LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

SCHAEFFER: HOUSE CHURCHES 31
of sins, to pray for each other and the lost, and to participate in
“hospitality evangelisation”. As a result of their house church worship
and catechesis they would be prepared “to give the reason for the
hope” (I Peter 3:15) they had—to their immediate family, their
friends, their slaves, their masters, and their business acquaintances. 34
The spread of Christianity was done so quietly and through such
“normal channels”—the household and itinerant missionaries—that
Walter Oetting writes:
By the year 250 Christianity had spread to the limits of the known world.
We hear legends about it in England but know little more. We hear about
it in areas to the east of Armenia, even in India and China, but know
almost nothing about it. Two facts, however, become clear. First, the
church spread rapidly over a geographical area increasing phenomenally
in numbers at the same time. Second, this work was done by ordinary
Christians. We know of no mission societies; we hear nothing of
organized effort. Wherever Christians went doing their regular tasks, the
pagan saw a different kind of individual and heard rumors about “the
Savior.” 35
The house church was the progeny of a theological and missiological
union and through this “ordinary child” God worked to multiply His family,
literally, from house to house (Acts 20:20).
Glenn E. Schaeffer is Pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Barrie,
Ontario
34 See W. H. C. Frend, “The Missions of the Early Church 180-700 A. D.”, in Everett
Ferguson, ed., Missions and Regional Characteristics of the Early Church, Studies in Early
Christianity XII (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1993) 3-5, 7.
35 Oetting 23-24.