using?
The Greek. Here is the word study, from a book at my website: (I hope it posts better than the e-mails I have tried to send with copied quotes)
Of the 79 times that the word “church” occurs in the English Bible, 53 speak of THE Church, as though there is only one. 22 speak of the church at a home or at a place, and 3 other occurrences speak of a single church.
The second group, of the 22, has three Greek constructions: The Church in (en) a place, the church through (kata) a place, or the church of (genitive) a place. The Greek language has several words for the English word “in”. The word “en” refers to a static presence, actively pursuing a program in a place. Thus these phrases are not to be taken as the church in one town is separate from the church in another, but rather as signifying members of the one church “stationed” in a certain locality. The word “kata” is usually used for the church in a home, and refers to the fact that the person seeking the church in that home is to look all through the home for its members. It, likewise, cannot be thought to mean a specific church. The genitive means as it does in English: the church of Ephesus, for example, is simply those members of the church who represent it there.
The three odd verses are: Acts 14:23 where “every church” is used: this is a mistranslation: the Greek is kata. In 1Cor. 4:17, again “every church” is a mistranslation: the Greek word “pas” has its primary meaning “entire”. And Phil. 4:15, the word “no church” uses the Greek word “oudeis” which means “no man of the church”.
The word “churches” occurs 35 times in the Greek (mostly in Acts, Revelation, Corinthians, 2 in Romans, 2 in Thessalonians). In all but one case (1 Cor 14:34), it is used of various cities within a province, or country. The meaning of “churches” is thus not as we use it (different denominations within a city), but as a collective noun to refer to the fact that THE church is in many cities within a large area. The first proof of this is that the churches of Asia Minor, in different cities, are specifically stated to be lampstands close enough to each other, that Jesus can walk among them (Rev. 1:20), and are thus ONE connected reality. The second is that Paul writes to “churches” only when he writes to the province with many churches (Galatia). In fact, to Thessalonica, he writes to THE Church, for Thessalonica is a single city in Macedonia, which he states has churchES in 2 Cor. 8:1. In fact, to Rome, which archeology shows had many Jewish assemblies, Paul does as he does to Ephesus, Philippi, and Colossae: he writes to people, not to churches (proving one can be in THE church, without belonging to A church, as they obviously were in these towns). It is only to two other cities that Paul even uses the word “churches”: both Rome and Corinth were cosmopolitan crossroads of their day. Residents had all visited other “churches” in other cities. This observation explains the I Cor. 14:34 exception: the women were speaking out of order not only at their home church, but in other cities (even in some which kept the Jewish law – this is the only reason Paul could have mentioned the law at this point: the Corinthians, as Gentiles, were not under he law). The previous verse confirms this.
There is not a single Scripture that can be used, in the original language, to support the idea of different churches within a city. When someone comes to town and opens a “new church”, he acts without Scriptural authority.
What is a church? Do you mean the Greek “Ekklesia” (Church), “Sunagoge” (Assembly), or “panegyris” (Assembly)? Take them one at a time. First, the Ekklesia means, in Greek, those “called out”. It is used to refer even to the council of a city. THE Church of God is all the people called to live in the Kingdom of God, who are following that call. These are the ones who have been called out of the world. Today, we call them the believers, but that will not work Scripturally, for even the demons believe that there is one God and tremble, and they certainly are not the church. The word ekklesia was used by the apostles, since it also carried the connotation that it was these called-out people who would one day be the salvation of the city in which they lived, and hence its counselors. The plural, as we have seen, refers to different sub-divisions in many cities of a state.
I go on to explain suagoge and panegyra. This study does not include the other four words for Christian meetings.