What exactly is a house church?

Admittedly, “house church” isn't always the best label for this category. But it is the most recognizable term to describe what we’re after. In this post, we’ll first outline a few nuances and problems, then lay out exactly what a house church is.

There are several other labels people use to describe this category of church expression besides house church, such as simple church, organic church, micro church, and home church. So when we use "house church," we mean it to capture those terms as well.

Perhaps the biblical terminology is best, though. In the New Testament, we see several times the phrase “the church that meets in NAME’s house.” For example, “Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house” (Colossians 4:15) and “Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 16:19b).

So, a house church most typically meets in someone’s house. But it doesn't have to. That's one reason some people have started using other labels, such as simple church and the others mentioned above. A house church could meet in a park, a restaurant, an office building, an RV, or wherever.

Another problem with the term house church is that we don't think the thing that most identifies us as a church is the type of structure we meet in. We don't call a more conventional church a “building church” or an “amphitheater church,” so distinguishing a church by its structure is slightly problematic for this reason. Nonetheless, "house church" remains the most common term for this category. So for recognizability, we use the term.

When we refer to a house church, we mean a small, simple gathering of believers organized in an autonomous, decentralized way. Let's look at those four signifiers:

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Small

Typically, a house church is small because we are limited by the size of everyday spaces and by an interactive, relational format. You can only fit so many people in a house or similar space. Also, if a group gets too big, it is hard to have meaningful interactions and relationships. From experience, we've seen about 12 adults plus children to be a healthy upper limit in size. Many house churches are smaller than that. And when a church gets bigger, it faces a dilemma: either divide or become a more conventional church. Many large, even mega churches, started in living rooms! That's why small isn't the only signifier. These other categories are key, too.

Simple

Most conventional churches are complicated. They require significant labor, finances, facilities, programs, expertise, and other resources to maintain their operations.

A house church, on the other hand, is simple. It can survive with little to no volunteer schedule, budget, dedicated facility, programming, professionals, or other resources. That's because a house church can use the resources already available in the community, such as the houses and other spaces its people live in or use for work and play. It's also an all-hands-on-deck enterprise.

So rather than needing a volunteer schedule, the people in the church step up to meet the community's needs as they arise. They make food to share from what's already in their refrigerators and move a few chairs from the dining room to the living room as needed. There is no need for a professional band. An acoustic guitar or a Spotify playlist usually will do. And rather than centering the gathering on a monologue prepared by one expert, there is typically more interactive discussion with everyone participating.

As a matter of fact, you can have a complicated church that meets in a house. We have seen churches that meet in homes with sound systems, vestments, pipe organs, pulpits, pews, sermons, volunteer schedules, nurseries, and the like. We wouldn't call these churches "house churches" per se. They are traditional churches that meet in homes. That's why simplicity is a key signifier of a house church that plans to remain a house church and not grow into a larger gathering in a more formal space.

Autonomous

A house church is a legitimate church that, on its own, can perform the full spectrum of what it means to be the church, including baptizing, celebrating the Lord’s supper, and helping to start (or “plant”) other churches.

People often compare house churches to more typical small groups within a larger church, but most small groups are not autonomous in this sense. They are dependent on a centralized form of leadership and institutional affiliation that often does not grant a small group the authority to baptize, celebrate the Lord’s supper, start other groups, appoint leaders, and perform similar functions.

A house church is a church. Full stop. It isn't a less legitimate, fledgling, half-church. It is a church.

Decentralized

Whereas conventional church structures, as we know them, are typically centralized in their leadership and decision-making practices, house churches are decentralized.

Centralization is the practice of limiting authority to a select set of individuals who typically act as gatekeepers for decisions. It is a top-down approach that often fosters consistency and clarity about who does what. But it also leads to bureaucracy and the disempowerment of most people in the system.

On the other hand, decentralization allows the ordinary person to make decisions at the most local levels without having to pass through layers of hierarchy. For example, if someone in a house church wants to start a prayer gathering, they can typically go ahead without needing a leader's approval.

That said, there is a place for leadership, such as elders, in house churches. It's just that the leadership is less managerial and more empowering in its style.

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Are there unhealthy house churches? Certainly. But are there unhealthy conventional churches? Yes.

We cannot trust the structure alone to produce health. But it tends to be that the house church setting lends itself more powerfully to fulfilling the 100+ things we are commanded to do for “one-another” in the New Testament.

But that's a topic for another blog post. This post is simply an attempt to define house church as we use the term. We mean by house church: a small, simple, autonomous, and decentralized church. And although it is autonomous, it does not have to be isolated. In fact, it shouldn't be. House churches are healthiest when part of a larger network of house churches that is also autonomous and decentralized. Typically, we see elders appointed at this level of the network.

And if you don't know what to call it (house, simple, organic, micro, home, etc.), “the church that meets in so-and-so’s house” is a biblical way to refer to an individual (house) church community.