House Churches Research Articles

Developments in Early Eucharistic Praying in Light of Changes in Early Christian Meeting Spaces

Abstract: Performance criticism (Tambiah) and the Egyptian textual and material evidence strongly suggest that there is a correlation between the size of Christian worship spaces and the length of early Eucharistic prayers that likely holds outside of Egypt as well. Liturgy as an embodied experience not only includes liturgical texts, but also art, architecture, sounds, smells, gestures, and movements. Attending to the non-textual dimensions of the liturgical celebration provides a fuller picture of how Christians, especially in the early Church, celebrated their liturgies. This article looks at the way Eucharistic texts and spaces related to one another in the early church in order to evaluate and substantiate the theory that the shift from house churches to basilicas in the fourth century meant that the short and often improvised Eucharistic prayers of the pre-Nicene period were no longer suitable to the larger purpose-built liturgical spaces that emerged in the post-Nicene period. Despite the abundance of Eucharistic texts and spaces in the early church, no one has attempted to corollate changes in space and liturgical texts. Egypt is the ideal region to serve as a case study since there are a number of early Christian meeting spaces and Eucharistic texts preserved in that region. This article will test the theory that larger spaces required longer liturgical prayers and show that the expansion of Christian congregations, their meeting spaces, and their prayers was part of a broader process of ritual involution that we would expect to find in other aspects of their rituals as well.

Debating the domus ecclesiae at Dura-Europos: the Christian Building in context

Abstract At Dura-Europos, homes were architecturally adapted across the late 2nd and 3rd c. CE by different religious groups to serve the needs of their communities. Although the Synagogue, Mithraeum, and Christian Building all began as domestic structures and share a similar architectural development, the origins of the latter have received unique attention through its classification as a domus ecclesiae or house church. This (hyper)focus on the structure's past use as a house does not do full justice to the archaeology of the building. Through an analysis of architectural adaptations, including before-and-after 3D reconstructions and daylight simulations, the authors show how the renovations significantly differentiated the Christian Building from its domestic antecedent and from Dura's houses more broadly. This approach is meant to shift attention away from more generalized, translocal, evolutionary models of Christian architectural development to micro-level archaeological analysis that situates structures within the spatial vernacular of their local contexts.

The Christian Building at Dura-Europos: Rethinking the Archaeology of the World’s Oldest House Church

The Christian Building at Dura-Europos: Rethinking the Archaeology of the World’s Oldest House Church

Mutual submission, not complementarianism: Reviving the Chinese marital theology of Watchman Nee and Wang Mingdao

Many Christians in both America and China follow an ideology that has come to be known as gender complementarianism. The husband is the undisputed “head of the household” and the wife must graciously submit to his leadership and decision-making, even if she disagrees with him. During the 2000s, complementarian theology espoused by American parachurch organizations FamilyLife and Focus on the Family spread in China. Today, many house church Christians advocate complementarianism. However, back in the 1940s and 50s, several important (fundamentalist and mainline) Chinese Christian leaders saw Christian marriage more in terms of mutual submission than gendered hierarchy. Rather than seeing husbands as more responsible for leadership and decision-making than wives, Watchman Nee, Wang Mingdao, and the people involved in the Christianizing the Home movement highlighted the need for both spouses to sacrifice, cultivate intimacy, forgive, and communicate well. This may not be the dominant vision of marriage in Chinese house churches today, but it is a long-standing tradition in Chinese Protestant history, one that some individuals in China today are continuing to put forward.

In Search of Priestly Witness: A Barthian Intervention in the Chinese Church–State Relationship in a Neoliberal Age

Abstract This article suggests a theological proposal for envisioning the relationship between the church and state in the context of the Chinese neoliberal regime. It consists of three interrelated tasks. First, I argue that the rise of a neoliberal state has shaped the Chinese political landscape over the past four decades and constrained the collective responses of the Chinese house churches in their cooperative and negotiating strategies. Then, I examine two recent theological announcements by the church leaders and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses in addressing the principles of church–state relations. This critical analysis is followed by a rediscovery of Barth’s theological politics of priestly witness, which has laid the Christological foundation for the integrity of faith communities and shed light on their primary concerns and actions towards the Chinese neoliberal state. In this way, I seek to contribute to the ongoing discussion of Chinese political theology by offering a nascent analysis of the political system encountered by the house churches and reclaiming Barth’s theological legacy for these churches in public witness.

