Home Churches Are Not Real Churches?!?
Is that so?
I hear it regularly – home churches are not real churches because real churches have clergy. Real churches have liturgy. Real churches have history and historical roots or apostolic succession or magestrium to make sure things don’t go off track…
Two questions, then my defense of home churches…
1 – Where are any of those things that in your mind make a real church in the real churches in the new testament? It is crazy how we can define a church in ways the Bible never defines a church and then label others not a church because those churches don’t have the things not found in the Bible…that sure seems backwards!
2 – “How is that working for you?” – Dr. Phil. Did any of those things prevent things from going off the rails in traditional churches? Did have clergy prevent false teaching? Did having priests protect the flock? Did the magisterium come to conclusions aligned with the New Testament? No no no and no…
Here is the key – People created rules and traditions many years after the NT that were then retrofitted back on the Bible to redefine church in ways the Bible never does and then accuse home churches of not being real churches because they don’t fit the traditions!
By what standard then, from the Bible, do we determine if a church is a real church?
First, Jesus is the head of the church and Lord – not any human being. Any church that puts human authority over Christ’s authority is not a real church. If a home church does this, it isn’t a real church…I have never heard of that happening in a home but I am sure it has somewhere…
Second, a church is a gathering of the people of God for mutual edification and praise. Home churches accomplish this.
Third, New Testament churches eventually mature into having local plurality of elders. Many traditional churches don’t even do this. We see in the pastorals and in Acts that new churches with immature believers don’t have this yet…but it is something to move toward as people begin to meet the qualifications Paul outlines in Titus and Timothy
Fourth, real churches engage in specific activities from 1 Cor 14:26 and I would include Acts 2:42-47 paired with Acts 20:7. Mutual edification should be part of any church as should regular communion. Just like traditional churches, home churches handle these things differently but I would say that mutual edification is stronger in a living room than an auditorium. This include biblical teaching and dialog. Traditional churches engage in monologue but Paul engaged in dialog in Acts 20:7.
Fifth, a church should be helping the poor, widows and orphans (James discusses this). Just like traditional churches, this is up to the individual congregations to do this. Some do and some don’t. All should strive to do this.
Sixth, real churches have life on mission. While the gathering is for believers (Paul makes this clear in 1 Cor 14) the church body moves to mission and disciple making outside the gathering. Some do and some don’t of both traditional churches and home churches.
Seventh, the church is empowered by the Holy Spirit – this has different interpretations but we see this in Acts and the epistles that the Spirit is core to the identity and unity of the church (Eph 4)
Eighth, the church is a place where people participate and use their gifts (numerous passages – Eph 4, Romans 1 Cor, etc.) Traditional churches don’t often leverage this as well as house churches.
Ninth, the church is not attractional to outsider, it is intentional with insiders. So many traditional churches gear their gathering toward people they don’t even know and haven’t even met. That creates compromises with the examples of the gathering we see in the New Testament and people often get caught but don’t stay because there is often little path through participation to maturity. Home churches often do this better.
Tenth, the church participates in the Lord’s work of communion and baptism. Some will say home church cannot do this without ordained people to do it – says who in the NT? That was never the case in the NT
You must realize – Paul started a church, stayed a short while and left. There were then no apostles present. They had no priests…people were left to work things out. Who did the baptizing? Everyday people. Who served communion? Everyday people.
Again – We have created rules and traditions many years after the New Testament that we then retrofit back on the bible to redefine church in ways the Bible never does and then accuse home churches of not being real churches because they don’t fit the traditions!
Must a church hit every one of these things perfectly every time to be a true church? The Bible never puts those pieces together so we need to be careful to not create rules where they are not in the Bible. But I do think that of the things that typify the new testament church as seen in the Bible are often better accomplished in the home than in the auditorium.
If you want to learn more on this, watch the video!
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