God’s Basic Church Pattern

Church is not up to us, it’s up to God. Church is defined by God, not by people. God wants church to be done in a certain way, and he’s given us guidelines in the New Testament about how to do it.

Church is God’s house. God cares about how his house his built. Can you imagine hiring workers to build your house and then watching them ignore the blueprint as they build the house however they want? This would be ridiculous, but this is how we have treated God’s church.

Like generations of God’s people before us, we probably didn’t start out by intentionally trying to disobey God. We just inherited ways of doing church from Christians before us. We assumed that our religious leaders were right. We didn’t really look closely at how church was done in the Bible. Maybe we thought that God didn’t really have a pattern for church. We just got handed a certain expression of church by people, and then we accepted that style of church as normal.

It’s time to examine church in light of God’s word. It’s possible that the church structure we’ve known and experienced over the years is wrong. We need the humility to admit that.

The church is not a building. God never told his apostles to build church buildings. For the first 3 centuries of church history, not one such building was constructed.

The church is not a denomination. God’s people are to be one, united together according to the truth in Christ Jesus. The Christians in Corinth tried to separate from each other and form denominations (1 Cor. 1:12-13). Some of them tried to follow one Christian leader and some tried to follow another. Some tried to follow one doctrine and others followed another. These divisions were contrary to the will of God. Paul rebuked them for this denominationalism. He said to divide up the church is to divide Christ himself.

In the New Testament, word church is the Greek word ekklesia. This word is used only three ways in the New Testament:

• to describe a group of Christians in a house
• to describe a group of Christians in a city
• to describe a group of Christians all over the world

Church Worldwide

All born again believers all over the world are part of the worldwide church. This is a massive spiritual temple that God is building all over the world (see Eph. 2:21). It’s his house that he’s constructing in the earth (1 Pet. 2:5).

City Church

This vast worldwide temple is comprised of local churches. Throughout the New Testament, all the believers in a city comprise the church in that city. The church in Ephesus was made up of all the believers in Ephesus. When John wrote to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:1, he was referring to all the believers in the city of Ephesus. The church in Corinth comprised all the believers in Corinth. The church in Rome was comprised of all the believers in Rome. In the New Testament, each city church was led by a body of elders for that city (see for example Tit. 1:5 and Acts 14:23). There was only one church for each city, and each city church was part of the vast worldwide church of God.

House Churches

Within each city church there were house churches.

For example, there were several different house churches in Jerusalem.

So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.

Acts 2:46

In homes the disciples broke bread – they celebrated the Lord’s Supper and shared a meal called a love feast (Jude 1:12). This common meal was an important part of early church meetings, and it happened in homes.

In Rome, Priscilla and Aquila had a church in their house.

Greet Priscilla and Aquila… Likewise greet the church that is in their house.

Rom. 16:3-5

The church of Rome was comprised of hundreds of believers. They all could not cram together in one house for meetings. Throughout the city of Rome there were many house churches.

Two other house churches in Rome are possibly listed later in Romans 16.

Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren who are with them.

Rom. 16:15

Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.

 Rom. 16:16

Priscilla and Aquila once lived in Ephesus. They had a church in their house in that city too, the city from which Paul wrote 1 Corinthians.

The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.

1 Cor. 16:19

Nymphas had a church in his house.

Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house

 Col. 4:15

Philemon had a church in his house.

And to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellowsoldier, and to the church in thy house:

Philemon 2

These house churches were not cell groups or Bible studies. The Bible says they were actual churches – ekklesiae.

House churches were not a temporary phenomenon, destined to pass away as centuries wore on. No! House churches are God’s permanent plan for the most basic manifestation of the local church.

This is for several important reasons.

Sometimes, the house churches in a city would gather together for larger meetings. Such meetings were an add-on to house church, not the other way around. These larger gatherings strengthened city church, allowed for cross-pollination among house churches, and allowed ministers to reach more people at one time.

The New Testament is not silent about church form or function. We must search the word of God with new eyes and discover God’s pattern for church: house church, city church, and worldwide church.

It might seem hard to follow the church blueprint of the New Testament. We are far from that now. But God’s standard for church sways the future, and his Spirit is working according to this plan. As God raises up his glorious bride in the earth, she is going to be established on the foundation of the word of God. No other foundation is going to work.

The New Testament pattern for church is not optional. It’s not something we can leave behind in favor of our own inventions. It’s God’s plan for his church even today. And he’s waiting for us to submit to it so that he can fulfill his plans on the earth.