Some Americans have chosen to worship in small, informal gatherings instead of attending traditional churches. Called “house churches,” “simple churches” or “organic churches,” they are a modern attempt to recapture the spirit of the first-century church, when small groups of Christians gathered in each other’s homes and each person – male or female – contributed to worship. Today’s house churches are generally regular gatherings of fewer than 20 people meeting in a member’s home, or sometimes a local theater or bar during off hours. They are peer-led and have at least one belief in common: Where two or more are gathered in his name, there is church.
While house churches have long been a part of the underground worship scene in countries without freedom of religion, their numbers appear to be growing in the United States. By how much, it’s not clear. A June 2009 Barna Report says that in a typical month, 10 percent of U.S. adults attended house churches – up from one percent in 1996 – and that 70 million U.S. adults have had some experience with a house church. Some say that’s too high, but worship attendance has always been difficult to count, and the informal nature of house churches makes it even harder.
Background
Why it matters
House churches are a part of the post-modern trend in Christian worship that is marked by the breaking down and re-imagining of traditional forms of worship. The house church movement – and the broader emerging church movement – has the potential to reshape the mainstream way of doing church.
Questions for reporters
- Why is the house church movement growing?
- What attracts people to house churches?
- What is the response of leaders of traditional churches to house churches?
- What kind of internal structures do house church members construct to protect themselves?
- What does the future of the house church movement look like?
House / simple church organizations on the web
-
Church Multiplication Associates
Church Multiplication Associates is a nondenominational organization that promotes the “voluntary association of a multiplicity of expanding networks” They held their first Organic Church Movement Conference in Long Beach, Calif., in January 2007.
-
Early Church
The Early Church maintains a state-by-state list of house churches.
-
House2House
House2House is a webzine about the house church/simple church movement.
-
House Church Central
House Church Central is an online resource for those who run and worship in house churches. It maintains a worldwide directory of house churches that can be searched by city, state and county. Contact Herb Drake.
Articles
-
“‘Simple Churches’ Find A Foothold Across The U.S.”
Read a June 25, 2013 Huffington Post article about the growing popularity of ‘house churches’ in the U.S.
-
“‘House churches’ keep worship small, simple, friendly”
Read a July 22, 2010 USA Today article on the background of house churches, there prevalence in the U.S. and the intimacy it provides to worshipers.
-
“Why House Church?”
Read all about house churches and the reason behind their prominence and popularity in the U.S.
-
“House Churches Are More Satisfying to Attenders Than Are Conventional Churches”
A Barna Report survey released Jan. 8, 2007 found that people say they find house churches more satisfying than traditional churches in four major areas: leadership, faith commitment, personal and community connectedness, and spiritual depth.
-
“Why Home Churches are Filling Up”
Read a Feb. 27, 2006, Time magazine article about house churches and their growing popularity among church-goers.
National sources
-
John K. White
John K. White is a political science professor and fellow at the Life Cycle Institute at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
-
Brian D. McLaren
Brian D. McLaren, founding pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in Burtonsville, Md., is a central figure in the movement. He is a lightning rod among emerging thinkers because of his interest in the intersection of faith and progressive politics. His many books on the subject include the popular A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey (Jossey-Bass/Leadership Network, 2001). His latest book is A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Mystical/Poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished CHRISTIAN (Emergent/YS/Zondervan, 2004). He is on the board of Sojourners.
-
Todd M. Johnson
Todd M. Johnson is director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass. The rise of Pentecostalism has been a major focus of the program. He is also an expert on international religious demography and he edits the World Christian Database and is co-editor of the World Religion Database.
-
Wayne Jacobsen
Wayne Jacobsen is founder and president of BridgeBuilders, based in Moorpark, Calif. He co-drafted the Common Ground guidelines. Read Jacobsen’s June 2006 report about the process of creating an anti-harassment policy in Marshalltown, Iowa, public schools.
-
George Barna
George Barna is directing leader of The Barna Group, an evangelical research company in Ventura, Calif. He is author of nearly 50 books and over 100 articles. He is a popular speaker at ministry conferences around the world and has taught at Pepperdine and Biola Universities and several seminaries.
-
L. Michael White
L. Michael White is a professor in classics and religious studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is also director of the Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian Origins. He is an expert on house churches in the first century. He is also a frequent media commentator on biblical archaeology and appeared in the PBS series From Jesus to Christ.
-
Dan Hubbell
Dan Hubbell is a member of a house church in Winnsboro, Texas, near Dallas. He also runs a house church support website called Church Restoration and has helped plant house churches in the U.S. and four foreign countries, including China. He says China has experienced the largest boom in house churches, with more than 100 million people meeting in house churches.
-
Tony Dale
Tony and Felicity Dale are the authors of Simply Church (Karis Publishing, 2002). Both the Dales helped launch House2House.com, a support network for house churches. Tony agrees with George Barna’s theory that the current move toward house churches is a “third reformation” of Christianity. The Dales live in Austin, Texas.
-
Neil Cole
Neil Cole is a church starter and pastor, and founder and executive director of Church Multiplication Associates, which has helped start more than 700 churches in 32 states and 23 nations. He is the author of Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens (Jossey-Bass, 2005). He describes how to plant churches in nontraditional places – bars, neighborhoods, etc.
