In Chinese, Home Church is “Underground Heaven”

The home church or also known as the house church (In Chinese, it is called the underground heaven) is a group of Christians who come together independently inside a home to conduct enriching activities related to the growth and development of their Christian faith.

In China, church homes were the venue for people who were banned from the outright practice of Christianity.  These homes were therefore underground groups and assemblies who would meet up for the sake of cultivating their faith, regardless of the dangers they face from society and from the Chinese government.

Building Community Relationships

Home churches are based on the contemporary belief and assumption that there is only one proper place to conduct meetings and assemblies related to one’s personal life—that is one’s very own home.  The home church movement believes that a closer sense of community and friendship is cultivated in a home environment instead of a larger body of believers in a worship assembly.

This is easy to understand because based on experiences of many Christian believers—it is hard to build relationships with each and every single member of your faith community if there are many of you present.  In contrast, if there are only 10 to 12 members, then intimate relationships may be easier to established in an environment with fewer people.

True to Jesus’ Example

If you visit the websites of these church home pages, such as the new home baptist church, you will normally see one banner proclaiming that home churches are better communities to be a part of because they are structured more closely to the example of Jesus Christ and his apostles.  As you know, Jesus taught mostly only 12 apostles in a small group fellowship. People today who are part of home churches believe that small communities are the best way to nurture faith in an individual.

Leadership Structure

When it comes to leadership, some groups and communities do not have clear leadership structures.  What this means is that there are no structures or hierarchies present in their communities.  They believe that we are all made to be like Jesus Christ and become leaders of our brothers and sisters to each other.  However, there are still a myriad of house churches that do have elders and deacons that serve to be the advisers for their small communities of faith.  Because they have the experience, members turn to them for advice regarding running the house churches.

Activities and Meetings

All the activities done at a church at home are free—no one has to pay a fee just to get in.  This does not mean that any person can just barge in anytime. It is important to have been invited by another member to be able to participate.  There is also a meal served during the meetings so that each member can share and partake of food and drink with the other members of the community—much like how Jesus and his apostles did it back then. These meetings are also very informal, as opposed to the structured worship done inside Catholic Churches ruled by the Vatican.

Hebrews 10:25 is a wise quote about life and love, in fact a command from God, that states that “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing…”, which apparently was already occurring at the time of the writing of the letter.  While I believe in meeting in a large worship group, such as at the First Baptist Church where I attend, there are pros and cons and both sides of the controversial topic of the validity of home churches.  There are many strong home church movements, including the Episcopal church home movement, and the idea is not going away.  One thing is certain, it is better to meet in smaller groups in homes than not to meet at all.