Renovating House Church Assumptions

Missiologists have often claimed that early Christian house churches could not have surpassed 15-30 people. The argument often centers on two prongs—persecution and space. Persecution kept house churches relatively small to avoid visibility. The size of Greco-Roman houses kept churches relatively small due to space limitations. For some missiologists, these limitations became advantageous and led to rapid multiplication as the church grew "sideways." This article questions both of these assumptions and instead provides evidence that early Christian churches could and did embrace several models based on their particular context.

How the Fourth Statistical Account of East Lothian Recorded Developments in the Church in the County Between 1945 and 2000

This article will use the Fourth Statistical Account of East Lothian, which was produced by a consortium of local history societies, to provide a case study of how the church in the county developed between 1945 and 2000. Because East Lothian is the only Scottish county to have a fourth statistical account, the study provides a unique opportunity to trace the development of the church within a Scottish local authority during the second half of the twentieth century. The article will use, as its main sources, essays on four established denominations and the sections on ‘Belief’ in each of the parish entries. It will detail how the Church of Scotland, the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Methodist Church contracted between 1945 and 2000; show that, while the Roman Catholic Church was more stable, it began to suffer from a lack of vocations and the disinterest of younger members of the Catholic population, and that, while the Baptist Church increased its presence in the county and Pentecostal congregations and ‘house churches’ were formed, the Brethren and Church of Christ both declined and, as a consequence, these other churches remained on the margins of the church in East Lothian.

Engaging emerging adults: A missional model of ministry for house churches in South Africa

This article examines the role of house churches in South Africa in the ministry of emerging adulthood. Emerging adulthood is a turbulent life stage that is characterised by change and exploration. Additionally, it involves increasing responsibility and autonomy as young people assume more adult roles. This article suggests that emerging adulthood is a critical life stage for several reasons. Given the contextual realities of South Africa (high unemployment, high levels of crime, poverty), as well as the associated negative behaviour and the increasing religious disaffiliation among emerging adults, it is essential to provide nurturing support to this group in particular. To this end, this article presents a missional model for house churches as an alternative method of ministry for reaching and retaining this population group. The characteristics of house churches and emerging adults are explored and serve as the backdrop for this missional model.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article makes intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary contributions by engaging the theological disciplines of missiology and practical theology as well as psychology and sociology.

PARENTAL ATTITUDES AMONG MEMBERS OF THE DOMESTIC CHURCH COMMUNITY

This article presents the results of the empirical verification of the hypothesis that spouses belonging to the Domestic Church community have more proper parental attitudes than spouses who do not belong to any religious community. The basis for this hypothesis was the previous research, according to which the relationship of these spouses with their children is based on proper closeness and communication. The research carried out here, in which the Parental Attitudes Scale, by M. Plopa, was used, proved that the parental attitudes of the spouses belonging to the Domestic Church community are characterized by the greatest consistency and autonomy, as well as appropriate protection and demands, and showed no differences in the acceptance dimension. They also showed that these behaviors contradict the trends revealed in Plopa’s study, as they correlate positively with their age, male gender, marital seniority, age and the number of children, and nega­tively with education. One of the reasons for the results obtained seems to be the membership of the House Church community and participation in religious formation, which obliges these parents to ‘work’ on their interactions with their children.

Book review: Hannah Nation and J.D. Tseng, Faithful Disobedience: Writings on Church and State from a Chinese House Church Movement

Book review: Hannah Nation and J.D. Tseng, <i>Faithful Disobedience: Writings on Church and State from a Chinese House Church Movement</i>

Wang Yi and Others, edited by Hannah Nation and J. D. Tseng, Faithful Disobedience: Writings on Church and State from a Chinese House Church Movement

Wang Yi and Others, edited by Hannah Nation and J. D. Tseng, <i>Faithful Disobedience: Writings on Church and State from a Chinese House Church Movement</i>

