House Churches & Institutional Churches, Part 2

The previous post in this series produced an interesting and insightful conversation, both in the comments and in some private emails. Let me add this thought to the mix: Neither the institutional churches nor house churches are organized as the New Testament churches were organized.

Congregational autonomy as we practice it is not found in the scriptures. It simply isn’t how the early church operated. And while God grants great freedom in this area, I think, we’ve gone beyond the realm of the permissible.

Allow me to explain. Well, let Gregg Allison explain —

[W]hile it is true that a meaning of the word ekklesia is “assembly,” it is only one of the meanings of that word. An assembly is certainly in view when Paul addresses celebrating the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:17-34) and regulates the exercise of speaking in tongues and prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:26-40) when the church is gathered together. But ekklesia cannot mean “assembly” in Acts 8:1, for example, when Luke’s point is that the church was “scattered”—not assembled—because of persecution. In fact, the word church can refer to meetings of Christians in houses (Acts 12:12), the church in a city (1 Corinthians 1:1-2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1), all the believers in a region (Acts 9:31), the universal church (1 Corinthians 10:32), and even the saints already in heaven (Hebrews 12:23). Saying that the word ekklesia means “assembly” commits a lexical error.

Paul refers to the church in Corinth as a single “church” (1 Cor 1:2; 6:4; 2 Cor 1:1), but it’s clear they met in multiple houses. Allison says,

Accordingly, the church of Corinth would gather regularly for worship in the home of Aquila and Priscilla (1 Corinthians 16:19), “the house of a man named Titius Justus” (Acts 18:7), the home of Crispus (Acts 18:8), the house of Stephanas (1 Corinthians 16:15), and others. These “church gatherings” distributed among the houses stood in contrast with the “whole church” assembling together, probably in the home of Gaius (1 Corinthians 14:23; Romans 16:23). Importantly, “each of the home-based groups included only parts of the church, i.e. a subset of its membership.” Still, each home-based gathering was a legitimate gathering of the church of Corinth.

In 37 Neotestamentica 1 (2003), Bruce Button and Fika Van Rensburg conclude (first link is to an abstract, but the full text is online as an 8.5 MB download) that Paul refers to the church meeting “in the house” of someone (as usually translated) several times, but “in” translates not en (meaning in) but kat (having a wide range of meanings, including “according to”).  It’s not the natural preposition for “in” at all. It’s also used in such verses as —

(Act 2:10 ESV) Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome,

(Act 2:44-47 NAS)  44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common;  45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.  46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,  47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

(Act 5:42 ESV) And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

Thus, they conclude that the preposition really refers to the portion of the church distributed to the house, rather than a single, autonomous congregation meeting in a house. The indivisible unit that Paul insists on throughout his writings is thus not the group meeting in a house but the singular church in that community.

Notice that Rom 16:23 and 1 Cor 14:23 refer to gatherings of the “whole church” —

(Rom 16:23 ESV) Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you.

(1Co 14:23 ESV) If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?

References to gatherings of the “whole church” imply that there were also gatherings of less than the whole.

For a detailed study of kat’/kata as prepositions in the New Testament, see Pamela Margaret Bendor-Samuel, “The Exegesis and Translation of Prepositional Phrases in the Greek New Testament: A Semantic Role Analysis” (Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, April 1996), beginning at page 197.

Ephesian elders and the Jerusalem church

Now, consider Paul’s speech to the elders at Ephesus —

(Act 20:17-21 NAS) 17 From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church.  18 And when they had come to him, he said to them, “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time,  19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews;  20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house,  21 solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

He was addressing the elders of a single “church” (v. 17). And yet Paul had taught “house to house” (v. 20). “House to house” translates kat’ oikous — “according to houses” or “distributed to houses.” The church meeting “in” a house meets kat’ oikon (according to or distributed to a house).

A typical First Century home would hold about 10 people. The wealthy would be able to host 30 or 40. Archaeologists have found Second Century Christian houses modified to host gatherings of up to 70 or so.

The church in Ephesus was a large and prominent congregation. It surely met in more than one house! It was large enough to have  plurality of elders. Paul labored there for years. And yet it was a single church under a single eldership.

