Meeting House to House

[NOTE: The brief discussion below is from a forthcoming book.]

AS MENTIONED IN THE LAST chapter, the early church at some point after Pentecost broke from the tradition of worship in the temple and began meeting in homes. We have seen that leaders over the first congregations, in cities like Corinth and Thessalonica, were appointed by the apostles and shared their duties alongside others. We have also seen that believers in the early church meetings exercised a wide diversity of gifts of the Spirit in order to edify the church as a whole. But admittedly very little has been said of what these meeting may have looked like – or what they should look like today.

 

For those interested in doing house church a host of questions present themselves, having to do with leadership, logistics, organization, doctrine, giving and finances, interaction with other churches, outreach and evangelism, and doubtless many other issues. What I intend to focus on here, however, are the principles operating behind the house church meeting itself, patterned after the New Testament. 

 

Probably the most useful New Testament book for getting a handle on practical church dynamics is 1 Corinthians. Having established a sort of "division of labor" in the church in Chapter Twelve ("many parts, one body"), and the spiritual preeminence of love in Chapter Thirteen, Paul begins to break down some practical issues of holding a church meeting in Chapter Fourteen:

 

^26 "How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. ²⁷ If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. ²⁸ But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God. ²⁹ Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. ³⁰ But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. ³¹ For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. ³² And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. ³³ For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

 

³⁴ Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. ³⁵ And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.

 

³⁶ Or did the word of God come originally from you? Or was it you only that it reached? ³⁷ If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. ³⁸ But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant.

 

³⁹ Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak with tongues. ⁴⁰ Let all things be done decently and in order" (1 Cor. 14:26-40).

 

Though there are, again, numerous issues to address concerning house church, I believe three important matters in this text call for special attention. First, there is the need for all to participate. When Paul says that each part of the body is "necessary" (1 Cor. 12) and each part "does its share" (Eph. 4), he speaks the language of participation. This needs to be mentioned because many of us have come from comparatively stifling church backgrounds in which one man does all the talking. (Indeed, the argument could be made that 1 Cor. 14 simply has no application in a traditional church setting.) In a healthy house church environment, each member has something to contribute; and just as all the parts of the body are essential, so all the gifts of the Spirit are essential. In the text above some teach, some sing, prophesy, interpret, etc., each and all for edification of the body. 

 

Secondly, all things must be done in order. Now for years when I read "in order," I thought this meant that things must be organized and controlled – that the church service began at a regular time, that there was a predictable order of worship,[1] that the ushers were at the door to greet those entering the building, that the chairs were arranged in the correct pattern, and so on. However, the emphasis here seems to be on mutual respect and courtesy rather than mechanical compliance to a set routine. Paul thus instructs that speaking in tongues be done "each in turn." Similarly, those with a prophetic word are to prophesy "one by one." Each member, then, has to be polite and wait for (better still, listen to) the one speaking, and allow him to finish. The Corinthians were apparently an impatient lot, because not only did they have a habit of interrupting one another, but they even cut in line at the Lord's Supper: "For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of the others…" (1 Cor. 11:21). 

 

Finally, there must be mutual respect. One of the more divisive issues increasingly confronting the church is the role(s) of women in ministry, particularly in leadership. Paul in this text says "Let your women keep silent in the churches." To a modern mind unfamiliar with first century culture that sounds right away like simple gender discrimination. For that reason this is a sore subject for many, women and men alike. Among those most disaffected by the old pastor-as-monarch paradigm, after all, are women with a sincere but suppressed desire to function effectively in the body of Christ. Many observers would agree that the evangelical church, while implicitly encouraging men to "rise up" and pursue leadership, typically restricts women's ministry to secondary roles – in Sunday Schools, nurseries, children's churches, and administrative tasks.

 

Now I am aware that scholars have interpreted this passage to mean everything from "Women need to shut up in church just like Paul says," to "This is a purely cultural matter restricted to the early church in Corinth." And in the interest of disclosure let me say that I am not a professional scholar myself. Nonetheless, a straightforward reading of v. 34-35 in the context of 1 Cor. 14:26-40 suggests to me initially, at least, that Paul has the proper recognition of authority in mind, as a means to help maintain proper order in the church. It may be that some of the women were hijacking the meetings by speaking out of turn, interrupting even their own husbands. This is bound to happen from time to time, of course, as words spoken and ensuing discussion sometimes becomes emotionally engaging. But when the meeting becomes disorderly as a result there is confusion (v. 33).

 

Note that while Paul says "Let your women keep silent in the churches," in the same breath he adds, "they are to be submissive, as the law says." Paul evidently wasn’t referring so much to all the women, but the wives, for he adds that they should "ask their husbands at home" when they have questions (presumably questions that might veer the meeting off course and onto "bunny trails," as we like to say in our own house church group). Nor was he saying that the women (married or not) should be completely silent, because earlier in the same chapter he expresses his wish that "all prophesy" and that "each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation." Additionally Paul has already mentioned women in the church who do prophesy, in a similar context of doing so while honoring the authority of their husbands (1 Cor. 11:3-5). 

 

However, reputable scholars like Walter Kaiser have suggested an alternative interpretation, that when Paul mentions "the law" in v. 34 to support the idea of keeping women silent, he actually refers to the Talmud (the oral law) rather than the Old Testament.

 

The problem simply put is this: nowhere in the whole Old Testament does it teach or even imply what is claimed here! No law in the entire Old Testament, much less the Torah, can be cited to teach that woman “must be in submission” and “remain silent” and, if she wants to know or ask about anything, she “should ask [her own] husband at home.”  Women spoke freely in public in both testaments.[2]

 

With that observation in mind Grenz and Kjesbo add:

 

Another possibility is that the statements directing women to keep silent represent the teachings of Paul's opponents, which he quotes from the Corinthian correspondence to him. The rhetorical questions (v. 36) introduced by the exclamation "What!" form Paul's refutation of the ban on women's vocal participation in worship.[3]

 

In other words, some of the Corinthian men were actually citing bits from the Talmud in vv. 34-35 to keep the women "in their place," and Paul chose at this point in the letter (vv. 36-37) to rebut their claim by pointing out that access to the truth of God's word was not limited to a handful of rabbis presuming themselves to be the proper custodians of divine revelation. I lean toward this latter interpretation, not only because nowhere does the Old Testament explicitly command the silence of women, but because it makes better sense of the passage as a whole, with the emphasis on both participation and order. 

 

Of course much has been said on this subject and readers are encouraged to study further.[4] My take on the whole passage is basically this: Each of us should have something to share – women by all means included – but for that to happen each has to also limit how much they share at any one time. In short, ministry in the New Testament church is marked by both liberty and love. Liberty in the Holy Spirit allows all the members of the body to express the gifts God has given them, and the love of Christ demands that they do so only with due respect for others and reverence for the Lord himself: "submitting to one another in the fear of God" (Eph. 5:21).  

 

---

[1] In most of the churches I ever attended the order of worship ran like clockwork: first, a handful of preselected songs led by a worship team; then announcements; then opening prayer; then a sermon by the pastor; then an altar call; then a closing song; then a closing prayer.

 

[2] Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., "Correcting Caricatures: The Biblical Teaching on Women," http://www.walterckaiserjr.com/womenpage4.html.

 

[3] Stanley J. Grenz & Denise Kjesbo, Women in the Church: A Biblical Theology of Women in Ministry (Downer's Grove, Ill: Intervarsity, 1995), p. 119.

 

[4] For a more thorough examination of this topic from a house church perspective see John Fenn, Return of the First Church (Indianapolis: Dog Ear Publishing, 2007), pp. 166-174.