LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

30 LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW IX
worship. 25 They would also meet for the agape meal. The high point of the
worshipping community was the reception of the Lord’s Supper. 26 Baptism
was also practised at the house church. As time passed there was a
progressive standardisation of the worship service as evidenced by the
common catechism and common liturgy in the Didache. 27
The house church was where “hospitality evangelisation”, as Mortimer
Arias 28 calls it, took place. Hospitality was a distinctive mark of Christians
and Christian communities. They opened their doors to strangers
(Romans 12:13) and to each other (I Peter 4:9). The house churches
served as a “bed and breakfast” for the itinerant missionaries and for
other travelling Christians as they supplied food, lodging, money, and
other aids. 29 The house church provided an “equalling” environment
where the rich and the poor; the slave and the free man could rub
shoulders and accept each other as equals. The house church provided
a family atmosphere where people were treated with honour and
respect. It offered incorporation into a family, a place for permanent
belonging, a supportive circle of brothers and sisters. 30 As time
passed, and house churches were planted throughout the Roman
Empire, an effective network of communication spread all over the
Empire due to modest means of Christian hospitality. 31 “Hospitality
evangelisation” cannot be underestimated when discussing the
expansion of the early Christian church. 32
The house church was a mission-sending centre. 33 Christians came
to the house church to receive God’s grace and mercy, to praise and thank
God for their salvation, to hear the stories of Jesus, to study the Word of
God, to receive the Body and Blood of their Lord for the forgiveness
25 Hahn 2; Oscar Cullmann, Early Christian Worship (Bristol, IN: Wyndham Hall
Press, 1953) 27, 32.
26 James F. White, A Brief History of Christian Worship (Nashville, TS: Abingdon
Press, 1993) 24ff.; J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, rev. ed. (San Francisco: Harper
& Row, 1978) 196-99.
27 Oetting 27; Ralph Martin, The Worship of God (Grand Rapids, MI: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1982) 190; Glenn E. Hinson, The Evangelization of the
Roman Empire (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1981) 34-35.
28 Mortimer Arias, “Centripetal Mission or Evangelization by Hospitality”, Missiology:
An International Review 10. 1 (Jan. 1982): 69-81.
29 Theissen 8ff.; Malherbe 65-68.
30 Elliott, A Home for the Homeless 199, 285ff.
31 F. F. Bruce, The Spreading Flame (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 1953) 46, 75; Allen 134-35.
32 Branick 18.
33 Castillo 77-78.