| The Modern Church |
The House-Church Of The NT |
| 1. A modern church meets in a special building, often expensive to buy and maintain. | New Testament churches most frequently met in homes.
Acts 2:46-47; 5:42; 8:3; 12:12; 16:40; 20:7-8; 20:20; Rom 16:3-5; 1 Cor 16:19; Col.4:15; Philemon 2; 2 Jn 9-11 |
| 2. New members are sought so that the modern church keeps getting bigger and bigger. Size seems to be the goal. | When the number of believers outgrew a home, another house church was formed.
Rom. 16:3-5; 14-15; Acts 2:41-47 |
| 3. The modern church is divided into competing denominations, many of which do not teach the Bible verse by verse. | Instead of denominations, there was one church in each city, meeting in small groups in homes, to teach the Bible.
Acts 8:1; 11:26; 18:22; Rom 16:1; 1 Cor 1:2; Rev.2:1; Col 4:16; 1 Thess 1:1; Rev 2:12; 3:7; 3:1; 2:8; 2:18 |
| 4. Pastors are usually seminary trained. The people often have no real knowledge of the pastor’s life or character. | Elders were local people who were trained in the house church. Their life and character were well known.
Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5 |
| 5. The Sunday “worship service” is a spectator event where the Pastor and a few leaders do most of the ministering. | Sunday worship was interactive. Each member could exercise his/her spiritual gifts in ministry.
1Cor 12:4-27; 14:26; Eph 4:15-16; Rom 12:3-8; 1 Pet 4:10-11; Heb 10:23-25; Rom 12:15; 1Cor 12:26 |
| 6. Sunday morning worship follows a formal, generally inflexible order of service. | Sunday worship was informal, flexible and spontaneous. Acts 20:7-12; 1 Cor14:26-31, House-Church |
| 7. The goal is worship or passively listening to a sermon or sometimes, evangelism. |
The goal of the meeting was mutual edification, prayer and teaching the scriptures.
1 Cor 14:3,4,5,12,17,26; Eph 4:11-12,16; Heb 10:24-25 |
| 8. Church is often led by an unaccountable Pastor and/or an unaccountable Board. | Church was led by spiritual Elders, trained in, known by and accountable to the local congregation.
Acts 14:23; 20:28; Phil 1:1; 1Tim 4:17; Heb 10:17; James 5:14; 1 Pet.5:1-2, House-Church |
| 9. The Pastor is treated as if (s)he is better and more spiritual than the other Christians. | A team of spiritual elders taught scripture, led the church and were accountable to each other and to the local congregation. Acts 20:28; Titus 1:5-7; 1 Pet 5:1-2 |
| 10. The Pastor is paid a salary by the church. | Some elders may have been financially supported but elders were often self-supported, meaning they worked a job to pay living expenses.
1 Tim.5:17-18; Acts 20:33-35, House-Church |
| 11. Modern churches have a distinctive clergy/laity class system. | First century churches had an almost indiscernable clergy/laity distinction. The members together formed a spiritual priesthood, all of them responsible to God.
Heb 13:15-16; 1 Pet 2:5,9; Rev 1:6 |
| 12. The Lord’s Supper is observed every service or on a fixed schedule, usually with no admonition to get right with God before partaking and it is usually open to unsaved people. | The Lord’s Supper was observed as often as each local house-church desired, not necessarily every service and it was not offered to unsaved people.
Acts 20:7; 1Cor 11:18-20,33, |
| 13. The Lord’s Supper is observed with a wafer and a dip or a sip of grape juice. | The Lord’s Supper was observed as a full meal, with the elements of the Lord's Supper offered after the meal, to saved people who got right with God before partaking.
Acts 2:42,46; 1 Cor 11:20-21; Jude 12 |
| 14. The Lord’s Supper is often dull, solemn, almost funeral-like, open to lost and saved alike, sometimes emphasizing a vertical relationship with Christ, if that is mentioned at all. | The Lord’s Supper was observed with joyful hearts by saved participants who first judged their own sins, acknowledging the literal, physical absence of the Lord, not His literal, physical presence. Their joyful celebration pointed to the marriage supper of the Lamb and emphasized the believer’s horizontal relationship with other believers.
Acts 2:46; Luke 22:15-18,30; 1 Cor 11:26; Acts 2:42; 1 Cor 10:16, House-Church |
| 15. A new member must go through membership and instructional classes before (s)he can be baptized. | New believers were baptized as soon as humanly possible to publicly demonstrate their death to the old pagan life and their joyful resolve to follow Jesus in new life.
Acts 2:37-41; 8:12; 8:36-38; 9:17-18; 10:45-48; 16:31-34; 19:5 |
16. Baptism and/or sprinkling are performed by the clergy. | Baptism only by immersion, never by sprinkling in the New Testament, was performed by any born again Christian.
Jn 4:2; Acts 8:12; 8:36-39; 9:18; 22:16; 1 Cor 1:17, House-Church |
| 17. The congregation must be present when someone is baptized. |
The congregation was not always present when someone was baptized.
Acts 8:12; 8:36-39; 16:31-34 |
| 18. The preacher delivers (sometimes reads) a monologue sermon with little opportunity for questions and not much input from the congregation. | Spirit-filled teaching elders taught the scriptures and took time to answer questions. Teaching and learning scripture was the goal.
Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 14:29-35, House-Church |
| 19. The modern church spends most of its income to support the pastor and the building. | Since many pastors or teaching elders were self-supported and the church met in homes, the money people gave was used to help poor Christians, assist widows and assist Christian workers in other areas (missions). First century churches had very few if any administrative expenses.
Acts 2:44-45; Gal 6:9-10; 1 Jn 3:17; 1 Tim 5:17-18; 1 Cor 9:6-14; 2 Cor 8:3; Phil 4:15-18; Lk 12:33-34; Eph 4:28; James 1:27 |
| 20. Believers are urged to tithe, i.e., to give at least 10% to the church, as if they are still under OT Law. | Believers gave from willing hearts, as God had prospered them. Tithing is not taught as a Christian obligation after the resurrection of Christ because we are under grace, not Law.
2 Cor 8:3-4; 9:7, Romans 6:14 |
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