John White comments on the need to understand what a "household" really is in Scripture. Just having a church in a house does not do justice to the scriptural meaning of 24/7 community life. John says, "moving church from a special church building into a home does not go nearly far enough." Here’s his entire email:
Roger Gehring in "House Church and Mission: The Importance of Household Structures in Early Christianity" demonstrates that the concept of household (oikos in Greek) is a critical and significantly underappreciated element in understanding the meaning of "church" in the First Century. To say it another way, if we want to understand what ekklesia (generally translated "church") meant to people like Jesus, Peter and Paul, we need to have a good understanding of what oikos meant to these same people. For these people, oikos was the context for ekklesia.
Gehring quotes Luhrmann (another NT scholar): "…the ancient oikos is not just one social and economic form among others but rather the basic social and economic form not only for the ancient world and the New Testament but presumably for every pre-industrial sedentary culture as well." p. 17
Gehring goes on to say: "Scarcely anything determined daily life more than the oikos with its network of relationships…the significance of the oikos for the establishment and organization of early Christian church life can hardly be overemphasized." p. 17
A House is not necessarily a Household.
The implications of Gehring’s insights about the importance of oikos are huge! For one thing, it means that moving church from a special church building into a home does not go nearly far enough. The churches established by Jesus and his disciples were not mere weekly meetings. They were literally households – ongoing, 24/7, family like communities.
Consider 1Cor. 16:19 – "Aquila and Prisca greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house (oikos)". If we read this from our 21st Century Western context, we would (unconsciously?) conclude that once a week a group of Christians met in this couple’s home for church. However, if we read this verse from the 1st Century context, we would conclude something quite different.
To say that we have a "house church" because we meet in someone’s home at 7 pm on Tuesday nights, falls significantly short of the New Testament concept of "house church".
Comments
8 responses to “Just Having Church in a House Does Not Go Far Enough”
Commune-ity Values (or Redefining “Church” Yet Ag
Oy vey!
That’s all I can say after reading The House Church Blog’s post on what the Bible really says about house churches.
As someone who has even considered whether a house church was the “church of last resort” for a couple of square pegs li…
If what John White says is true regarding ‘oikos’ or household, what then are we to do in Amerika where the household became the pad became the box became the investment and family/community structures have largely disintigrated before our eyes for the last 40 to 50 years? Sounds to me like we need to be focused on re-forming family and community relationships. House church is a good place for relationships but I agree, 1 night a week just won’t get it done. There’s too much space between us, too much time away.
The good priests were on their way to church and passed by when the Samaritan stopped to help. I don’t think it’s much harder than that, but I also don’t find many Samaritans in this world.
OK, it’s Jesus who works His love into us, right? We can’t even have a “community of believers” without that “working in” of the Spirit of God. So, my point is: where are we? What are we doing? Our new forms of church, intending to resemble the original, still must have that element of “wine” (Spirit), that Spiritual DNA that only comes from God. Isn’t that the bottom line, where we are lacking? When we have it, we have the desire for oikos, koinonia. It works from the inside out.
Please read 1 Cor 12 and 14. That is how the church is supposed to meet all the time. It doesn’t matter very much WHERE you meet, but it matters a great deal HOW you meet. You must have the fullness of the Holy Spirit and the spirtual gifts being used by everybody. If you do not, everything else will be 10 times (at least) more difficult.
Interesting that Steve Thompson mentions spiritual gifts along with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. I agree. The use, even the acknowledgement, of Spiritual gifts has long be missing from many groups and individuals, unless you are “charismatic.” And that to me is a sad and disheartening thing. Many people who profess to know Christ say they believe in the Holy Spirit and His power, but in life and in “church” there is no room or allowance for the Spirit, nor the gifts He bestows upon us.
Spiritual gifts is a topic I have frequently brought into a discussion and for the most part, people tend to move away from it, and things sort of go down hill in the discussion. Or they’ll nod in agreement, without offering any of their own thoughts and never make any attempts to “discover” what their gift(s) is(are) and how to develop them and use them in the body. This is a shame.
If we are aware of our giftings, then we can develop and use them for God’s glory and at the same time, disciple and train others who may have the same gift, but are not as developed or mature. We don’t have to be so afraid of being replaced if we are following the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
I agree st.valdez. It’s tragic that so many shun spiritual gifts or simply fail to embrace them. I think it’s fear and pride that keep many bound up and without access to Spiritual power. It’s like having this great automobile, a Rolls, a Ferrari or something great and all ready to go but there is no ignition, no spark, no key (no vvvrroooom!) to get it going. It may look great, but you ain’t going far…
One thing that I have found difficult in the area of spiritual gifts is getting the Average Joe Christian to realize the importance of gifts. Most of the people I know who have been “in ministry” in one way or another seem to understand what it’s about, and that’s probably because they’ve been using their gifts in the area of ministry they have been in all along. But the people who are pew sitters, seat fillers, class attenders and not much else…they are the ones that seem to think it’s great that I am functioning in my area(s) of giftedness, but don’t seem to care or give a second thought to how they might be gifted and how they could use that giftedness.
I guess the “Every Member = A Minister” concept is great in words, but harder to convey and grasp in life.
I think the biggest obstacle to overcome in conveying this to people is our mentalities. We have been trained (if we grew up or went to church even a little) to think that being a Christian is a spectator’s sport and that our “reasonable act of service or worship” is showing up and watching or listening. So many people approach “church” looking for what they can get out of it. Am I being fed? Am I growing? Am I connecting in worship? Do I like this or that?
Our mentalities must change!!!