HOUSE CHURCH THEOLOGY
IN A NUTSHELL

WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS PAPER?

This paper is being written to explain the need for the true body of Christ to more faithfully worship God in spirit and in truth. The New Testament structure for churches was to meet in homes in a far more informal and far more personal environment than is the norm today in our conventional cavernous church buildings. We see this biblical pattern in more than one place:

Rom 16:5 - "Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ."

1Cor 16:19 - "The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house."

Col 4:15 - "Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house."

Phm 1:2 - "And to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellowsoldier, and to the church in thy house"

There are many advantages to house churches over conventional churches that we will discuss in the various section below. Some of those advantages include:

• Improved accountability
• Enhanced fellowship
• Better opportunities for exercising spiritual gifts and natural talents
• An environment that better enables people to bear each other's burdens

• Who should run the house church?
• How do you ensure unity amongst sister house churches?

"Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." [Proverbs 27:17]

"Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." [Proverbs 27:6]

Accountability among members of the local body of Christ is extremely important, and therefore, correction should not be limited to gross sins but to everyday faults. Because of its natural tendency to enhance the involvement in each other's lives, a house church environment is far better at fostering the kind of accountability that curbs sin before it becomes gross sin. People are more apt to receive correction from those whom they consider to be dear friends as evidenced by their commitment to one another. But of course, having a close relationship with someone does not necessarily guarantee that they will be receptive to correction. However, God has made us such that if we truly care about someone, we will be anxious to do what we can to keep that person from falling into sin and from falling out of fellowship with God and with the local body. And if we know that a friend's motive is not to be critical but rather to help us to be more Christ-like, we are more apt to receive correction.

TRUE FELLOWSHIP FOR TRUE DISCIPLES

"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." [John 13:35]

A person can sit in the pew of just about any conventional church for months or even years, and never get to know the names of all the people, never mind find out what their gifts are and what their needs are. This is not just a matter of size or a matter of how outgoing an individual is. In a home group setting, with people calling each other by name constantly in the course of Bible discussions, prayers and informal conversations, one can get to know all the names of all the people in a very short amount of time. A person can also easily get to know people's needs and their gifts in this kind of an environment and can then match up - in their mind - the particular needs in the group with their own personal inventory of gifts and needs. So right then and there a person can make mention of the fact that they may be able to assist with a particular need or situation. And similarly, they can make mention of a need that they may have or a question they may have, even if the question or need may seem inappropriate, trivial or silly to bring up in a conventional church setting.

EXERCISING GIFTS

"So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness." [Romans 12:5-8]

When I first thought of writing this section, I was going to point out that the elders in a church are the only ones in a typical congregation who really get to fully utilize their gifts, namely their teaching gifts. But then it struck me that even church leadership are often not using their gifts as effectively as they could. At first glance, conventional churches 'seem to' allow the leaders to exercise their teaching gifts by preaching to the members of the congregation as they sit and listen at every service. However, are the leaders fully utilizing their gifts simply by giving monologues, without ever having their statements challenged? Isn't a believer supposed to be ready to give an account of the hope that is within him and to earnestly contend for the faith? And so isn't a large part of witnessing and making disciples, a matter of learning how to answer various questions that unbelievers and believers have about spiritual issues? Didn't Christ teach his disciples by not only preaching but by answering questions? You may say, they can ask questions in Sunday school? I will say, "Where is Sunday School mentioned in the Bible?" And "What if the Sunday School lesson does not relate to my question? Do I need to arrange an appointment with the pastor for every question I have?" Doesn't it make more sense, if we are interested in teaching people the Bible, to let them tell us what they are ignorant in, by asking us questions, in a group setting, so that everyone in the group will learn from the questions and the answers?

In addition, isn't there more that I have to learn as a disciple, than how to listen to a preacher? Don't I need to learn - by example - the other aspects of Christianity, the doctrines put into practice. Don't I need to learn by example, how a godly Christian (an elder, etc.) relates to his wife, his children, and other believers in an environment outside of the conventional church building, in the home among the saints, and out in the world, witnessing to unbelievers?

MINISTERING TO ONE ANOTHER

"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" [Galatians 6:2]

"Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed." [James 5:14-16a]

Being a pew potato was never part of God's plan for His Church and yet that is what the conventional church structure encourages. In your average traditional church, opportunities for ministry certainly do exist. Even those opportunities are usually of a different variety than what you would have in a home church setting. For example, the opportunities in a traditional church are more apt to be oriented towards maintaining the building and assisting with programs - things that are usually long-term on-going assignments that may be quite awkward to fit into one's schedule, one's life. However, the kinds of needs that many people in a congregation usually have are the kind of things that can be difficult to make known to others in a conventional church, such needs as: baby sitting next Friday for a young couple, fixing a broken window for some elderly person, finding out how to handle a certain situation at work with an unsaved coworker, helping someone fix a leaky faucet, whatever. I think you get the picture, yet what would happen to our conventional churches if everybody was free to ask the congregation for help with "silly little things" like those just mentioned? All these kinds of needs are typical of what can come up and do come up in a home group setting but that you may never ever hear about in a typical conventional church setting (maybe just because some people don't feel free to share their concerns with people whose names they don't even know). Meeting these day-to-day needs are what makes it fun and indeed a joy to be a member of the body of Christ, doing the things that bless the body of Christ and that provoke the lost to envy. Amen?

WHO IS GOING TO RUN THE THING?

