Why House Churches or Small Groups?

 

What’s so essential about Small Groups to the life of the Church? The answer is that Small Groups are very biblical: 

 

First, Jesus modeled Small Groups. Five chapters in the Book of John (Chapters 13-17) were taught in an upper room where they were eating together around a table. Jesus also modeled groups when He ate with Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, visited Levi or Matthew at his house, and the homes of Zacchaeus, Simon the Leper, and Peter. In fact, when Christ sent out the 12 disciples on a practice run, His strategy was for them to look for a home in a town and teach, pray, and minister in the house, and not to move around:

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Matthew 10:11-14

Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.

 

The early church met in large gatherings, the temple courts, but they also met often in house churches or Small Groups:

 

Acts 5:42

Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.

 

Acts 8:3

But Saul [later to become the apostle Paul] began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison. 

 

Why was Saul, or Paul, going from house to house in search of Christians to drag off to jail? Because that’s where they were meeting—in Small Groups, studying, discussing, worshiping, and praying for one another.

 

Acts 20:20

You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house.

 

The early church met in homes and enjoyed close relationships that kept them in the hard times of persecution from the Jewish religious leadership.

 

After Paul the apostle became a Christian, he moved from one house church or small group to another as a traveling Bible teacher, coaching and strengthening the leaders of these small groups, and teaching and ministering to the people within them. His task was to model and equip the church for growth by training its leaders. Let’s look together at where these early meetings were held:

 

Acts 16:15

When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

 

Acts 28:30-31

30For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. 31He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance! 

 

Paul wrote to the church at Rome, sending greetings to those in the house church of Priscilla and Aquila:

 

Romans 16:3-5

3Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. 4They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. 5Greet also the church that meets at their house 

 

Paul wrote further about normal Christianity in the early church. Three times he writes that the church met in homes. 

 

1 Corinthians 16:19

The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house.

 

Colossians 4:15

Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.

 

Philemon 1:2

…also to Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier—and to the church that meets in your home.

 

After examining these scriptures, leading groups in one’s home is a very biblical practice.

  

How was the Church of the Book of Acts different from today’s Church?

 

They ate together:

 

“They ate together with glad and sincere hearts” (Acts 2:46).

 

These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead (Jude 1:12).

 

In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval. When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don't you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not! For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment. And when I come I will give further directions (1 Corinthians 11:17-34).

 

What things stand out from the text?

 

1) They ate at their meetings.

2) They drank wine at church meetings (verse 21). By referencing that, I am not saying that our meetings should have wine. 

3) Some had died (fallen asleep v. 30) because they had not judged themselves.

4) This appears quite different from the communion that is typically celebrated during regular church services.

5) Paul speaks of communion as part of a meal modeled by Jesus at the Last Supper.

 

Eating together was symbolic of being a family. It spoke of oneness. When Jacob wanted to make peace with Laban, his father-in-law, when he was returning to the land of Canaan with Laban’s daughters, so that there was no animosity between them, they ate a meal together (Genesis 31:46 and 54).

 

When the patriarch Isaac was having difficulties with Abimelech, the King of the Philistines, they reconciledtheir differences by making a treaty with one another. To seal the deal, they shared a meal (Genesis 26:30). Sharing a meal was a symbolic gesture of unity within the community. To sit around the table and eat together is a place where our masks can fall and we can be real with one another.

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Christians who meet together in homes typically do so because of a desire to return to the basic Church meetings found in the New Testament, which reveals that the early Christian church demonstrated a simplicity of fellowship and interactive practice that is often not found in conventional denominations. They believe that Christians should walk closely with each other, in close fellowship, sharing their lives in Christ together. This is expressed by 50 examples of the phrase "one another" found in the New Testament. Some Bible passages that indicate the atmosphere of the early church life include:

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Lifestyle

"They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." (Acts 2:42 NASB)

 

Participatory Meetings

"What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification." (1 Cor. 14:26 NASB; see also Colossians 3:16, Hebrews 10:24-25)

 

Meeting in Homes

"Aquila and Prisca greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house." (1 Cor. 16:19 NASB; see also Acts 20:20, Romans 16:5, Colossians 4:15, Philemon 1:2).

 

Networking through 'Extra-local, Itinerant Ministries'

"After some days Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are." (Acts 15:36 [NASB])

 

Occasional Large Group Meetings

"I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house" (Acts 20:20 [NASB])

 

A Prophetic Word for the Church of Today

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“A revolution is coming to Christianity that will eclipse the Reformation in the sweeping changes that it brings to the church. When it comes, the present structure and organization of the church will cease to exist, and the way that the world defines Christianity will be radically changed. 

 

What is coming will not be a change in doctrine, but a change in the basic structure of church life. The changes that are coming will be so profound that it will be difficult to relate the present form of church structure and government to what is to come. The new dynamic of church life will surpass the Great Awakenings in its social impact, transforming cities and even entire nations. It will bring a sweeping sense of righteousness and justice to the whole earth.

 

The future leaders of the church are now being given a vision of radical New Testament Christianity being restored to the earth. It is time to heed the call and allow the Lord to lead His people to the new wineskins that will hold what is about to break out upon the earth. Whenever there is a choice to make between the new and the old, choose the new. To be a part of what is coming, we must have the faith of Abraham, who was willing to leave the security of the known to seek God in unknown places. The future leaders of the church will be willing to risk all to seek the city that God is building, not man.” [1]

 

[1] Rick Joyner, “Revolution,” The Morning Star Prophetic Bulletin, May 2000.