From Café Apocalypsis:

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The term εκκλησια (ekklesia) or “church” is used to refer to the New Covenant Community of believers in Jesus throughout the New Testament (Matt. 18:17; Acts 11:22; 12:1, 5; 15:3f, 41; 20:17; Rom. 16:1, 23; 1 Co. 11:22; 14:12; 2 Co. 11:8; 12:13; Eph. 3:10; 5:23; Col. 1:18; 1 Tim. 3:5; Heb. 2:12; Jas. 5:14; 3 Jn. 1:6, 10; Rev. 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14).

Older word studies divided the term into its parts (εκ = “out” καλεω = “call”) to arrive at a definition of “called out ones” (Cf. Schmidt,TNDT 3.501-3). However this meaning fails to take into consideration how the word was commonly used to refer to an assembly. LSJ from the Perseus website gives these reference from non-biblical sources:

“ekklêsi-a, hê, (ekklêtos) assembly duly summoned, less general than sullogos, Thuc. 2.22, Plat. Gorg. 456b, etc. ; applied to the Homeric Assemblies, Aristot. Pol. 1285a11 ; to the Samian Assembly, Hdt. 3.142 ; to the Spartan, Thuc. 1.87 ; to the meeting of the Amphictyons at Delphi, Aeschin. 3.124 ; at Athens, e. kuriai, opp. sunklêtoi, Arist.Ath.43.4 ; kuria e., at Amorgos, IG12(7).237.46 ; e. sunageirein, sunagein, sullegein, athroizein, call an assembly, Hdt. 3.142, Thuc. 2.60, au=Thuc. 8.97, Xen. Hell. 1.6.8 ; e. poiein Aristoph. Kn. 746, Thuc. 1.139,al. ; e. poiein tini Aristoph. Ach. 169 ; didonai tini Plb.4.34.6 ; e. gignetai an assembly is held, Thuc. 6.8 ; katastasês e. IDEM=Thuc. 1.31 ; ên e. tois stratêgois Andoc. 1.2 ; e. dialuein, anastêsai, dissolve it, Thuc. 8.69 (Pass.),Xen. Hell. 2.4.42 ; aphienai Plu.TG16 ; e. aneblêthê was adjourned, Thuc. 5.45 ; e. peri tinos Aristoph. Birds 1030, etc.”

BDAG provides these basic senses:

1. a regularly summoned legislative body, assembly, as gener. understood in (Jos., Ant. 12, 164; 19, 332, Vi. 268)

the Gr-Rom. world

2. a casual gathering of people, an assemblage, gathering (cp. 1 Km 19:20;

1 Macc 3:13; Sir 2).

3. people with shared belief, community, congregation (for common identity,

cp. the community of Pythagoras [Hermippus in Diog. L. 8, 41].

a. of OT Israelites assembly, congregation (Dt 31:30; Judg

20:2; 1 Km 17:47; 3 Km 8:14; PsSol 10:6; TestJob 32:8; Philo; Jos.,

Ant. 4, 309; Diod. S. 40, 3, 6) Hb 2:12 (Ps 21:23).

b. of Christians in a specific place or area (the term

ev. apparently became popular among Christians in Greek-speaking areas for

chiefly two reasons: to affirm continuity with Israel through use of a term

found in Gk. translations of the Hebrew Scriptures, and to allay any suspicion,

esp. in political circles, that Christians were a disorderly group).

c. of a specific Christian group assembly, gatheringMt 18:17; 1 Cor 11:18; cp. 14:4f, 12, 19, 28, 35.

d. congregation or church as the totality of Christians

living and meeting in a particular locality or larger geographical area, but not

necessarily limited to one meeting place.

According to 3a we see that it was a regular term to refer to the Congregation of Israel. It occurs 103 times in the LXX and always in reference to Israel when assembled together:

Deut. 4:10; 9:10; 18:16; 23:2ff, 9; 31:30; Jos. 9:2; Jda. 20:2; 21:5, 8; Jdg. 20:2; 21:5, 8; 1 Sam. 17:47; 19:20; 1 Ki. 8:14, 22, 55, 65; 1 Chr. 13:2, 4; 28:2, 8; 29:1, 10, 20; 2 Chr. 1:3, 5; 6:3, 12f; 7:8; 10:3; 20:5, 14; 23:3; 28:14; 29:23, 28, 31f; 30:2, 4, 13, 17, 23ff; Ezr. 2:64; 10:1, 8, 12, 14; Neh. 5:7, 13; 7:66; 8:2, 17; 13:1; Jdt. 6:16, 21; 7:29; 14:6; 1 Ma. 2:56; 3:13; 4:59; 5:16; 14:19; Ps. 21:23, 26; 25:5, 12; 34:18; 39:10; 67:27; 88:6; 106:32; 149:1; Prov. 5:14; Job 30:28; Sir. 15:5; 21:17; 23:24; 24:2; 26:5; 31:11; 33:19; 38:33; 39:10; 44:15; 46:7; 50:13, 20; Ps. Sol. 10:6; Mic. 2:5; Joel 2:16; Lam. 1:10.

James Dunn (Theology of Paul, 537-38) observes that εκκλησια typically translates the Hebrew word qahal, “assembly.” More importantly it often occurs as qahal Yahweh or qahal Israel. What is significant about this is that Paul seems to parallel this usage when he calls the Christian congregations the “Church of God” (1 Cor. 1:1; 10:32; 11:16, 22; 15:9; 2 Cor. 1:1; Gal. 1:13; 1 Thes. 1:1; 2:14; 2 Thess 1:1, 4). It seems then that Paul used the language of the OT to reference the People of God and applied it to the local assembly of Christians.

This is not to say that the church is identical to Israel or supersedes Israel. My point is simply that you cannot make a hard and fast distinction between Israel and the Church based on a lexical argument.I would argue that the church is the continuation of Israel as the New Covenant Community.