A New History of Christian Empire: Excavating Pope Sylvester’s Oratory, 1636

This article examines how antiquarians in Rome used archaeological evidence—a site excavated from under the church of San Martino in Monti in 1636—to argue that Pope Sylvester (314–335) exercised spiritual and temporal authority over the Roman Empire. The document which had formed the bedrock of papal sovereignty, the Donation of Constantine, was shown to be a forgery in the early modern period. Protestant reformers pointed to the document’s contradictions to dismantle the Catholic Church’s claims that its preeminence originated in the privileges bestowed on Sylvester by the Emperor Constantine. I use archival materials and a history of the site published in 1639 to describe how antiquarians claimed that they found the house church of Sylvester, which he converted into a church after Constantine’s baptism and then used to host a Roman Council in 324 (before Nicaea). I offer a new perspective on Catholic confessional historiography by observing how antiquarians used material evidence to provide a foundation for early papal power in the Roman Empire, thereby bypassing the need for spurious documents such as the Donation. This new tradition, which lives on today despite modern archaeological critiques, illustrates the malleability of Catholic epistemologies and historiography in the wake of textual criticism.

Presbyters and the Development of Church Offices

This article questions two central presuppositions of recent research on early Christian ecclesial office. It argues that bishops and presbyters should not be too readily equated and that ecclesial office was not as closely connected to the providers of liturgical space (owners of house churches) as is often assumed.

DAMPAK GEREJA RUMAH DAN PERTUMBUHAN IMAN TERHADAP MISI PENGINJILAN YANG DIMODERASI OLEH KEPEMIMPINAN

This study aims to reveal the impact of house churches and faith growth moderated by leadership in realizing evangelistic missions during the Covid-19 pandemic. This quantitative study uses the Structural Equation Model (SEM) method with Smart PLS software. The population comprises 72 respondents consisting of pastors, teachers, lecturers, evangelists, and business people from various denominations in various regions who worship at home by watching live streaming or building worship involving family members. The results of the research show: house church, faith growth and leadership together affect the evangelism mission by 52.6%, which means there are still 47.4% of other variables that can affect the evangelism mission. Leadership proved unable to strengthen the influence of house churches and faith growth in evangelistic missions during the Covid-19 epidemic. So church leaders need to build a house church practice concept that encourages faith growth that impacts evangelistic missions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Apostle Paul in Ephesus: Christianity’s Clash with the Cult of Artemis

This essay contextualizes the apostle Paul’s pivotal missionary residence in Ephesus, giving particular attention to the intriguing confrontation between Paul’s associates and devotees of the cult of Ephesian Artemis. The essay begins by examining aspects of the city of Ephesus and its residents that presented Paul both with unique challenges and unique evangelical opportunities. Specific attention is given to the shift in Paul’s locus of evangelism, from the Ephesian synagogue to residential house churches. This is followed by an exploration of the Ephesians’ distinctive adoration of Artemis. Finally, the dramatic clash between Christians and pagans in the Ephesian amphitheatre is scrutinized, with emphasis placed on the people involved and implications for the first century expansion of the Christian Church.

Рецензия на книгу: История русского Православного зарубежья: В 5 т. Т. 1. Кн. 2: Русское церковное присутствие в Европе до 1917 г. М.: Индрик, 2021. — 800 с.: ил.

A five-volume edition of "History of the Russian Orthodox Diaspora" is prepared by the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Moscow Theological Academy. The historical circumstances that determine the typical features of the Russian church presence in Western Europe are analyzed, starting from the first Russian embassy house churches to the flourishing of the Russian church building in Europe in the pre-revolutionary years. It is noted that the Russian church in Europe was not only a clear evidence of Orthodoxy, but also a signature landmark of Russia itself – its “clerical and diplomatic representation” and religious and cultural image.

Религиозная ситуация в Тольятти на примере Русской православной церкви (1988–1997 гг.)

