The New Testament (NT) pattern is for churches to meet in homes (Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Acts 2:46; Philemon 2; Colossians 4:15) and and for the Lord's Supper to be observed as a full meal. The Bible never records that churches built buildings; these require a lot of resources. Meeting in smaller groups where believers built strong relationships and held interactive meetings led by the Holy Spirit is the scriptural pattern. What can we learn from these and other teachings of the Bible to strengthen our churches?
Concepts
The Lord's Supper - A Full Fellowship Meal
Interactive Spirit Led Church Meetings (1 Corinthians 14)
Church Government
Apostolic Traditions Given in the Bible
Heresy in House Churches
The Lord's Supper: A Full Fellowship Meal
The Lord's Supper described in the Bible was a full meal. The "last supper" that the Lord Jesus Christ ate with His disciples was the annual Passover meal. The Passover was a full meal. When the Lord said "Do this (break the bread and share the cup) in remembrance of Me", it was in the context of a full meal. All the New Testament passages we have relating to how we should keep the Lord's supper are consistent with it being a full meal. (Luke 24:30, Acts 2:42-46, 1 Corinthians 11) The term "breaking of bread" is best understood to be a meal, not a small token.
Many people have expressed that adopting the practice of the early church in how they remembered the Lord's Supper as a frequent meal has made more of an edifying impact upon their fellowship than any other single change they made as a body of believers. It has the tremendous advantage of helping to build relationships between the people of the church. They really get to know one another. The Bible records the early believers ate meals together often - either daily (Acts 2:42-46) or weekly (Acts 20:7).
Church practiced a Full Meal
Interactive Spirit-Led Church Meetings
The New Testament pattern is for believers' church meetings to be interactive and led by the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor. 14) Any man can start a song, read the Bible, teach, exhort, or pray. (1 Cor 14:26) If the Spirit reveals something, he can prophesy or speak in tongues with interpretation. (1 Cor 14:27-33) Only one person should speak at a time. Speaking in tongues should only be done by one person at a time and only if there is someone to interpret; otherwise keep silent in the church. Tongues should not be forbidden, but Paul says in church he would rather speak five words with his mind than 10,000 with a tongue, because it edifies better.
Elders should monitor the content and make sure the sheep are not led astray by false teaching. If anyone prophesies, it should be tested by the others. (1 Cor 14:29; Matt 7:15, 24:21; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 4:1) Don't just accept what someone says without testing it.
We should be gracious concerning if, when, and how a mistaken teaching is corrected. Some mistaken ideas are minor and can be corrected in private, showing kindness and not publicly embarrassing anyone. Some bad teaching needs to be promptly and publicly dismissed.
At times when the whole church is gathered and only one person is speaking, women are to keep silent in the church. (1 Cor 14:30-39; 1 Timothy 2:12) The NT never records a godly woman teaching in an organized meeting of the saints. Leadership is male for reasons of orderliness (God's chain of authority: God - Christ - man - woman as in 1 Cor 11:3; 14:33-35; Eph 5:23) and symbolic roles (1 Cor 11).
While praying or prophesying, men should not cover their heads(1 Cor 11:4), but women should (1 Cor 11:5-10). Men symbolize the glory of God (1 Cor 11:7), women symbolize the glory of man (1 Cor 11:7), and the woman's hair the glory of the woman (1 Cor 11:15). When a woman covers her head while prophesying or praying, she covers the glory of man (the woman) and the glory of the woman (her hair). The glory of God as represented by the uncovered man then has first place in the sight of the watching angels. (1 Cor 11:10) Note that the same Greek root word for cover is used six times in verses 4 to 13. However, a different Greek word is used in describing the hair as a covering in verse 15. The hair is a non-vertical, more horizontal covering. [Peri-bolaiou, Strong’s 4018] like peri-meter, peri-pheral, peri-scope. The hair is not the same covering as the first six.
