First: what is house church?
At its core, the term "house church" refers to a community of Christians who have decided to strengthen their faiths while meeting in one another's homes and intimately investing in each others' lives.
Why do people choose to be part of a house church?
The simple answer: we believe the house church structure provides the firmest foundation to empower and encourage Christians to pursue active, authentic, and communal faiths.
To keep it short, we believe house church can provide the best foundation for creating a church where “each part is working properly” and so “makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:16, ESV). We dig much more deeply into how the house church structure empowers Christians to live out the biblical precedents for the church in our article series, Choosing House Church. In particular, we look at the scriptural precedents for the church to have active body members who are all part of a royal priesthood and are known by their love for one another. Ultimately, our goal is to help the church grow as an accurate and mature representation of Christ and a conduit for "the manifold wisdom of God” to be “made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places" like Paul writes in Ephesians 3:10.
We also believe that as the Lord moves more of His people towards this structure, it can enable the church at-large to more effectively care for the lost, broken, orphaned, and widowed in both practicality and heart.
What is “Why House Church?” out to accomplish?
Ultimately, we have two major hopes: 1) to normalize the house church model and 2) to provide resources for developing healthy, mature house churches. We hope that by increasing visibility into both the purpose and practicality of healthy house churches, we can reduce the stigmas and nervousness sometimes associated with the model.
As part of that, we are committed to sharing resources that we are guiding but not prescriptive. Time and again, we have seen that systems that create strict cookie-cutter molds for new house church leaders have been unsustainable and neglected the needs of individual churches.
Who We Are
“Why House Church?” was started by a group of people who have been part of a house church for years. When the Lord was initially encouraging us to let go of our preconceptions of what church had to be, we all searched for resources like “Why House Church?” We never quite found anything that answered our questions. Now, we’re hoping to provide the next generation of house churches with the resources, perspectives, and representation that we wish we had back then.
Who We Aren't
There are a lot of wrong ideas about what house churches look like. Whether those ideas stem from misunderstanding or from experience with immature small faith communities, we’re hoping to unravel those myths and misconceptions. In breaking down the most common misunderstandings (and fears) surrounding house church, we hope both to help existing house churches mature and to remove barriers for those nervous about taking the next steps in their house church journey.