An ongoing journey (part two).

Before we continue.

Please note that this blog is the second in a series of ‘thinking out loud about the Church. Nothing that is written here is a ‘special revelation’ (if such a thing exists) on how to do Church universally or, more importantly, locally. This series of blogs reflect my questions and concerns about the effectiveness of the local church as I witness it in South Africa in particular.

Introduction:

The purpose of this article is to explore what the New Testament says concerning the form and function of the local church. To that end, no outside source will be referred to in any way. We will approach this subject as enquirers who only have the Bible, not historical opinion or bias, as their guide.

The place of meeting:

Just prior to the birth of the Church as recorded in Acts 2:1-4, the disciples gathered together in the upper room of a house somewhere in Jerusalem (Acts 1:13). The birth itself took place in the very public environment of the Temple courtyards, this is evident given the description of the immediate audience to their infilling by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:5,6,14,41).

The fledgling Church soon had 3120 members drawn from the Jewish - proselyte and born -population of Jerusalem and those visiting from around the known world (Acts 2:5,9-11). Luke tells us that this group met daily to hear the apostles’ doctrine (i.e. that which they had been entrusted with by Jesus Himself – Matthew 28:19&20).

Consider the mammoth task of marshalling a single group of over 3000 people without an established leadership structure. Furthermore, given the Temple hierarchy’s attitude towards Christ, large ongoing meetings promoting Him as Messiah would not have been tolerated for too long. Therefore it would have been necessary to break up this group and have each sub-group meet in the various private houses of those who had come to repentance along with the original 120 (Acts 2:46).

Even when Saul (i.e. Paul) enters the account we find him raiding private homes as a means of ravaging the church (Acts 8:3a). In Acts 12:12 Peter arrives at a private house where the believers were gathered.

Acts 16:5 presents compelling evidence of the growth of the church taking place in private dwellings. The context makes it clear that individual believers were not being discussed here, but rather the corporate gathering of believers. The number of congregations was increasing daily this could only have been possible if the private homes of believers were being used.

The practise of new converts allowing their homes to be used as meeting places is borne out by the account of Lydia’s conversion and baptism (Acts 16:15,34).

In Thessalonica, Greece, the church met, at some risk it would appear, in the house of Jason (Acts 17:5) who had opened his house to a group of converts from Paul’s meeting in the local synagogue (Acts 17:1-4).

While in Corinth Paul met Priscilla and Aquila (Acts 18:2,18) whom had taken the eloquent but untrained Apollos into their home, where the church met, for teaching (Acts 18:26; Romans 16:3-5a; I Corinthians 16:19). The city of Corinth had at least one other church group meeting in a private home, that of Titius Justus (Acts 18:7). This house was next door to the local synagogue where Paul was preaching the Gospel (Acts 18:4,8).

It would appear that a church met in the very house of Caesar (Philippians 4:22). Furthermore, it would appear that women were forthcoming with the use of their homes as the cases of Lydia (see above) and Nympha clearly indicate (Colossians 4:15).
The letter to Philemon reveals that the recipient of that letter also hosted the church within his private dwelling (Philemon 2). This letter also shows the expanded activities of the local church (vss. 7, 22).

The 'how' of meeting:

Again we approach only the Scriptures, this time to discover what should take place in our regular meetings together.

The first recorded meetings of the church (Acts 2:42-47) included: (1) Apostles’ teaching, i.e. Bible study/preaching (I Thessalonians 5:12; I Timothy 5:17; II Timothy 4:2; Hebrews 13:7), (2) Fellowship, i.e. partnership and participation (I Corinthians 14:20-33; I Timothy 4:13; I John 1:7) and social intercourse (including financial giving), (3) Breaking of Bread, i.e. communion (I Corinthians 10:16; 11:23-32), (4) Prayer = individual and corporate. It was for these reasons that the writer to the Hebrews discouraged absenteeism (Hebrews 10:19-25)

• These meetings were marked by a sense of awe and, quite separately, N.B. not the cause of the awe, signs and wonders were being done through the apostles (cf. II Corinthians 12:12).

• Those who were partaking in these meetings were delivered from the confines of ownership and made themselves and their possessions available to all by being prepared to liquidate assets to produce finance for those in need.
• The ongoing fruit of these activities was the salvation of new converts every day.

In the next blog we will continue to investigate the Biblical record for insight into the functioning of the New Testament Church in its local context.