Here is an article posted on a site that I’ve been enjoying called CellChurch Info:
House Church: A Bible Study by Dr. Victor Choudhrie
Dr. Choudhrie is a prominent surgeon in India, whom the Lord challenged in 1993 to lay down his professional life to establish the church in Madra Pradesh. Starting from scratch, the Lord has prospered the work over the past 7 years to where it now represents around 3000 churches in homes with an estimated 50,000 people involved.
EVENTS
1. Pentecost took place in a house. (Acts 2:1-2)
2. The Last Supper took place in a house (Luke 22:7-13)
3. Most of the miracles took place in homes.
4. The wedding at Cana took place in a house.
5. Jesus taught in many homes.
6. “Greet the church in your house” was a common greeting of Saint Paul to various house churches started by him (1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Philemon 2, Rom. 16:5 and so on). He visited house to house and taught them everything (Acts 20:20).
7. The house church is the original New Testament church.
8. The disciples went to the temple regularly and taught the people, bringing the seekers to their homes. They gave them food and discipled them (Acts 2:42). Soon they were jailed and punished by the temple authorities and banned entry into the temple but by then they had reaped a large harvest and many house churches had been established. “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were saved.” (Acts 2:46-47, 4: 1-4).
9. The intimate, friendly environment of a home provided the ideal stage for interaction, resulting in the rapid conversion and maturing of believers into discipl-ers. Multiplication of discipl-ers led to explosive growth of the church (Acts 6:1).
10. The informal environment of the house churches gave opportunity for rapid maturing of “lay leaders” like Stephen, who was the first Christian martyr and Philip, who was the first evangelist to evangelize Samaria. The net result of handing over the baton to the seven Greek speaking ordinary men resulted in the conversion of priests, which in turn caused exponential growth in the church. (Acts 6:7)
11. 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 dramatic release of Peter from jail. (Acts 12:5; 12).
12. There was no formal Sunday service. The meeting could last all day and all night. Believers therefore came equipped with lamps for such an eventuality. (Acts 20:7)
13. Signs and wonders, including raising the dead Dorcus, took place in homes.
14. Baptism of the household of Cornelius and the Philippian jailer took place in their homes.