House Church?
Why a "House" Church?

By: Bruce R. Porter, D.Div
Lead Pastor

Now and then I get together with pastors of other churches in gatherings and meetings of one sort or another. As we get better acquainted, the conversation eventually turns to questions about what church or ministry we are each leading, and how many people are in our congregations.

This is an innocent-enough question, since we are all conditioned to evaluate the effectiveness of our leadership by the number of people we are influencing, and consequentially, how big our budgets are. I don’t fault anyone for asking, but when I announce that I am leading a House Church ministry, almost invariably, I get “the look.”

“The look” is sometimes one of pity, but at other times it betrays a certain incredulity and lack of respect. I never take offense, for I recognize completely that our entire modern concept of “Church” is almost totally a distortion of the original pattern laid out by Christ as practiced by His early followers until about the fourth century.

I mean no offense, and I’m certainly not saying that all modern "building-centered" church practices are entirely unfruitful or unscriptural. However, when we look back to the original matrix of the Church Jesus established, and how amazingly effective it was, only the most unreasonable person would conclude that the early believers were “missing it.”

Consider the following points carefully…

• Pentecost took place in a house. (Acts 2:1-2)
• The Last Supper took place in a house (Luke 22:7-13)
• Most of the miracles took place in homes.
• The wedding at Cana took place in a house.
• Jesus, if not outdoors, taught mostly in homes.

"Greet the church in thy house" was a common greeting of Paul to various House Churches started by him (1 Cor 16:19; Col 4:15; Philemon :2, Rom. 16:5 and so on).

Paul ministered from house to house and taught them everything (Acts 20:20.).

The House Church is the original church model.

• The disciples went to the temple regularly, taught the people, and brought the seekers to their homes where they gave them food and discipled them (Acts 2:42).
• By the time they were jailed and punished by the temple authorities and banned entry into the temple, they had already reaped a huge harvest and many House Churches had been established.
• The intimate environment of a home provided the ideal situation for interaction, resulting in the rapid conversion and maturing of believers into disciples. Multiplication of disciples led to explosive growth of the church (Acts 6:1).
• The informal environment of the House Churches gave opportunity for rapid maturing of leaders like Stephen, who was the first Christian martyr, and Philip who was the first evangelist to Samaria.
• The rapid growth of House Churches (Acts 8:3) resulted in severe persecution of the believers, and Peter ended up behind bars. The Church gathered in the house of Mary the mother of John Mark for an all night prayer meeting which led to the miraculous release of Peter from jail. (Acts 12:5; 12).
• There were no formal Sunday services. Sunday worship wasn’t established until the rise of the papacy in Rome. Until then, believers met on Shabbat, the seventh day of the week. House church meetings could last all day and all night. Believers therefore came equipped with lamps for such an eventuality. (Acts 20:7).
• Signs and wonders, including raising of Dorcas from the dead, took place in homes. (Acts 9:39-41)
• Baptism of the household of Cornelius and the Philippian jailer took place in their homes.

Consider established history:

It is significant that no note­worthy activity, not even worship or prayer, took place in the temple precinct other than teaching and confrontation with the temple authorities by Jesus and the disciples, .

In the church's first three hundred years the entire Roman Empire was Christianized, without a single church building.

The church was growing exponentially in spite of severe persecution until 310 AD, when the Roman Emperor Constantine “claimed” to become a Christian and built the first Cathedral. Constantine converted "Daily Christians" into "Sunday Christians" by declaring Sunday a holy day (holiday). He wanted to centrally control the faith by forcing believers to worship in special buildings under the teaching and leadership of his own appointed priests.

Constantine, in an effort to synchronize Christianity with paganism, forced the observance of the Winter Solstice and the pagan feast to the fertility god Ishtar by establishing the Christmas and Easter festivals, and forcing believers to observe them.