None of this should be a surprise, because it’s exactly what we read about in Acts 2. The Jerusalem church — of over 3,000 members! — met in houses but was under a single leadership of elders and apostles. They sometimes met in the temple courts — which could hold many thousands — as a single body, but they ate meals together and studied God’s word in house groups. Luke tells us about the organization of the Jerusalem church because it became the typical way of doing church throughout the Empire.

Of course, the church was quickly thrown out of the synagogues, and the Romans soon realized the church was not merely a sect of Jews. That made the church illegal and kept them from buying property as a church and from meeting in public facilities, such as an amphitheatre, absent a kind official looking the other way.

The “house church” was not, therefore, a church at all. Rather, Button and Van Rensburg conclude,

Lexical studies show that the formula H KAT’ OIKON EKKLHSIA does not refer to a self-contained unit called “church” within the local church of the city. Rather, the formula refers to a group which is part of the local church, which derives its identity from the local church and is an expression of the life of the local church.

The New Testament “pattern” is a single church in a given city, which meets in multiple houses but which is under a single eldership. The whole church would assemble together as the law, officials, and space would permit.

“Elders”

There is more evidence for this conclusion. Churches were led by a group of men called “elders.” In the Old Testament, we find that the elders were the governors of each city and town, serving as judges and the city council. They even decided who could enter through the city gates. It was unimaginable that there would be multiple, rival groups of elders in the same city.

We know from the New Testament and history that Jerusalem was still governed by elders (Acts 4:1), despite being subject to the oversight of the Romans. Jewish synagogues were ruled by elders (Matt15:2; 16:21; 21:23).

In Christianity, churches were led by elders. Why borrow the term “elders” from Judaism unless the position had something in common with Jewish elders, who led on a city-wide basis?

Elders were leaders of cities. Under Rome, elders became rulers of synagogues and continued to have civil authority to the extent allowed by Rome. And there was normally but one synagogue in a city. Even in Jerusalem, where there were multiple synagogues (the Jews couldn’t physically fit in just one!), the elders still governed as a single body —

(Mat 26:3-4 ESV) 3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas,  4 and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.

(Mat 27:1 ESV) When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death.

(Act 4:5-6 ESV)  5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem,  6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family.

Therefore, we are hardly surprised to find that in Ephesus there was but one eldership, even though overseeing gatherings in multiple houses, constituting but a single “church.”

Toward a Conclusion

It all fits together. For those with a restorationist/patternist bent, this is a disturbing conclusion because the Churches of Christ operate in ways that are very contrary to this pattern. But then, so do a lot of other churches. That’ll all be the subject of future posts.

___________

* When Greek is transliterated into English characters, “H” refers to the Greek letter eta, pronounced as a long e. “E” refers to epsilon, which is a short e.

About Jay F Guin

My name is Jay Guin, and I’m a retired elder. I wrote The Holy Spirit and Revolutionary Grace about 18 years ago. I’ve spoken at the Pepperdine, Lipscomb, ACU, Harding, and Tulsa lectureships and at ElderLink. My wife’s name is Denise, and I have four sons, Chris, Jonathan, Tyler, and Philip. I have two grandchildren. And I practice law.
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12 Responses to House Churches & Institutional Churches, Part 2

  1. Price says:

    Jay, very interesting post…It brought to mind Paul's words in I Cor 1:10-12 and 3:3-4 where he is begging for an end to Division among them. He asks, "Is Christ Divided"…. I could almost here him saying that some say " I am of Main St., I am of West Side, I am of East Side CoC" Is Christ Divided….hmmmm… I'm guessing that the guitars will be allowed in and women will be praying and passing out communion before folks give up their autonomy and local Eldership in favor of a central Elder body… Too much like those dern denominations… However, I may be wrong.

  2. dannydodd says:

    There is a very fine treatment of this topic by Roger Gehring in his book, "House Church and Mission." While he does agree with many of your conclusions, he also offers some differning views. Anyone interested in reading more on this topic should include this book in their research.

  3. David Himes says:

    Jay, this is an interesting follow up to your post extolling the virtues of the "institutional church". I'm anxious to see where you take this series.

    I concur with your reading of the Text, and am curious to see what you think the implications are for the C of C, as well as the Christian community at large.

  4. arkie55 says:

    "Saying that the word ekklesia means “assembly” commits a lexical error. "

    I think that statement may be a bit too strong. The lexical definition is, indeed, an assembly. The point being made is how context affects the base meaning. There's really no need to attack the lexical definition to make that point…

  5. guy says:

    Jay,

    Any chance congregational autonomy is more of a throwback to hyper reactions against the hierarchical structures of the 'high churches' moreso than an attempt at restoration? (Or maybe a sick attempt at restoration–'anything opposite of what Catholics do will be restorational'?)

