LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

SCHAEFFER: HOUSE CHURCHES 27
The temple, at first the locale of hoped for salvation and symbol of
Israel’s holy union with God, eventually is unmasked as the political
concentration of power opposed to God’s people and the truly righteous.
The household, on the other hand, once the gathering place of the
powerless and the marginalized, eventually emerges as the institution
where God’s spirit is truly active and where familial relations, shared
resources, and communal values concretize the vision of a salvation
available to all the families of the earth. 7
There is another theological reason for the birthing of the house church.
New Testament Christians thought of God as their “Father” and of each
other as brothers and sisters in the family of God. Elliott observes:
In this kingdom/household, God is experienced as a merciful, generous,
and forgiving “father” (Luke 2:49; 6:36; 9:36; 10:21-22; 11:1, 13; 12:30,
32; 22:29, 42; 23:34, 46; 24:49; Acts 1:4, 7; 2:33). Jesus is recognized as
“Son of God” (Luke 1:35; 3:22; 4:3, 9, 41; 8:28; 9:35; 10:22; 20:13;
22:70; Acts 8:37; 9:20; 13:53). In contrast to the “children of Jerusalem”
(13:34), believers who hear and do Jesus’ words form his new family
(8:19-21) and become the true “children” of the heavenly Father (11:13;
24:49), “brothers and sisters”, one with another (Luke 6:41-42; 8:19-21;
17:3-4; 22:32; Acts 1:15-16; 2:29, 37; 6:3; 9:17, 30; 10:23; 11:1, 12, 29;
12:17; 14:2; 15:1, 3, 7, 12, 22-23, 32-33, 36, 40; 16:2, 40; 17:6, 10, 14;
18:18, 27; 21:7, 17, 20, 22; 22:13; 28:14, 15). 8
With this familial understanding of God’s relationship with man through
Jesus Christ it was only appropriate the family of God should meet with
their Father, His Son, and the Paraclete in a Christian household.
With this brief explanation, one can see the paternal theological traits
stamped on the embryonic development of the house church. But the
theological “seed” was not the only thing that brought about the conception
and development of the house church. There was also the missiological
“seed” that contributed to its conception.
A survey of the Book of Acts 9 will demonstrate that one of Paul’s
missionary methods was to target the pater familias for conversion. 10 Paul’s
7 Elliott, “Temple versus Household” 217.
8 Elliott, “Temple versus Household” 228.
9 See chapters 10 (Cornelius), 16 (Lydia and the jailer of Philippi), 17 (Jason), 18
(Aquila and Priscilla).
10 See Wayne A. Meeks, The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle
Paul (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1983) 28-30; Derek Tidball, The Social
Context of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Academie Books, 1984) 84-85; E. A.
Judge, The Social Pattern of the Christian Groups in the New Testament (London: The
Tyndale Press, 1960) 36; Del Birkey, “The House Church: A Missiological Model,”
Missiology: An International Review XIX, 1 (Jan. 1991): 93-94; Dimitris J. Kyrtatas, The
Social Structure of the Early Christian Communities (New York: Verso, 1987) 134-35;