What are the Basics of Housechurch?
If The information on this website has
encouraged you please send me an email
Some people call this way of doing church by different names;
Housechurch, Simple Church, Organic Church.
What ever you call it here are some of the basics, as we see them:
� The Lord�s Supper celebrated weekly as a full, fellowship meal and as
the main reason for the weekly church meeting (Ac 2:42 , 20:7, 1Co 11:18 -20,
11:33 ). In the center of the feast there is to be the one cup and the one loaf
(1Co 10:16 -17), both symbolizing and creating unity. The mood of the meal is to
be joy; looking back at His paying for our sins and also looking forward to the
excitement of the Second Coming. It is a rehearsal dinner for the future Wedding
Banquet of the Lamb (Re 19:6-9)!
� Church meetings that are interactive and spontaneous,
per 1 Corinthians 14, rather than performances by professionals. Every Christian
is to be free to contribute to the meetings (via a teaching, a song, a
testimony, a prayer, etc.). Open participation is to be the norm, not the
exception. The over arching directive for anything said in the meeting is that
it must edify the church (1Co 14:26 ).
� A commitment to New Testament patterns (apostolic
tradition) for church practice (1Co 11:2, Phlp 4:9, 2Th 2:15) and well as
apostolic teaching for church theology (Ac 2:42). Orthodox Christian theology
poured into the wineskin of New Testament church practice. Concerned questions,
and the burden of explanation, ought to fall on those who seek to deviate from
apostolic tradition, not on those who wish to keep it.
� Consensus decisions made by all the brothers,
following Christ as Head of His church. Thus, elder-led more so than elder-ruled
churches. Though elders are very important to the functioning of the church,
decisions are generally to be made by the church corporately, not by its elders
only (Mt 18:15-20, Lk 22:24-27, 1Pe 51-4).
� Home-sized and home-based churches (thus, smaller
rather than larger fellowships) that are linked together into networks of other
autonomous house churches (Ro 16:5, 1Co 1:27-29, Col 4:15, Phlm 2). City-wide
church activities might include larger rented facilities where evangelism,
leadership training, the equipping of the saints, multi-church Bible studies,
public worship, etc. occur. However, the regular Lord�s Day meeting of the local
church is to be in homes. Primary and weekly are the local house church
meetings; secondary (and optional) are larger (multi-church) gatherings.
� Church as more of a family than a business. Meeting
in homes helps foster community, accountability and intimacy among the members
of the body. Further, churches are to be family friendly. The church and the
family are to be integrated, not segregated. Age-graded Sunday School and
Children�s Church only serves to further divide families. Children belong in
church meetings and Bible studies with their parents.
� Generous giving to support church workers (such as
missionaries and qualified elders) and those in need. Without the overhead of
such expenses as the construction and upkeep of a sanctuary for each
congregation, more money is free to be directed to where needed most.
This type of church is largely lay-led, simple, easy to
reproduce, intimate, personal, inexpensive, and down-home. It is also the
biblical pattern. Indeed, how can we improve on God�s design?
Such a church in an Asian or Latin country would certainly look different in
outward style than one in a posh suburb of London. The food, music, and homes
would be unique to each culture, but the internal basics would still be the
same.
In stating the above convictions, we do not intend to imply factiousness,
elitism, spiritual superiority, nor arrogance. We love and appreciate all those
who belong to Christ, regardless of how they live out their church life
(Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, etc.). Yet these are deeply held convictions
with us, and we humbly present them to the church at large in hopes of
persuading our brothers and sisters to enjoy the benefits of New Testament
church practice along with us!
The housechurch model as we see it, is making conscious effort to seek to follow
the traditions of the Twelve in their church practice. In short, we believe that
the patterns for church life evident in the New Testament are not merely
descriptive, but are actually prescriptive (1Co 11:2, 2Th 2:15). Thus, even
though we are quite �traditional� in the New Testament sense, what we advocate
is rather nontraditional by contemporary standards.