Home church
Home church is having church at home 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.
Some Christian groups choose to meet in houses because it is cheaper and more intimate and find them preferable to meetings 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.
Several passages in the Bible specifically mention churches meeting in houses.
- 1 Corinthians 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."
- Romans 16:3-5 "Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Likewise [greet] the church that is in their house. Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.
But the word we see translated "house" which is oikos[1] did not just mean a building or the house on the street where you live any more than the word for "Church" which is ekklesia in the Greek meant a building where you met on Sunday or Sabbath.
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"[2] and a reference to the tabernacle as the "house of God"[3] or the temple where Christ calling it "My house" "the house of prayer" and then cast out the moneychangers[4] of it.
Millions of people are disappointed or dissatisfied with what some people call the institutional Church. Certainly, the Modern Church is operating in a drastically different way than the first century Church. Many people are finding the home Church more responsive, more intimate, more fulfilling but are all ome churches doing what Christ fully intended?
While there is little doubt Christians commonly met in houses what Christ intended and what the early Church was doing reached far beyond local fellowship meetings in the homes of believers. There is also little doubt that Christ wanted us to set down in small intimate groups or companies or what the Greeks called sumposion[5] since He actually commanded his disciples to make the people do so.[6] But He also commanded that those companiesgather in ranks of Tens.
Jesus told the people what He intended when he explained to the Pharisees and others who sat in the seat of Moses that He was going to take the kingdom away from them and appoint it to another group, His little flock, so they would bear fruit that the existing ministers of the Kingdom of God were not producing.[7]
He was not going to take it away by force or even establish that Kingdom of Heaven at hand by the use of force. Jesus would establish His Kingdom of God by His sacrifice and through the faith, hope and charity through love of believers who were willing to repent and live according to The Way which James calls the perfect law of liberty.
Jesus was the highest son of David which made him the rightful heir to the throne but Israel was not a government like other governments of the world of the Gentiles that exercise authority one over the other. For hundreds of years, they operated with no taxation except the freewill offerings of tithes to Levites.
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.[8] Certainly the ave expressed in many home Churches is part of the key to their success but if we are to do what Christ a=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.
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Footnotes
- ↑ 3624 ~οἶκος~ oikos \@oy’-kos\@ of uncertain affinity; n m AV-house 104, household 3, home + 1519 2, at home + 1722 2, misc 3; 114
- 1) a house
- 1a) an inhabited house, home
- 1b) any building whatever
- 1b1) of a palace
- 1b2) the house of God, the tabernacle
- 1c) any dwelling place
- 1c1) of the human body as the abode of demons that possess it
- 1c2) of tents, and huts, and later, of the nests, stalls, lairs, of animals
- 1c3) the place where one has fixed his residence, one’s settled abode, domicile
- 2) the inmates of a house, all the persons forming one family, a household
- 2a) the family of God, of the Christian Church, of the church of the Old and New Testaments
- 3) stock, family, descendants of one
- 1) a house
- ↑ Matthew 10:6 "But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
- Matthew 15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
- ↑ Matthew 12:4 "How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?"
- ↑ Matthew 21:13 "And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves."
- ↑ 4849 ~συμπόσιον~ sumposion \@soom-pos’-ee-on\@ from a derivative of the alternate of 4844; ; n n AV-company 1, not tr. 1; Repeated twice in Mark 6:39
- 1) a drinking party, entertainment
- 1a) of the party itself, the guests
- 1b) rows of guests
- "The symposium (or symposion) was an important part of ancient Greek culture from the 7th century BCE and was a party held in a private home where Greek males gathered to drink, eat and sing together. Various topics were also discussed such as philosophy, politics, poetry and the issues of the day."
- " The equivalent of a Greek symposium in Roman society is the Latin convivium."
- A Roman convivium according to Marcus Tullius Cicero for the republican period and Seneca suggest that ten to twelve was the maximum number.
- Plato in his "Laws" endorses the benefits of the symposium as a means to test and promote virtue in citizens.
- 1) a drinking party, entertainment
- ↑ Mark 6:39 "And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass."
- ↑ Matthew 21:43 "Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof."
- ↑ Leviticus 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I [am] the LORD.
- Matthew 5:43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine : enemy.
- Matthew 19:19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
- Matthew 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
- Mark 12:31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
- Luke 10:27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
- Romans 13:9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
- Romans 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
- Galatians 5:14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
- James 2:8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: