House Church (Part 2): The New Testament model of gathering

In this section – part 2 – I want to share my heart on what any church – house church or otherwise – should come into based on the Scripture. Only in seeking God to fulfill His Word in all areas of our private and corporate lives will we come into greater and greater manifestation of His blessing on our lives and assemblies. I have no doubt that all who read this will at least agree with that statement. Amen? I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that we all want to come into a more Biblically based and Biblically sound model of New Testament Christianity which is led completely, absolutely and totally by the Spirit of God.

If one looks at North American Christianity, one cannot help but be humbled by the blessing of God on our churches; we’re free to worship, free to speak in any way we wish and free to conduct our churches in any manner we so desire. This is both a blessing and a curse. In our freedom we’ve in fact bound others to a philosophy of church which is so far removed from Scripture that millions of sincere people now believe that church is done “this way and no other”. In fact, some go so far as to call you cultic and out in left field if you stray from their idea of what church should look like.

The problem with this is that North American Christianity is simply un-Biblical. No, not in it’s faith or passion for truth and relationship with God, but rather in it’s format. The format in which millions and millions of people meet each Sunday is a format which is not only foreign to the New Testament…it’s restrictive and prevents godly Saints from being used by God in the manner taught in Scripture.

How so?

Let’s go to God’s Word to find not only the answer… but also the solution.

1 Corinthians 14:26 says “Well, my brothers and sisters, let’s summarize. When you meet together, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given, one will speak in tongues, and another will interpret what is said. But everything that is done must strengthen all of you.”

This is the Biblical model of a genuine New Testament gathering; anything short of the above falls short of God’s perfect and revealed Will on gathering together. Without this as our guide, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we can come up with all of the excuses and rants we want to; at the end of the day, this is the Biblical model that God’s Spirit gave to us through the Apostle Paul. If it was good enough for the 1st century Christians… it’s good enough for me.

We have a problem, however, in that “the pastor” has become the primary driving force behind North American Christianity; while multitudes of brothers and sisters talk about body ministry, where is it? We’ve relegated “body ministry” to every day except Sunday; we’ve called people to do “mid week service” and “street ministry” etc while making our Pastors “the” leaders in our churches. Is this Biblical? No, it isn’t.

Ephesians 4:11-13 “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.”

God is a God of order; He doesn’t place things in certain places “at random” or “by coincidence”.

First: Apostles Second: Prophets Third: Evangelists Fourth: Pastors Fifth: Teachers

Notice that Pastors are positioned in the text below the position of not only Apostles and Prophets… but also Evangelists. Does this mean the others are “better than” the Pastor? Of course not; the Apostle isn’t teaching any such thing. He does, however, place the “office” of Apostle, Prophet and Evangelist in a place of authority above that of the Pastor. Why?

Pastors are appointed by Apostolic Authority; this is clear in Titus 1:5 which says: “I left you on the island of Crete so you could complete our work there and appoint elders in each town as I instructed you.”

In today’s modern format, we see Pastors appointing everything; this is not Biblical. Yes, they have authority; they must be respected and honored as shepherds. I myself have been called into the office of Pastor… yet I’m under no illusion that this particular office calling is somehow “above” that of the Apostle, Prophet and Evangelist in authority. Why? Because Scripture doesn’t teach it is; and I’m OK with that. God’s Word is above my own personal opinions.

Pastors, in today’s cultural Christianity, dictate who, what, where, when and why. This ought not be. The Pastor is the the “primary” speaker; the Pastor is the “primary” go to guy; the Pastor is the “primary” person who prays for the sick, casts out demons, etc etc etc… in most all things, the individual seen doing what others are called to do is …the pastor.

Pastors are called to lead and feed; they have a responsibility to watch over the souls of their flock; this, however, doesn’t imply for one moment that Pastors are to do the entire work of the ministry. They have a God Appointed position; we have, unfortunately, given them the positions of all of the other ministry offices.

Think of this. In whatever church you attend, how often does a resident Apostle or a resident Prophet teach, speak, cast out demons, etc? In comparison to the Pastor…almost not at all! This is evidence in and of itself that we’ve placed the office of Pastor on a very dangerous plateau of the “Do it all man”. Because of this, the Body of Christ is suffering.

New Testament Christianity, if we truly desire body ministry, must come back to Biblical Christianity. Instead of pews, pulpits and pastors dictating the House of God, we need to see apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers all working together, edifying one another, building one another up and exhorting one another in Christ.

These are not professional positions; they are positions given by God to whoever He wants. Not a single congregation member in any church is without a position; God doesn’t say “That guy is something but I haven’t given YOU anything”. Thus, all members of a local church are called to one or more of the five fold ministry offices; and thus each member should be used by the local church… not told he or she can’t be used because a pastor “said so”.

Are you a Christian? If so, YOU are called to prophesy, share a revelation, a doctrine, etc. Try doing that on a Sunday morning, however, and you may be booted by security. Don’t say I didn’t warn you lol. All joking aside, there are quite literally millions of Believers today in local churches who are sitting down on a pew Sunday after Sunday … doing nothing but listening to a man deliver a 3 point sermon.

They aren’t called on to teach, to prophesy, to plant, to deliver a doctrine, a revelation, etc… they just sit there, unused, week after week until decades have gone by. How far we’ve strayed from New Testament Christianity!

This is why I love the house church model; no one is excluded from being used. That said, many who are used to the traditional format who come into House Church are so timid when called on to teach or prophesy or share a vision that it’s very difficult to see them “come out of their shell”. They’ve been conditioned by North American Christianity to “shut up”. They feel that if they make mistake or are too shy or don’t have much to say that someone will laugh at them, etc. How unfortunate!

Have you ever been to a movie house? A movie house has seats facing the front to watch an actor portray a character. Now think of church. Churches have pews, facing the front, where people sit for one hour on Sunday to watch a pastor give a sermon.

God’s House resembles the Movie House; the physical characteristics are undeniable; in fact, modern church models come from ancient Roman theater. You may be interested in the book “Pagan Christianity” by Frank Viola where you’ll learn the origins of today’s modern church format.

Imagine a church where the sheep are in submission to the elders… and where the elders are in submission to apostolic, evangelistic and prophetic authority. If you can imagine it, you’ve just imagined church as Jesus gave it! A church where the body truly functions; where when one member suffers all members “really” suffer with them; where all are encouraged to be used by God in their various giftings.

In my last note, I made the following observation: 1 Corinthians 14:31 says: “In this way, all who prophesy will have a turn to speak, one after the other, so that everyone will learn and be encouraged.”

How can “everyone” speak if there are hundreds of people or even 50 people? Clearly, Paul was speaking to a house church with a small enough assembly that “everyone” had a turn to speak and share and encourage the brothers and sisters. It says “one after another” and “everyone”. How is this possible outside of the house church model? It’s not; thus the clear conclusion is Paul was not speaking to an assembly which had a mass amount of spectators staring at a pulpit while “one man only”spoke; he was telling the Corinthians that “everyone” could have a turn speaking. The above passage of Scripture – if we’re honest with ourselves – doesn’t take place as often as it should…and there’s no excuse for this except a lack of “knowing how”; further, this passage cannot possibly be operated in within a large format; it’s specifically designed for small gatherings. This is clear and plain from the text.

Only within the house church model can the above passage be experienced on a level which is intimate; it allows for for than “one” Pastor who teaches; more than”one” who shares revelation… etc. Because of the validity of the house church format which Paul and all of the other Apostles knew exclusively as the mode of gathering (they had no idea about mass meetings with the exception of one rented building for a temporary period for evangelization in Acts), we too would do well to follow the example of the Early Church.

Folks, Jesus wants His Church back! No; He never “lost it”…it lost Him! The Church has strayed so far from the Biblical pattern laid out in the Epistles that we’re now only a shell of what God intended for His People. Paid professionals teams of staff members with millions being left on the shelf to do…nothing.

This is fact; and while some will become upset, angered and offended… they should. But that anger should be directed – not to this note – but for the fact we’ve all played a part and a role in seeing that God’s People are muzzled.

Remember what Jesus said He hated in Revelation 2:6? He said, “But this is in your favor: You hate the evil deeds of the Nicolaitans, just as I do.”

The very word itself means: Nico-, combinatory form ofnīko, “victory” in Greek, and laos means people, or more specifically, the laity; hence, the word may be taken to mean”lay conquerors” or “conquerors of the lay people”. (Wikipedia)

Jesus hated much more than the above – being a conqueror over lay people (those who are not in ministry) but I want only to focus – for the purpose of this article – on the word Nicolaitans itself.

Any doctrine that places anyone “above” body ministry is a doctrine that Jesus Christ hates. Ministry is not to have victory over God’s People; God’s People are ALL called to ministry. The problem today is that while many “say” they believe this …Sunday after Sunday in the vast majority of churches the exact opposite is seen with only a handful of people actually partaking in church life. The People of God sit doing nothing but being spectators while paid professionals rule over the laity.

I’m aware that this note itself will be viewed as “divisive”…it’s not. In fact, this is a call to stop the division between ministers and laity; it’s a call to all leaders to lead… not rule with an iron fist that prevents multitudes and millions upon millions of godly people from being used by God in their local fellowships.

This begs the question: “Are our churches too big?”

Yes. As seen from above, “everyone” cannot prophesy (preach and teach under inspiration) in assemblies which are designed –theater style – to hold hundreds upon hundreds of spectators rather than what God intended since Jesus first instituted the church:Active, Vibrant, Participants.

Imagine if a church with 500 or 2000 members split up to form house churches across the city, in every community…. what would happen? What would take place if large assemblies disbanded and became house churches, just as the Word teaches?

We’d have:

1• Churches in every single neighborhood of our communities

2• No more denominations and divisions among Saints

3• Small churches where every member is encouraged to be used by God

4• Personal, intimate discipleship where it’s not based on the latest “best seller” book but instead on personal, one on one, relationship

The list of blessings could go on and on and on… but the above are reason enough to see why New Testament based gatherings are a need – and essential need! – among North American Christians today. All arguments of “House church is a cult!” or “House churches aren’t really accountable!” don’t’ work in places like China, Iran,Syria and other persecuted nations; they only work here where people have been conditioned to believe that type of nonsense.

Jesus started with 12 men and ended with 11; Judas hung himself. How we can do better than Jesus in thinking that one pastor can personally disciple hundreds and even thousands of Believers is delusion. What we need is a return to the Biblical pattern; until then, while people continue their arguments and debates, God’s People will go unnoticed, unused and most importantly, unloved.

I pray that this short note on the Biblical pattern of the New Testament gathering provokes some to take the plunge and allow God to lead them to either plant a house church that follows the Biblical model or join one who is.