Introduction. The article examines the religious situation and activities of Orthodox religious organizations, as well as changes in state-church relations in 1988–1997 on the example of Togliatti. The correlation between official religious policy and its concrete implementation on the ground is analyzed. The purpose of the article is to study the nature and assess the results of state-church relations in Togliatti after the adoption of the new Statute of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988, the USSR Law “On freedom of conscience and religious organizations” since October 1, 1990. The chronological framework of the study covers the years 1988–1997, since during this period it is possible to analyze how the church policy was carried out in this area after the adoption of the new Statute of the Russian Orthodox Church, the USSR Law “On Freedom of Conscience” conscience and religious organizations”dated October 1, 1990. Methods and materials. The purpose of the article was achieved using archival documents and materials from periodicals. The research methodology includes the method of document analysis, and when working with periodic materials, the method of synchronous comparison with documentary material was used. Analysis. In 1988, there was only 1 registered religious community in Togliatti in the name of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. In 1989–1997, it was possible to organize 7 Orthodox parishes in different districts of the city, 1 monastery, and 3 house churches. Despite the difficult times of crisis, their material base grew stronger. Since the beginning of the 90s of the 20th century, many Orthodox parishes have received serious assistance from the state and government bodies, representatives of industry, banking capital and business. Results. The article states that, despite the formal separation of religious organizations from the state, the ROC got preferences in the form of direct budgetary financing of church construction, attracting sponsorship funds through state institutions for the same temple construction, and creating charitable foundations in the center and locally.

Monepiscopacy: A Rational Choice Account

Over the course of three centuries, the institutional organisation of the Christian church evolved from small, loosely organised groups meeting in house churches to a form of hierarchical organisation known as monepiscopacy. Monepiscopacy denotes a form of ecclesial polity in which a single bishop possesses authority over the church and oversees the administrative responsibilities of that church as head of its ministry. This paper develops a theory that explains why the early Christian church ([Formula: see text]33CE–325CE) would choose monepiscopacy as a form of church polity. Specifically, we argue that monepiscopacy was an efficient governance framework for solving collective action problems, establishing legitimacy, screening high-effort converts, and constraining socially costly behaviours. Drawing upon the tools of rational choice theory and previous work in institutional economics, we argue that hierarchy helped the early church monitor and punish free-riding, coordinate around orthodox doctrine, and screen potential converts.

Impact of Tweens’ (Ages 8–12) Leadership Experience Over Other Children as Children Shepherds in House Church Ministries on Their Self-Concept Development as They Build Up the Body of Christ

This qualitative study is designed to explore how tween (ages 8–12) children shepherds in house church ministry develop their positive self-concept, through their helping leadership experience over other children. The purpose of the current study is articulated in the following three research questions: (a)What is the influence on self-concept development? (b) What environment/relational factors impact self-concept? (c) What is the influence of systematic support on tweens’ leadership experience? A total of 30 children shepherds participated in in-depth interviews ( n = 30); 27 children shepherds’ parents participated in the short surveys ( n = 27): seven ministers/volunteers participated in unstructured interviews ( n = 7) from five different local churches with the house church ministry in Texas and California. There are seven emerging themes implicating that children shepherds in the tween period could develop their positive self-concept along with the development of sociability, pro-sociality, and proactivity. Children shepherds’ holistic self-concept development is brought up by the social-emotional and programmatically practical support from church ministry. At the same time, this development can potentially influence their successful social adjustment in the faith community so that they can contribute to building up the body of Christ as members of the church in return. Furthermore, these findings extend their implications to examine the possibility of building up a novel model for the new era of children's ministry— Ministry by Children as children lead the ministry with their active participation and holistic dedication to their faith community.

Exploring gender relations in Paul’s use of salutations to house churches and the ubuntu oral praxis of sereto or isiduko

Paul usually ends his letters with salutations to believers who meet in someone else’s house. Far from being individualistic, these greetings also include people from different house churches. Considered from a functional angle, these greetings cement relationships between house churches. Within an ubuntu worldview, the oral praxis of sereto (Sepedi) or isiduko (IsiXhosa) (praise-poetry) establishes and confirms relationships between members of the same community (family, clan or tribe). The question is how such praxes affect women who belong to such communities.Contribution: This article is a comparative analysis of how some of the salutations used at the end of some of Paul’s epistles touch on gender relations in the same way as the ubuntu oral praxis of sereto or isiduko touches on gender relations among members of a community (family, clan or tribe).