    The question came to mind because with this kind of structure in the NT, the development of the hierarchical structures makes a little more sense.

    –guy

  6. Royce says:

    I have long thought that Presbyterians are closer to the first century church in this regard than many others. But, guess what has sort of sneaked in under our radar without us realizing it. Mulit-campus churches which are usually lead by elders and individual campuses are led by them as well, often through an appointed "campus elder".

    North Richland Hills ( "The Hills Church of Christ") will soon launch it's 2nd remote campus (congregation) on the northwest side of Ft. Worth. The first was the Southlake Blvd church which has been under the NRH elders for a few months. Maybe one reason there are so many churches doing this (I can quickly count 10 or so…) is that it's biblical! Wouldn't that be something?

    One thing I am certainly in favor of is that preachers also be elders in "most" cases. I am familiar with the arguments against. I say if a man is not spiritually mature enough to lead he is not mature enough to be teaching those who do lead.

    Royce

  7. aBasnar says:

    The idea of the churches of Christ is to act and teach in a way all Christians can agree and unite upon, bt not in a minimalistic sense, but based on the scriptures. This rules out chuirch autonomy, because it leads every doctrional decision in a church to the question: Is what we are going to decide the will of God for all Christians? Or do we just saddle a hobby horse here? Or does this deciesion alienate us from the other churches? Thus Biblical leadership does not act autonomously but in a ver "catholic" way (in the original sense of the word).

    Alexander

  8. Jay Guin says:

    A summary of Gehring’s book may be found at <a href="http://simplechurch.eu/images/uploads/House_Church_and_Mission.pdfhttp://simplechurch.eu/images/uploads/House_Churc… />He sometimes overreaches in his reading of this evidence, I think, but overall he makes a lot of sense.

  9. Guestfortruth says:

    Acts 2:47
    praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

    The (people of God) church can meet in a house as the example as Acts 2:46 that is the way churches of Christ begins everywhere in this world. but if the Church has the possibilities to have a big building that the way the church can be together having fellowship each other united. The church is a divine institution but not in the sense some have it today as a system. Like the Roman Catholic Church using the social teaching of the church according to them to erradicate poverty

    I invite all of you to see Searching for truth.

    Searching for truth –
    1.-

    2. -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Boig3KtgxpE&feature=related

    3.-

    4.-

  10. Larry Short says:

    The physical meeting of the saints style is not in the NT pattern. Therefore its up to our wisdom to find the best way for us.
    Jay gave some good examples of what the institutional do well. Other advantages are for children, which get mixed in a boring (to them) adult service or class, or a group of all age kids in a house church.
    My home congregation has institutional Sunday mornings, and house church Sunday nights. Sort of like the early Jerusalem church.
    Institutional can get cold, sterile.
    Institutional can also get competitive to the have the spectacularl service with finest music, speakers, and showmanship.
    As Americans, we have already decided in favour of the mega store, so is the mega church our culture? In contrast the mega hair salon or barber shop is not catching on. So is church more like shopping or hair service?

  11. Alabama John says:

    Larry,

    That is right on and the biggest challenge for the large churches.

    How to be big and have and do everything in one place while treating everyone like they are in a small very personal environment.

    Area groups, age groups, many classes, Sunday night home studies with one having their famous dish of food for the others are all good ways.

    Ultimately everyone wants that touch for themselves that the hair salon or barber shop gives them. For way too many, where you have to pay to get it is the only personal touch they get.

    Sooo Sad, but wonderful to provide!!

  12. aBasnar says:

    The physical meeting of the saints style is not in the NT pattern.

    I think that's hard to say for sure – if that's the way the Apostles established the churches there might as well be a reason behind it that makes the house churches a pattern.

    What we know for sure however is that the way "we" do church today is very different in many aspects (not onle the location) than the 1st century church of Christ did it. And that's hard to explain if you come from a "bible alone" background – it's inconsistent.

    To say this or that is not part of that we should obey or imitate can become an excuse to keep a status quo that has no biblical authority itself. Just to think about it: How do we discern which are patterns to imitate and which are not?

    Alexander

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