All the men, especially the younger ones, need to be encouraged to study and share each week. This brings life to individual men, their families, and the whole church. It provides opportunity for the Spirit to work in all the men, rather than just a few. Interactive, participatory church meetings are the New Testament pattern we are commanded to follow.
Related to how we conduct our meetings, Paul wrote, "If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord's command. If he ignores this, he himself will be ignored" (1 Cor. 14:37-38). Obviously, what we do when we assemble is very important! Is worship the only purpose for a church meeting? What kinds of things are to go on in such a meeting? Who is allowed to speak? Who can teach? How many different people can address the church? What about the kids: are they to be in children's church or with their parents? What size meeting was typical in the New Testament?
Church Government
In Acts 20, the New Testament (NT) refers to the same group of men in leadership by three different words (elders - presbuterous 20:17, overseers - episkopous 20:19, shepherd - poimainein 20:19) Having multiple elders in a church, not a single authority figure who is the "pastor", is the New Testament pattern. The NT never speaks of "the pastor" of any church. The only time it speaks of "the Pastor" (singular) is when it is referring to the Lord as the Chief Shepherd. All other mentions suggest that having a plurality of elders is the preferred pattern.
We must recognize that sometimes there is only one man who is qualified, and in those cases, there will be only one elder or pastor. However, pastoring a church is challenging work. It is best if the load can be shared. The Lord sent them out two by two for a reason.
In Acts 20:17, Paul called for the "elders" (plural) of the church at Ephesus. In Titus 1:5 Paul commanded Titus to appoint "elders" (plural) in every city.
Elders are responsible for making sure correct doctrine is taught.
Acts 15:6-23 shows elders seeking consensus on doctrine. Of course, we must follow the commands of Jesus Christ! We suggest that an elder's "authority" is, in some measure, earned more by servant leadership than merely conferred by some hierachical authority.
Apostolic Tradition
Suppose a new church in first century Alexandria, Egypt, wrote asking the apostle Peter for direction concerning the proper way to organize their fledging congregation. How would Peter have responded? Could a church legitimately deviate from the apostolic example? Or, were all NT churches to obey the commands of Jesus as delivered through His apostles? Some 2,000 years later, how are we to view the way the apostles did things? Is the NT way of doing things merely interesting history, or did God intend for it to be normative for all churches in every age? Examine the various Biblical commendations and commands to churches with respect to the tradition of the apostles. We conclude that the question is not, Do we have to do things the way they did? Rather, the question to be asked is, Why would you want to do things any other way?! Respect for our Lord who hand picked the apostles and for the Holy Spirit who led them should lead us to prefer their way of doing things to whatever our inferior wisdom might suggest.
Heresy in House Church
One great fear people have about house churches is that they might be hotbeds for heresy. Heresy is a danger in any church or believer. False teaching is widespread among the Christian denonminations today. Jesus said that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. So the key to avoiding heresy is a close relationship with Jesus. Jesus said "If you continue in My word, you are My disciples indeed, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." To avoid heresy we should cultivate a close relationship with Jesus through Bible reading, prayer, fasting, obedience, and fellowship with the believers.
Practical Insights into Implementing the Church of Acts Today
By Marc Carrier, missionary to Kenya
Using their own money, Marc and Cindy Carrier left a comfortable life in the U.S. and went to East Africa to live out The Great Commission, taking all of scripture seriously. They lived without electricity or indoor plumbing and with dangerous opposition and frequent malaria for 5 years, with their then 8, now 11, homeschooling children. They now have electricity (sometimes), but the malaria is ongoing. They are making disciples and planting house churches, through many trials. Learn to apply how they are doing this and how their ministry changed from being mostly just good teaching to become Spirit led meetings and missions that look like the book of Acts. They are seeing God heal sickness and cast out demons in the name of Jesus. Marc's teaching and testimony will challenge, instruct, and inspire you. This day may make Jesus more real to you than ever before and breathe new life into your relationship with God. (This was the 2017 status. The Carriers returned to the U.S. in 2021 after 9 years in Kenya.)
