House church

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In Christianity , a house church or house church refers to groups that understand worship as an integral part of their life than as a worship event. They maintain fellowship in smaller groups, often in private homes. House churches can exist individually or be part of a more or less organized larger community.

In the 20th century, a so-called house church movement emerged in the evangelical tradition , which emphasizes the community of Christians in everyday life (private houses) and has developed an independent church teaching for this .

background

The early Christianity is said to have started house churches, because there was no church building. The community life was therefore as with Jesus and his disciples (Mk 14:14; Jn 12,1f) mainly in the interpersonal relationships of church members from, as well as in informal meetings (see. Acts 2.41 to 47  [1] ; Acts 12 , 12  [2] ). During the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire , the house church (ecclesia domestica) was one of the places for secret gatherings.

The Catholic theologian Stefan Heid questions this house church theory and considers it a “science phantom of the 20th century”. The four so-called “house church formulas” in Paul ( Rom 16.5  EU ; 1 Cor 16.19  EU ; Col 4.15  EU ; Phlm 1–2  EU ) are considered to be the central evidence for this theory . "Church" here simply means the community, as for all other Greek-speaking people of that time. Paul greets the household of a friend in four letters. These house communities then possibly also included non-Christians, although often entire house communities were baptized together ( Acts 16.15  [3] ; 1 Cor 1.16  [4] ). According to Heid, this does not say anything about worship or the celebration of the Eucharist . If that is correct, an important clue for the existence of house churches is missing. Sure, wealthy Christians also lived in “houses”, that is, private city residences. But that these residences formed their own worship centers cannot be proven. Conversely, Heid refers to texts that suggest that until the 4th century there was only one Christian worship congregation in each city, headed by a presbyteral college or a bishop. The idea that Christians hid in the catacombs during the persecution of Christians is also doubtful.

During the High and Late Middle Ages , house churches were inevitable in most Christian movements outside the church, for example among the Waldensians and Lollards .

In addition to the public mass in Latin and German, Martin Luther was also able to imagine a "house church" as a domestic worship gathering in the full sense, including sermon, communion and baptism. He presents this format as an ideal that would lead to the penetration of the church and society with the good news of the gospel. However, he never took up the idea again later.

In addition to house groups, there are house churches up to the present day in which all church life takes place in private homes. In communist and Islamic countries where Christianity is or was officially banned, house churches meet underground. House churches, for example, play a major role in Chinese Christianity (see Chinese house church ).

particularities

House churches are characterized by a pronounced congregationalism and detachment from conventional congregations, churches, confessions and denominations. The priesthood of all believers is emphasized and less the clerical-laity contrast. The individual house church is understood as a family or an extended family . Their structures and relationships are modeled accordingly. The clarity and the close network of relationships is viewed as life in the body of Christ . The participation of all with their gifts and abilities in community life is emphasized in the domestic church, which includes charismatic aspects in liturgy and community life.

literature

House Church Movement
  • Felicity Dale: Healthy Start for House Churches. GloryWorld Media, 2006, ISBN 3-936322-24-4 .
  • Tony & Felicity Dale: Simply Church. GloryWorld Media, 2003, ISBN 3-936322-05-8 .
  • Mike & Sue Dowgiewicz: Times of Restoration . GloryWorld Media, ISBN 3-936322-23-6 .
  • Robert Fitts: The Church in the House - A Return to Simplicity. GloryWorld Media, 2002, ISBN 3-936322-00-7 .
  • Roger Gehring: House Church and Mission. 2000, ISBN 3-7655-9438-5 .
  • Paul Hattaway: Heavenly Man. 5th edition. Brunnen Verlag, Giessen 2007 (report from a Chinese house church leader from the 1980s and 1990s).
  • Richard Schutty: Simply (e) community life. TAUBE Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-936764-04-8 .
  • Wolfgang Simson : Houses that change the world. C&P Verlag, 1999, ISBN 3-928093-12-6 .
  • Keith Smith: House Church Manifesto for Germany. GloryWorld Media, 2009, ISBN 3-936322-38-4 .
Church history
  • Stefan Heid : Altar and Church. Principles of Christian liturgy. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-7954-3425-0 , pp. 69–160.
  • Stefan Heid: Was there a Quartodeciman congregation in Rome? In: Roman quarterly for Christian antiquity and church history 114 (2019), pp. 5–26.
  • Stefan Heid: Were there “house churches”? Notes on a Phantom. In: Studia Teologiczno-Historyczne Śląska Opolskiego 38 (2018), nr 1, pp. 13–48. on-line
  • Victor Saxer: * Domus ecclesiae * - οἶκος τῆς ἐκκλησίας in the early Christian literary texts. In: Roman quarterly for Christian antiquity and church history 83 (1988), pp. 167–179.
  • Frank Viola : Ur- Congregation : How Jesus actually imagined his congregation , Gloryworld media; 2010, ISBN 3-936322-473

See also

  • House church as a church building in the Protestant diaspora in the form of a house (inconspicuously lined up in the building) such as the house church Kirchherten

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefan Heid: Altar and Church. Principles of Christian liturgy. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-7954-3425-0 .
  2. ↑ Martin Luther: German mass and order of worship . In: WA . tape 19 , 1526, pp. 75 f .