Home church

People would have to be in an almost hypnotic state to imagine that Christ wanted to get people to go to a building to recite prayers but if they actually need anything for their welfare they should go to the governments of the world and the "men who exercise authority one over the other"?
Jesus was so clear that His disciples were instructed to not be that way.
While the Testaments are also clear that you may legally apply for a multitude of benefits through a socialist state, but not without consequences.
Dependence upon "legal charity" will make you "merchandise", "curse children" and bring again the captivity of Egypt. This is undoubtedly why both the Testaments tells us not to covet our neighbors goods through the dainties of rulers.
Those gifts, gratuities, and benefits are the wages of unrighteousness which destroy liberty and degenerate the people into perfect savages because they are the dainties and deceitful meats of rulers provided through the covetous practices of the world which "makes the word of God to none effect".
But the modern Christian does that every day to get free schooling for their children, and social security for their parents and a myriad of other public benefits imagining they are not "workers of iniquity".
How is that the daily ministration of the early Church, the table of the LORD, the Corban of Christ which is not a snare?
How is that seeking the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness?
The Christian conflict with Rome was with the welfare system of the Imperial Cult of Rome and the public religion of the world and others like Herod and the Pharisees which was again "making the word of God to none effect".
We are to live by faith, hope, and charity which is love according to The Way of Christ and not the force, fear, and fealty which was the the ways of the world.
If Modern Christians, Jews, and Muslims would repent and seek the way of the Doctrine of Jesus, Moses, or Abraham or if they were to see the truth of their own history they could recover from the strong delusion pervasive in churches, synagogues, and mosques and their dependence upon public religion and the social safety net of rulers who are greedy for gain.
They think they understand the teachings in the Bible but have been doing the opposite of what doctrine of Jesus, Moses, and Abraham were telling their followers to do for over a century.

Disappointing Church

Millions of people are disappointed or dissatisfied with what some people call the institutional Church.

Certainly, Churches and the 40,000 denominations of churches are operating in a drastically different way than the first century Church.

Are people disappointed or dissatisfied with God and Jesus or are they dissatisfied and feeling unfulfilled by the practices of the Modern Church?

Many people are finding the home church or house church more responsive, more intimate, more fulfilling but are all home churches doing what Christ fully intended for His ekklesia?

Or is the modern house Church movement just another form of the Modern Church with less pomp and ceremony more intimate and personal bonding through local mutual loving relationships or local fellowship?

What is one explanation?

Warning to local gatherings

In several gospels Jesus himself warns about focusing on your local group gatherings.

Home church groups may love one another and the early Church did gather in homes but early Christians clearly depended upon each other rather than the tables of the be Gentile governments of the world.

They of course they did love one another and would say they love Jesus but Jesus also warned what to look for to distinguish real lovers of Christ from the many who say Lord, Lord but were often unknowingly workers of iniquity.

Some will admit that the early Christian community was formed by “structured regional networks of house” gatherings composed of followers of The Way of Christ. At the core of this vast networked served by Paul and others was local networks of small intimate free assemblies or groups of what was traditionally ten families.

It was that group of early Christians we find the sense that no one would “exercise authority” one over the other because Jesus as the Christ forbid his -called out” disciples to be that way.

There were tiers or “ranks” of servants in a network of service as directed by Jesus and the ancient traditions of Moses before the corruption of kings like Herod.

We only loved God if and when we loved one another.

While there is little doubt Christians commonly met in homes. Ten families gathered as Christ commanded. The early Church was also providing all social welfare for their communities through charity alone. What they were doing reached far beyond local fellowships meetings in the homes of professed believers.

There is also little doubt that Christ wanted us to set ourselves down in small intimate groups or companies or what the Greeks called sumposion since He actually commanded his disciples to "make" the people do so. But He also commanded that those companies gather in ranks of Tens.

But Jesus preached that we were to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. While that may not look like the Modern Church can we honestly say that the modern house church is doing what the early Church did according to the words of Christ?

