HOUSE CHURCH AND MISSION

The author is adjunct professor at George Fox University in Portland, Oregon but has served on the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ.  He brings together both scholarship and the health of the church.  In that he comes from these two backgrounds, he is not simply being theoretical but has the life of the church central in his thinking and writing.  We know that early Christianity was rooted in the structures of the household for at least three hundred years. The church met in private homes, it grew apace, its testimony was powerful in the days when the empire was far from sympathetic to it.  This fact is omitted from much thinking and writing on the church.  However, interest in house churches has increased dramatically in the last fifty years and this book is vital reading for those seeking understanding of the role of house and church and mission.  This book is comprehensive in its examination of the subject and is not overly technical.  It looks at the subject of the church in the home Biblically, socioeconomically and also archeologically.  Evidence is considered from the New Testament concerning home churches.  How large were they?  How did they function?  What about leadership?  Did it involve women in leadership?  As the book progresses the evidence builds to indicate the essence of the church is to do with households rather than special structures in which the church is to meet.  If the church is to be truly missional and ministerial in todays world then it is vital that a return to the more intimate household pattern increases even though other structures be retained alongside.  Although there are a number of books on this subject available none compares with this one for its wide scope in considering the subject.  Archeological evidence corroborates and enhances New Testament passages and along with this consideration of family structures and their effect on church life all serve to build a picture of church which challenges us in our day.