-
Paul Byerly
Paul and Lori Byerly publish House2House, a webzine for home church planters and members. They also conduct seminars and workshops on home churches. They are based in Manchaca, Texas.
-
Bill Tenny-Brittian
Bill Tenny-Brittian writes for the House Church Network Association. He says people say they join house churches for reasons of intimacy, the ability to participate more fully and the level of discipleship opportunities.
-
Frank Viola
Frank Viola is the founder of Present Testimony Ministry and the author of several books on house churches. He lives in Gainesville, Fla.
-
Robert Fitts
Robert Fitts is a church planter and author of The Church in the House: A Return to Simplicity (Preparing the Way Publishers, 2001). He lives in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.
-
Dan Mayhew
Dan Mayhew is the editor of Church@Home Newsletter and a member of Summit Fellowships, a support network of house churches in Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash. He is based in Portland, Ore., and writes a blog.
He foresees a stream of house churches that will mimic the traditional approach to church by becoming centralized and market-driven, and he predicts a “new set of Christian celebrities” that will come out of house churches.
-
D. Allan Karr
D. Allan Karr is director of the Nehemiah Project in church planting, a joint venture of the North American Mission Board and Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, where he is an associate professor of church planting. He lives in Denver.
He told Time magazine that he estimates that three out of 10 churches founded today are simple churches and that their odds of survival are better than for the other seven.
Regional sources
In the Northeast
-
Jared Looney
Jared Looney is a church planter involved in house churches in the Bronx, N.Y. He is part of MetroSoul, a cooperative organization of church organizations and church planters working to plant simple churches throughout the New York metropolitan area. He blogs at Urban Ekklesia.
-
Felipe Mesa
Felipe Mesa has just started a house church in Taneytown, Md.
-
Stephanie Bennett
Stephanie Bennett writes about the home church/simple church movement for the webzine Relational Christianity and for AOL Hometown. She lives in Brick, N.J.
-
Finger Lakes Ekklesia Network
The Finger Lakes Ekklesia Network is an organization of four house churches in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.
-
Back to the Garden
Back to the Garden is a rotating house church in Saco, Maine.
In the South
-
AtlantaSaints.com
AtlantaSaints.com is a group of Christian men, women and children who meet for worship in their homes. Neil Carter is a teacher and website designer who is a member of this group who blogs. Contact Neil Carter.
-
Marshall Entrekin
Marshall Entrekin runs a house church in Kennesaw, Ga.
-
Mike Morrell
Mike Morrell, with Philip Scriber, is a member of a network of house churches in the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., area. Together, they maintain Sites Unseen, a website dedicated to emerging church.
-
Mike Indest
Mike and Christie Indest run Fellowship of Believers, a house church organization in Folsom, La., and a weekly radio show on the subject.
-
Joseph Cartwright
Joseph Cartwright is the founder of Awakening Church, a ministry dedicated to planting and supporting house churches. He is author of Poor In Spirit: One Man’s Journey Into Kingdom Simplicity and Telling The Truth: Gleanings From A Serial Church Planter (Joseph Cartwright, 2011).
In the Midwest
-
Jon Dale
Jon Dale is an entrepreneur and father of three who left a 10,000-plus-member megachurch for house churches in 2001. He blogs at Simply Church and is located outside Colorado Springs, Colo.
-
Mike Dowgiewicz
Mike Dowgiewicz is part of Restoration Ministries International, a nonprofit that assists groups in forming and supporting house churches. He and his wife have traveled to Israel to research the first house churches. He lives in Colorado Springs, Colo.
-
Don Mueller
Don Mueller is part of a house church in Cedaredge, Colo.
-
Matt Mawdsley
Matt and Tammy Mawdsley run a house church in Springfield, Mo.
-
Kevin Rains
Kevin Rains operates Vineyard Central, a community of house churches in the Cincinnati area. He left a Vineyard Church for a series of house churches in the 1990s. He likens the growth of house churches, and their organization into local networks without any kind of larger oversight, to the growth of the World Wide Web. He lives in Norwood, Ohio.
-
Nancy Austel
Nancy Austel is a house church planter in Indiana.
-
David Brecheisen
David Brecheisen is part of Church in Home, a Michigan-based church planting organization, and is a church planter involved in house churches in Chicago.
In the West
-
Ken Cluck
Ken Cluck left traditional pastoral ministry to plant house churches. He runs a house church in Orofino, Idaho.
-
Rick Horton
Rick Horton is the lead pastor and elder of Matthew’s House, a network of Southern California house churches based in Oceanside, Calif.
-
Gayle Erwin
Gayle Erwin publishes Servant Quarters, a newsletter and Web site that supports home churches. He is based in Cathedral City, Calif.
-
Frank Smith
Frank Smith is the founder of Crushed Grapes Ministry, a church planting ministry that helps people start home churches. He lives in Vista, Calif.
-
Roger Thoman
Roger Thoman is a former nondenominational church pastor who has been involved in house churches since 2002 and now helps plant new ones. He says it used to be that people who attended house churches were “bitter” about their experience in traditional churches, but that now people are joining house churches for more positive reasons, such as wanting to deepen their faith. He lives in Nipomo, Calif.
-
Brian Anderson
Brian Anderson is a member of a house church in Sonora, Calif. He also runs a website, Great Commission House Churches.