Jesus was the highest son of David which made him the rightful heir to the throne, the rightful king of a nation. Israel was not a government like other governments of the world of the Gentiles that exercise authority one over the other but He came to set men free. For hundreds of years, early Israel had operated with no taxation except the freewill offerings of tithes to individual Levites "according to their service".

Broadcasting the home church

Audio broadcasts

Download Recording 1#

Download Recording 2#

Download Recording 3#

Download Recording 4#

The scriptures tell us that the people had rejected God when they elected to have a ruler over them in 1 Samuel 8. Jesus told the Pharisees that if they actually knew Moses they would have also known Him. Evidently what the Pharisees thought they knew about Moses was wrong. Their Corban was not like that of the Corban spoken of by Moses and so somehow it was "making the word of God to none effect".

Both Moses and Jesus told the people to "love their neighbor as themselves". Certainly they have expressed that love in many home Churches. They have helped one another in far more intimate, financial, and practical ways. This love is part of the keys to their success. But all home churches are not successful. But what is a successful church?

A successful church is one that does what Christ intended and propagates his doctrines and ordinances. But if we are to do what Christ intended was must look at the whole gospel.

Both Jesus and Moses called out a group of men to serve the people and placed certain restrictions on that body of public servants. They both appointed 70 men who were blessed with the Holy Spirit. In both the Old and New Testament there were also at least one group of 7 men appointed to help with a daily ministration.

Leaving Church

Thousands of people are leaving what is called the Church daily. Looking at what is sometimes posing as Church today it is no wonder that so many people think they do not need “Church”. When Jesus said he would build His church he was not talking about a building nor does the original term we translate into Church mean an "assembly".

Many people have a problem with the modern version of an organized Church. One problem seems the way the Church is organized and what we think when we hear the word "organized" today. People can be so soured by their experience so that they begin to oppose anything organized like religion or even government. The Modern Church is seldom organized like, nor function in the same way, nor seemingly for the same purposes as the early Church.

Some Christian groups choose to meet in houses for a variety of reasons. They may find what is posing as the Church authoritarian, manipulative, greedy, or superfluous. Home Church groups may offer an intimacy and personalization the large church gathering cannot provide. It may certainly be cheaper than meeting in a dedicated building.

Some believe small churches were a deliberate apostolic pattern in the first century, and they were intended by Christ from the beginning. There seems to be evidence of that intent but we need to seek the whole plan of God and His righteousness.

House Church revisited

The early church and those who gathered in the name of Christ gathered as Commanded by Jesus. The early Church formed a temple of living stones through love that was not like the system of world nor the Corban of the Pharisees and Rome who forced the contributions of the people.
Jesus said he would take the kingdom from those who did not know Moses and what he was instructing the people to do and appoint the kingdom to others who would be doers of the word and produce fruit.
Jesus as the Christ appointed His little flock and "commanded" His disciples, His called out, to "make" the people "sit down" it that pattern of tens before they could receive His benefits.

First Gatherings

The Church is not a building and the Greek word ekklesia translated "Church" clear means a "called out" group of people and biblically never refers to a building. These men called out by Christ were specifically told that they needed to be separate from what Jesus called the world. The habit of thinking of the Church as a building or a place you go to is not only dangerously misleading it is patently wrong.

• "There is no literary evidence nor archaeological indication that any such home was converted into an extant church building. Nor is there any extant church that certainly was built prior to Constantine. The first churches consistently met in homes. Until the year 300 we know of no buildings first built as churches." Graydon F. Snyder professor of New Testament at Chicago Theological Seminary.

So, if the Church is not a place or a building but men called out like the Levites to do the job prescribed by this other King, one Jesus, the Christ, according to His purpose those ministers of Christ must remain separate complying individually as joint heirs with the directives of Christ for His disciples about owning property.

The congregants who gathered with these called out were going to His Church. They practiced pure religion rather than public religion and cared for one another by freewill offerings rather than force according to all biblical teachings would be called Christians. These practices and positions imposed by Christ have sometimes created a Christian conflict with the legal systems of the world.

This called out group of men who acted in one accord as was one form of government bound society through congregations of the people who came together in small groups of tens but were networked by these ministers in a social welfare system of faith, hope, and charity rather than the covetous practices of the world that operated by fealty, fear, and force.

