We’re going to hold church services in someone’s home? Where are the minister, pulpit, piano and choir? Why not rent a hall? Where are the rest of the people? Did you ask yourself these questions when you first learned about a nearby Living Church of God service you wished to attend? You were likely not the first to ask!
The membership of our church organization has the rare privilege of re-enacting the first century church experience. If we could go back in time, we would soon realize we share a similar sense of excitement and enthusiasm during our Sabbath worship service with the earliest Christians. Though this experience is new to many of us, it has been relived through the centuries among God’s true people. In fact, in-home Sabbath services or Bible studies may have been the most common form of worship experience among God’s saints through the ages. As we will see, meeting in brethren’s homes is a Biblical practice that offers many advantages.
The Home of John Mark
In one of the earliest persecutions against the first century Church of God, Herod the king harassed the Jerusalem congregation. He killed James the brother of John with the sword. When he saw that this pleased the Jews, who were antagonistic to the fledgling church, he had the Apostle Peter arrested and thrown into prison during the Days of Unleavened Bread (Acts 12:1–4). Herod intended to bring Peter out before the people following Passover—probably to do to him what he had done to James. The brethren of the headquarters church took this as an assault, not on Peter alone, but on their whole work as a church. They offered constant prayer to God for him (v. 5).
They were not meeting for prayer in a church-owned building or rented facility. Verse 12 reveals that they met at the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark who authored the New Testament book named for him. This prayer was made unitedly in a congregational meeting in her house. The fact that “many” were gathered together praying suggests Mary’s house was of considerable size. When Peter was miraculously released from prison, he immediately traveled to Mary’s house and was met at the door by Rhoda (v. 13) who was probably one of Mary’s housemaids who served on the estate. That Mary likely had house workers indicates her home was sufficiently ample to provide shelter for this prayerful band. Mary may have been a wealthy widow who chose to serve God’s work by offering her home for church meetings.
Because the newly founded Christian faith was embryonic and scattered, there was no need to find larger public facilities for meetings. Perhaps, unlike today, meeting halls for such purposes were unobtainable. Christians were often considered “pests” in the community during those formative years. It was only prudent to meet in someone’s home for security and privacy. And it offered that all-important “homey” atmosphere during those stressful days. Historically, church buildings, as many denominations construct today, did not become common until the end of the second or the beginning of the third century. Though the early Jerusalem Church frequently met in Solomon’s Porch (Acts 5:12), meeting inhome was a far more common practice than most realize.
The Home of Aquila and Priscilla
Just as today, individuals, or husband and wife teams, welcomed the local church into their domiciles. One such serving couple was Aquila and Priscilla (Romans 16:3–5) who are always named together in our New Testament. Their names are Latin, though Aquila at least was Jewish. Jews outside Palestine commonly took Roman names then. However, the Bible does not provide us their Jewish names. Aquila was a native of the Asiatic province of Pontus that probably contained a colony of Jews (Acts 2:9).
Paul calls them “fellow workers” in Christ Jesus (Romans 16:3). You and I have been familiar with a similar term: “co-workers.” It was perilous working for God in the first century. Aquila and Priscilla had risked their own necks for Paul and the churches of the Gentiles (v. 4).
When Paul at Corinth wished to acknowledge the church group at Rome, he sent greetings through Aquila and Priscilla because this “ekklesia” met in their residence (v. 5).
Paul first met this dedicated couple in Corinth after the Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from the city of Rome (Acts 18:1, 2). This anti-Semitic, political action occurred about 49/50AD. Suetonius said this decree was issued due to tumults raised by the Jews. In particular he mentions followers of one agitator named “Chrestus,” which name may have been confused with “Christ.” The earliest Christians were almost entirely Jewish and together they were considered a “sect” of Judaism by the Romans and at least some Jews (Acts 24:5). Though Christianity was originally recognized as a segment of that legalized religion of the empire, this protection was soon lost when they began to be expelled from the synagogue by their unbelieving fellow Jews. In their vulnerable state, they became easy scapegoats when the source of civil unrest could not be easily found. The sometimes vocal controversy that developed between unbelieving Jews and Jewish Christians may have sparked Claudius’ decree to rid the city of them all.
Corinth was the next best business center of the Roman Empire after Rome itself. Apparently Aquila and Priscilla decided, after their expulsion from Rome, to move there, to pursue their tentmaking business in freedom. It was here that Paul met them on his second evangelistic journey. Perhaps it was his preaching that led to their conversion to the Christian faith.