(For a list of biblical/Jewish holidays and their meanings, click HERE)

It is doubtful that Constantine was a true believer in that he built other pagan temples as well. Later a plethora of cathedral construction took place across Europe with domination of the “professional” Roman priesthood, resulting in the demise of the House Church movement.

The heavy-handed control by successive Roman papists plunged Europe for more than a thousand years into what became known as the “dark ages.” Those true believers who resisted the Roman papacy were brutally tortured, slaughtered, and had their lands and properties taken.

According to John Foxe, author of Foxes Book of Martyrs, the famous chronicle of these papal persecutions of true Christians, an estimated 25 million people, including millions of Jews, were cruelly murdered as "heretics." It is little wonder that even to this very day, the Jewish people regard Christians with deep suspicion, given that the only “face” Christianity had for over a thousand years was the Roman church?

The contemporary church today is truly founded upon the blood of the martyrs. No man in all of history has done more damage to true Christianity than the first Pope, Constantine. But for him the world might have been evangelized long ago.

The United States is considered by many to be a “Christian” nation. Is this really true? According to a yr 2000 survey, 224,457,000 people, or 85% of our population “claimed” to be Christians. However, according to Barna Research Group, there are indications that such claims are incredibly shallow at best! For example, although 2/3 of all teenagers say they know all the basic teachings of the Christian faith, 2/3 reject the existence of Satan, 3/5 reject the existence of the Holy Spirit, and 1/2 believe that Jesus sinned.... A minority of born again adults (44%) and an even smaller proportion of born again teenagers (9%) are certain of the existence of absolute moral truth.

BOTTOM LINE:

When Martin Luther sparked the Protestant Reformation, he championed a fresh, new understanding of salvation by grace. The theology of the Protestant movement radically changed the way people understood their relationship with God. In subsequent decades, bible translators like Wycliffe, under fierce persecution, unlocked the word of God out of archaic Latin and allowed the common man to actually read the scriptures for himself.

However, they fell short is one major way. Although they changed the theology of many people, they maintained the methodology of the Roman church virtually unchanged. Worship, teaching, holy ordinances, baptisms, ordination, and the “special” priesthood or  “clergy” was maintained. Protestant cathedrals continued to be built, and house church meetings continued to be persecuted even by their so-called Protestant brethren!

John Bunyan is a good example of this. Living in the mid-1600s, he sought to teach the word of God from “house to house.” He did not feel the ecclesiastical “authorities” had authority over a servant of Christ to obey the Lord. They insisted that he take a license to preach, (from them of course) and John refused. The church authorities arrested him 1660 and held him in a filthy jail cell for 12 years. While in prison he wrote The Pilgrims Progress, Holy War, and other works that are widely read to this day.

What shall we conclude?

The old wineskin of building-centered worship is insufficient! There is a well-known saying… “One definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing again and again while expecting a different result.” Why do we keep thinking that if we continue to cling to the Roman building centered model we will somehow get a “breakthrough” and begin to see success?

If our Lord was willing to be born in an animal shed, why would we shun the humble House Church? The first worship of Jesus took place in a humble barn!

Historically, the House Church model is far less likely to produce luke­warm Christians. New believers can quickly learn to be fruitful (Acts 16:5.) This is because peoples of other faiths find it easier to go to a friendly house than a formal Sunday church “service.” (Mark 11:17.)

We all know that the “congregational model” has failed, and the “denominational model” creates divisions within the Body of Christ. The empty cathedrals in Europe are silent witnesses to the barrenness of the church. Why continue to imitate a failed model?

Modern seminaries equip pastors for a single congregation while house churches follow the 222 formula (2 Tim. 2:2). They equip disciples to plant multiplying churches by multiplying leadership.

The House Churches are fulfilling the mandate of our Lord and reaching the "ends of the earth." God is blessing them. Barrenness is a curse in the Bible. The Bride of Christ must reproduce, multiply and fill the earth. The House Church is by nature an immensely fertile model.