There was a moment a few weeks ago when I looked out across my living room, guitar in hand, and watched Spirit bring people to their knees. Others were dancing, some were praying, some may have been a bit distracted by other things, but in that moment I had the immediate revelation that what I was witnessing was a glimpse of the type of community that God has defined for us in the example of the Trinity.

And in that moment, my wife and I opening up our apartment each week to host house church made perfect sense.

It doesn’t always make as much sense as it did in that moment, and there will be plenty of times in the future where it will be a big struggle. But the necessity of us allowing God to move through our community is not predicated on the ease at which it happens. As we have grown into this role over the past year and a half, I have come to realize more and more that the refinement we go through as human beings created in the image of God is meant to be an experience that is shared and transparent. The love so freely poured into us by God is meant to be spread throughout a small group of like-minded people. The unity that Paul speaks to us as what our hearts should desire to be eagerly maintained is far more easily pursued with 20 than with 20,000.

Something I have come to realize lately is that I am far more in touch with what house church should NOT be than ever before, and in analyzing these things we can get a far better view of what house church should be.

1. House church is not an event

In our church society here in the West, the past several decades have seen us not only shift to the extreme of severe separation from culture at hand on the one side of things to casting ourselves as cultural doppelgängers, producing and distributing faulty reproductions of what we feel people really want under the banner of “Christianity”. Part of that mimicry is the false notion that in order for people to attend church regularly it must be promoted and held aloft by regular events.

House church could not be farther from this type of thing.

And people attending house churches with the paradigm that it is some sort of revival, some sort of promotional tool used to make them get excited about “real” church will never come to a place of truly diving in deep with a community of people because they will always see these gatherings as a chance for them to be entertained. The early church gathered in houses because they did not have access to large buildings and because, due in large part to the governmental oppression they faced, meeting in larger groups would have been dangerous to the vibrancy of their congregation. Also, I genuinely feel that God guided the church to develop in this way because of the level of intimacy that can be achieved unique to this type of setting.

2. House church is not “more biblical” than institutional church

Again, many in our society (specifically those that have grown up in a church setting) have become polarized when it comes to how the church in the West has represented itself to the world at large. Apart from the more historical hypocrisies such as the Inquisition and the Crusades, the church has faced its fair share of bastardizing from those within it, in hugely detrimental ways during the past few decades.

But as quick as many believers are to separate themselves from these misuses, we must be careful to remember that we should not separate ourselves from the church itself. First, and most importantly, the Church is Christ’s bride. As an institution, it represents the relationship that Jesus wants to have with each one of us on a personal level. Secondly, the church was created by God, guided by God, and continues to get its breath from God. Apart from the things done in its name that are against God himself, the Church is where it is today because God wants to use it in our society, broken as it is, right now. Thus, the institution of the church should not be abandoned simply because of its wounds.

3. House church is not a response to what the church is doing wrong

This follows closely from the last point, but can be further clarified. Many of the people I have encountered that find fulfillment and growth within a house church environment also bring with them severe amounts of baggage and anger at the traditional church. If you approach a house church setting with the idea that you are countering the woes of “big church” then you run the dangerous risk of allowing yourself to create an “us vs. them” mentality that is cancerous. Our house church exists as a response to what we feel Christ wants to do right through us, not what we feel the church is doing wrong. Making yourself or your group an island, setting a precedent that what you are doing is any better than what anyone else is doing is a quick route to letting your pride and lack of accountability crumble what God wants to do through you.

4. House church is not perfect

As leaders, we realize the huge responsibility we have to shepherd. We realize that it is vital for us to be under the leadership and accountability of a larger body. And while we realize that none of them are perfect, we realize that God has set them in place above us and our submission is necessary for our growth. Our teachings, our decisions, and our mission should all be tested and prayed into by not only ourselves but our leaders as well. To blindly assume that, in our broken state, we can fully trust what we feel is the Holy Spirit teaching us directly through the Scriptures is an ominous and arrogant path to tread. It must be remembered that much of the New Testament deals with the heresies arising from within the church itself. And with the structure we see them clinging to, those heresies came about in the midst of house churches. There is no guarantee that our teaching or leadership is protected from false doctrine, nor should those from within our group be so bold as to assume that they are free from it either.

5. House church is not traditional church

I have said a lot about the important distinctions between house church and institutional church, but it is important to remember that there are some awesome ways in which house church does not at all look like traditional church, nor should it. House church opens immense opportunities for the community. It removes many barriers unintentionally imposed in a larger congregation that keep people from using the gifts God wants to manifest through them. It massively increases the level of intimacy between members, simply because if done well a house church results in lives lived in close contact with others. It disintegrates the commonly assumed divide between clergy and laity, the wall that has for years single-handedly kept members lazy and pastors overworked. It gives more freedom to worship, simply because it doesn’t “have” to look like regular church.

And it allows, if you step back and watch, a closer look at what the body of Christ is meant to look like. If people realize something just will not work without their help, they are far more likely to step in and do their job.

The biggest challenge that I currently face in leading this house church is making sure I am offering a space with equal amounts of invitation and challenge. While I desire in my heart for it to be a place where any and all are welcome with open arms, that invitation does come at a cost. It comes with the cost of knowing what you are responsible for. I lead from a place of being led. I feel there should be submission because I myself am submitting. I understand the importance of both work and rest, and want all alongside me to pursue both of those things as well.

And, ultimately, I recognize that the church at large is not broken. It is filled with broken people, but it should not be abandoned. It has places that should be refined, but we must allow God to refine us before thinking we could make something better.

The promise that I make is to seek unity through humbly leading a ministry that I seek God and my leaders about on a daily basis, to boldly pursue what God leads no matter the cost while never allowing my pride to tell me I can do it alone, to seek the voice of the Father and the guidance of the Spirit while making sure that the things I hear and the paths I seek are tested by others, and to worship with full abandon as a member within a body that, while still ugly and broken, is being pruned, fired, and washed in the constant care of my God and the church that is His Son’s bride. And all I ask is that you promise the same.

The invitation is open, but making the promise is required.

That is what house church is to me.

1 Corinthians 14:26 – “What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.”