What drew Paul and Aquila and Priscilla together in Corinth was their common tentmaking trade (Acts 18:3). This vocation could either have been the weaving of cloth or the cutting and sewing of tents. Aquila may have acted as a contractor who hired the Apostle to enable him to earn income for his personal needs (1 Corinthians 4:12). The home of this service-minded pair was sufficiently spacious to also accommodate Paul during his stay in the city.
However, it is evident this couple did not permanently stay in Corinth. We read in 1 Corinthians 16:8, 19 that while Paul was in Ephesus intending to stay until Pentecost, he relayed greetings from Aquila and Priscilla and the church that met in their house to their brethren back in Corinth. This couple had traveled with him to Ephesus (Acts 18:18–19). Again they unselfishly opened their home to God’s assembled pilgrims and sojourners. After this couple matured in the faith, God also used them to update Apollos, an eloquent preacher who was mighty in the Scriptures (Acts 18:24–26), on the distinguishing doctrines between Judaism and Christianity.
Since Claudius’ decree of expulsion against the Jews was temporary, Aquila and Priscilla returned to Rome after a time. It was here that we earlier read in Romans 16:3–6 about the church meeting in their house. Years later still, Paul sends his greeting from prison to them when they seem to have returned yet again to Ephesus (2 Timothy 4:19). Timothy, the recipient of this epistle, was probably at Ephesus (1:18) where he may have fellowshipped with this outstanding and well-traveled duo. Wherever they were living at the time, this couple made it a habit to entertain a group of fellow believers for worship.
Other Bible Examples
The church that met in the home of Aquila and Priscilla may not have been the only one in the city of Rome. In Romans 16:14–15 Paul greets by name several of God’s people there and similarly greets all the brethren “who are with them.”
Could these not also have been in-home churches? If so, then the “church at Rome” may actually have comprised several small groups, which assembled in the homes of their hosts and hostesses. Church services may then have been conducted simultaneously on the Sabbath.
We must remember this is before the age of convenient and rapid transportation. Rome was a large city and it may have been more than a “Sabbath day’s journey” to meet with brethren in another part of the metropolis. The practical solution was to establish several smaller groups meeting simultaneously.
These groups may have shared their elders just as we do today. Perhaps these first-century ministers had a rotating schedule to visit personally and preach to all the church groups just as our ministers do today. Of course, this was before the age of audio and videotapes, so they depended upon “live” sermons and Bible studies.
At Colosse we know a church met in the home of Nymphas (Colossians 4:15), who is not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture and is therefore distinguished solely by this unselfish act of spiritual hospitality. Paul also greets the Colossian brethren that gathered at the home of his friend, Philemon (Philemon 2). Being a slave owner, Philemon must have been a man of some means who could adequately provide the necessary facilities for that congregation. Paul also asks Philemon to provide him lodging (v. 22). It is evident from these several examples that meeting in brethren’s homes was the norm in the earliest years of the church.
Advantages of the In-home Meeting
Though many of us miss the special opportunities provided by a larger congregation that regularly meets in a rented hall, benefits are provided in our smaller, residential gatherings.
The first advantage is the family atmosphere that such meetings naturally afford us. We can all meet in a single living room or den. It is like a reunion in which members of a nuclear family, separated for several days, assemble for a weekly special gathering. We can literally “reach out and touch someone” we love each time we meet.
A second bonus is the love that is expressed by all participants. Because we are only a few people, we come to know everyone closely and affectionately. One’s love needs not be dispersed to many, as in a larger church group, but instead is concentrated upon only a few. The “love of the brethren” can deepen quicker this way. We come to know each other well—“warts and all.” This is how mature Christian fellowship is developed.
Thirdly, unity and harmony should be easier to maintain with our smaller groups. With fewer people involved, fewer need be satisfied. The more people who have different ideas on how things should be done, the harder it is for leaders to bring them into some kind of agreement. Aiding oneness is our being bound by common emotionally charged experiences of leaving an apostate church organization for the truth. We have a common faith and a united purpose. We vitally need this singlemindedness in our worship service (1 Corinthians 1:10).
Our fourth advantage is the cooperation and sharing anticipated from the entire assembly. Everyone can contribute something to make the sacred meeting pleasant and profitable for all. No one should feel overlooked or be taken for granted. From giving the opening or closing prayer to pushing the start button on the VCR or cassette player; from the reading of the announcements to leading hymns and from serving as greeters at the door to laying out refreshments, everyone can make God’s Sabbath a day of delight for the entire local spiritual family.
I hope we never lose this exceptional small-church dynamic we now share as God begins again to bring new people to our fellowship. Let us count our blessings and thank God for our in-home church service or Bible study. And let us savor this rare opportunity to relive the first century Church of God experience.