Many have begun to realize that the Church, as the Body of Christ, was first established by Christ, who was both high priest and king, should not be incorporated into or by a State. If any group does incorporate it can no longer honestly claim to be the corpus of Christ since it has become a part of the corporation of the State.

What is a house church?

The phrase "Home church" is used to describe having a church type gathering at someone's house and is a part of the modern house church movement which some acclaim as a rediscovery of the New Testament or first century Christian Church.

A House church group may be a part of a larger Christian body, such as a parish or network, but also may be independent groups that see the house church as the primary practice of the early Christian community. But what was that early Church doing and how did it function in the world?

Do we have a complete picture are we missing certain key elements of the local Christian community and the society of Christians who survived the decline and fall of the Roman empire and the degeneration of the Imperial Cult of Rome?

Is the home Church movement seeing clearly what the early home gatherings of the early Church were doing?

While there can be no doubt that early Christians gathered in small groups often meeting in homes rather than in special building like we see being done today it is important to look deeper into the function, purpose, and motivation of the early Christian community.

Why were they meeting at all?

What were they doing at these home gatherings and how did those gatherings relate to the activity of Paul and the other saints in the scriptures?

It is clear by what we see Paul and the apostles doing that the church was an international network of small but well-connected congregations that provided all welfare, aid, and provisions during social unrest, economic dearth and famine as Rome and the Empire began to fall into chaos and corruption.

Stretching Scripture

The departure from organized Church can bring condemnation and accusation from the mainstream Churches, other Christians and even create feelings of personal guilt and discomfort. In order to justify that departure from the orthodox view and the institutional church assembly, people will search the scriptures to transform the modern view into something they find more accessible and acceptable.

But are they seeking what Jesus the Christ said to seek?

We should closely and honestly examine why so many people are asking "how does the Bible portray the church?" Unfortunately, some people may stretch the original meaning of the text to justify the home Church movement as they wish to see it and experience it. The use of quotes to associate church with a house gathering can lead people to miss or fall short of some of the primary directives, purposes and functions of those early Church.

If we are going to conform to Christ, His doctrines and ordinances we need to seek the whole truth. What did Jesus appoint to the called out ministers which were called the Church? We were told to be seekers of the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. What was the gospel of the kingdom and what were they actually doing back in those ancient of times What can and should that mean to us today?

House

One of the first scriptures quoted by some home Church advocates point to where the Church was called “God’s household”. In some translations in the King James version of 1 Timothy 3:15 we see:

"But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."

Here we find the Greek noun "oikos" meaning a "house". But the phrase "house of God" appears numerous times in the gospels. These are not talking about private homes but are a specific reference to the tabernacle where the shewbread was eaten by David.

Besidea the word we see translated "house" which is oikos did not just mean a building or the house on the street where you live any more than the Greek word for "Church" which is ekklesia, meant a building where you meet on Sunday or Sabbath.

Both these words can be used in different ways to imply different senses to the word depending on their context. Context is not only the sentence they are used in but the whole context of scripture and the times in which they are written.

The word "oikos" could mean "all the persons forming one family", "the family of God, of the Christian Church" or even the "descendants" of a family. The word appears more than a hundred times in the Bible including references to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" and a reference to the temple as the "house of God" or the temple where Christ is calling it "My house" "the house of prayer" and then cast out the moneychangers.

Several passages in the Bible seems to specifically mention churches meeting in houses.

• Upper Room of Acts 20:8 "And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together."
• Lydia’s House Acts 16:40 "And they went out of the prison, and entered into [the house of] Lydia: and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed."
• 1 Corinthians 16:19 "The churches(called out) of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church(called out) that is in their house."
• Priscilla and Aquila’s house:

Romans 16:3-5 "Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: 4 Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches([[called o

If you need help:

Or want to help others:

Join The Living Network of The Companies of Ten
The Living Network | Join Local group | About | Purpose | Guidelines | Network Removal
Contact Minister | Fractal Network | Audacity of Hope | Network Links