"And he [Christ] is the head of the body, the church ..." [Col 1:18]

A legitimate concern that people may have about a house church is: "Who is going to run the house church?" Stating the obvious, Christ is supposed to run it (Col 1:18). Scripturally, He delegates work (by distributing gifts) to elders and deacons and the other members of the church (Eph 4:11). Scripture indicates that a plurality of elders is the pattern (Acts 14:23, James 5:14 to name a few). Now does that mean more than one elder per house or several elders responsible for several houses? My understanding is that in the early church, even though a city had many house churches, the custom was to refer to the 'church' (singular) of that city, i.e. the church at Ephesus, the church at Corinth, etc. So elders of a church in the New Testament could refer to a group of elders overseeing a group of house churches. To avoid unruly meetings and to help settle disputes, it would seem needful to have at least one elder per house church.

If the leaders are doing their job of equipping the saints, then grooming future elders should be an ongoing activity of the church. So as house churches grow and split off into other house churches, people already know who is qualified to lead the new churches. Criteria for splitting off new house churches should certainly depend not just on the size of the group but on the availability of elders.

SO WHY AREN'T THERE MORE HOUSE CHURCHES?

• Some people may not know anything else. They may be used to "the church of the status quo" - the highly structured, non-interactive, Sunday morning brand of Christianity, where you are told what to sing, when to stand, when to sit, and when to be silent. The leaders arrange in advance to have certain people pray for you and sing for you and talk for you or to you. They apparently know all your needs so it is never necessary for you to ever open your mouth, except to say "OK" when they ask you how you are doing as you are going out the door.
• Some people may not realize what they are missing. They may have not yet experienced the continual joy of giving and receiving, the sharing, the bearing of one another's burdens that occurs in a house church environment - a phenomenon that not only occurs weekly but throughout the week.
• Some people may be afraid to change. Naturally, many people look upon any unconventional religious group or setting as cultic. They may think: "Do I want my friends and relatives to think that I am in some kind of 'unorthodox' cult that meets in a house rather than in a building that looks like a real church?"
• Some people may not want to get out of their comfort zone. They may think, "Well, I may have to change my priorities if I change the way I do church. I will not be able to be as selfish with my time or I may not be able to hide my sins if people get to know me better."
• Some people, having been reared on television and videos, may be used to being spoon-fed and being entertained and they rather enjoy having no demands made upon them by the sit-back-and-watch style of church meetings. The only thing missing is the Pepsi and potato chips.
• Some people may think they can barely find time just for the standard one hour church service on Sunday mornings. The truth is, that if we are truly Christ's, we will be greatly blessed by drawing closer to one another. The married couples who think they don't have time for anything but their families will realize that there are perhaps many unmarried/divorced/widowed/single folks out there who can help them with baby sitting and other chores while getting their own needs for fellowship met. The unmarried folks who think they are the church's social lepers will realize that the extra time they may have as singles can be constructively utilized to minister to the rest of the local body with the result being a life full of the rewards that accompany a life of service to others (rewards such as appreciation, fellowship, satisfaction in being a good steward, etc).

• "But the early church also met in the Temple or in synagogues." Sure they did until they were kicked out. But even before they were kicked out, we must ask ourselves: "Were the synagogues designed to foster the fellowship of believers or rather to provide the religious with a form of godliness?" Also, many of the times that the apostle Paul visited Synagogues was for the purpose of preaching the gospel to unbelieving Jews, not for the purpose of fellowshipping with believers.
• "But you can't fit very many people into a house church." That's right. Similarly, Jesus selected only twelve apostles to closely disciple for the foundation of His Church. And yet look at what the twelve accomplished after being filled with the Spirit and being in intimate fellowship with the Master discipler for approximately three years.
• "But how do you make sure that various sister house churches are in agreement in doctrine and in practice?" Well, first of all, if you are in close contact with other believers as in a house church environment, you will know pretty quickly if some wrong doctrine or practice is rearing its ugly head. It is a lot harder to hide in a group of twelve who closely fellowship with one another, than in a group of fifty or one hundred or more who rarely talk to each other.

• Time and money spent on church buildings and their maintenance can be redirected into the local body and to missionaries. In our days of prohibitive health care costs, many individuals and families will soon find themselves in need of the support of a local church to help them with very dire needs such as medical bills. Elderly members of the congregation who live on fixed incomes may require assistance paying various bills. Will we be able to help them if our church is struggling to pay for its building and its pastor? In a home church environment, not only will more funds be available for these needs of the local body, but everyone will be more aware of whether or not the person in need of assistance has a need caused by their own bad spending habits or rather upon genuine hard times.
• The leadership will not be overwhelmed by an unmanageable number of demands of a large congregation, for two simple reasons: 1. Fewer people and 2. The rest of the local body will be exercising their gifts to meet needs that are either not being met or that pastors are being called upon to meet in conventional churches. Pastors are not meant to be our all-in-all and yet they are often expected to be, when people don't really know anyone else in the congregation. If the leadership are not overwhelmed by the demands of the congregation, then they have time to earn a living to support themselves as was the custom in the early church, so as not to be a burden to the flock. See http://www.tdn.com/ntrn/Profess.htm for more information on this subject. In a small conventional church, the congregation normally has to support both the pastor and the building or else the pastor has to find secular employment and still meet all the demands placed upon him as the shepherd of the local flock.
• There is no need to incorporate and spend time and money setting up the corporation. The church is supposed to be structured like a family, not a business. And is it really scriptural for Christians to avoid liability for their actions by setting up a corporation or by any other means? Can't we trust God to protect us if we are wrongfully accused or wrongfully sued? For those who argue that a corporation is required so that a bank account can be established in the church's name: believers can and should give directly to those in need, so there is no reason to even setup a church bank account, except for those who are more interested in a tax deduction than helping others. If a collection needs to be taken up for a missionary, people can write checks out to 'cash' or to the name of the missionary.

"... I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." [Matthew 16:18]

Ray Kane

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