The Cambridge Dictionary defines fellowship as... "a group of or an organisation with the same purpose". What is commonly referred to as a church, we call "fellowship" because it is a true scriptural definition of what a gathering of the Lord's people is.
The Greek word ἐκκλησία found in the New testament is usually translated as "church", but this is not an accurate translation of the word. In fact William Tyndale in his New Testament, translates the word as "congregation", not church. The word church can be misleading*.
The apostle John says... "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ... If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (I John 1:3,6,7).
*Church is from an Anglo-Saxon/Nordic word meaning meeting place; i.e. a building. Hence the Scottish Kirk (Kirch). Also used in German. We use the word Church to mean the body of believers in Jesus Christ; not a physical place.
