Where should the church gather?

Question

Where my congregation gathers, we have a Brethren-like "house church" system, which means that we have no building for the church meeting. But the number of members is increasing and we are about to face a decision: split the members into 2 house groups, or go up and rent a hall in order to gather everyone in one place.

We had a discussion about that with the elders and one argument was that

There is no reference of a christian regular gathering model in the New Testment other than house gathering (eg. Act 2:46; Rom 16:5, 14, 15; 1Cor 16:19; Col 4:15; Phm 2). And the reference of the Temple in Acts 2:6 wasn't properly a christian meeting, but a practice of Judaism transfered to Christianity at that time.

But the counter-argument to the above was that

There is no doctrine at all about the place of gathering in the New Testment. We have doctrine about how to gather, what to do and how to do almost everything in the church meeting, how to order the meeting, even the necessity of gather, but no word is written about where the meeting has to take place. We only have examples and to make theology out of examples we need to (specially) consider the context, and in considering the early church context (historical, cultural, religious, thological) we see why they gathered in houses, but this is no such thing as a limit, but a solid ground for us to build upon.

The controversy

After the discussion, the question was settled: are the examples of house gatherings in the New Testament an evidence of a theological stablishment, an oral doctrinal statement and a common sense at the early church that just houses are expected to host the Church regular gathering? Or just the natural flow that the Holy Spirit chose?

My questions

1. Is there any writing from a reliable source of church meeting in the early church (400AD-) outside the context of a house host?

2. Is there any writing from a reliable source that the church had a prohibition on theological grounds for hosting a meeting in a rented or built hall instead of the house context?

3. Is there any good argument about why we should host the church regular meeting in a hall building, if there is no example of that in the NT?

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Sorry for my bad English, Portuguese speaker here. God bless.

Answer 1

By way of answer, I refer you to this article on the history of Christian meetings. I'll summarize some sections.

In the first century, Christians generally met in homes, especially the homes of more prominent members.

The Acts of the Apostles portrays the first Christian community in Jerusalem as gathering in the temple colonnades and “breaking bread in their homes.” As the Christian message gained a wider hearing in eastern Mediterranean cities, early believers commonly met in the homes of the community’s more prominent members. Though houses came in various styles and sizes, an atrium in a Roman villa (or a spacious dining room of a Greek house) would accommodate the needs of the small Christian communities.

By AD 150, even though the church had grown significantly, the pattern had not changed much:

Justin’s defense before Rusticus also suggests that although the Christians in Rome were becoming fairly numerous, they did not abandon meeting in homes, even if that meant the Christian community could no longer assemble in one place. Thus, the house-church pattern, first articulated in the New Testament, continued for the first generations of the church’s expansion in the Roman world.

However it does not appear that this was done for theological reasons.

Then the prefect, Rusticus, demanded: “Where do you meet?” “Wherever it is each one’s preference or opportunity,” said Justin. “In any case, do you suppose we can all meet in the same place?”

100 years later, around 250AD, Christians were meeting in buildings converted specially for the purpose. One example was unearthed from the siege of Dura-Europos in 256AD.

[One of these houses] had been altered to become a Christian church. The private residence was modified by removing one interior wall in the dining area, creating a larger room for Christian services. A small dais at the eastern end of the hall probably served as the worship center. Benches were installed around the walls of an interior courtyard, perhaps to mark off a place of instruction. In yet another room, a canopied baptismal font was erected, flanked by frescoes of Adam and Eve, and the Good Shepherd—perhaps signifying the Fall and Redemption.Though it began as a private house, after renovation all domestic use ceased, and the building became property of the church.

Very shortly after that, churches were being purpose-built.

Unlike the house churches, which looked outwardly like private dwellings, the churches erected [around 260AD] were large structures. They were designed to accommodate the throngs of new believers who swelled the church’s ranks. In some cases, Christian communities acquired property adjacent to the renovated house churches, tore down or modified their properties, and built spacious new prayer halls.

Another fifty years and church building were becoming highly visible.

Church buildings attracted the ire of Diocletian and his colleagues during the last and greatest persecution of early Christianity (303–311). It was left to the patronage of Constantine (312–337) to rebuild these churches in an even more splendid manner.

To answer the question specifically, by 400AD church buildings were commonplace, and had been around for at least 150 years. Some examples of these buildings still exist today.

Answer 2

Acts 5:42 references preaching in the Jewish temples and house to house as you referenced:

"And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus." - Acts 5:42 ESV

Clearly, from this, the message of the gospel of Christ is not restricted to a specific venue or format. Certainly this was not always the case in the Old Testament. Prior to Christ's life, death, and resurrection, God would meet with his people in a physical place of dwelling, and there were rules to be followed. (See Numbers 1:51 for example)

But now, God interacts with his people through the work of the Holy Spirit, and we are the temple:

"Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple." - 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 ESV

Further, Jesus himself tells us that:

"For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." - Matthew 18:20 ESV

Although this verse is not referencing corporate worship of the church, it is significant in that Jesus states that he comes to wherever they are gathered, in this case to give authority to the decisions of the church leaders. They do not come to him to meet in a temple or tabernacle.

From this, it is clear that there is no requirement of the church structure, venue or location. As long as the church follows the teaching and practices of the Scripture, the building itself is not particularly relevant.

Answer 3

Where the church should gather?

An archeological assessment of past practices may not be the best basis for determining present practice.

Like what you are experiencing, the driving force is size. Also, as you are experiencing, people do not want to give up the joy of close fellowship.

However, as you try to scale up Christianity (or any relational experience) it usually follows that there is a transition from intimate fellowship to the organizational characteristics of the early Catholic church. Hierarchy, doctrines of control more than personal instruction, and an emphasis on rules define the management of a collective.

It is understandable that people want to grow in size and keep their close fellowship. However, it is impossible to accomplish. Just like a family cannot remain a family if they keep all their children as they grow and marry and have their own children. They would have to organize themselves along collectivist lines in order to function.

If you get larger, you find that you need to segregate the children and then segregate those who look after the children. Soon many are compartmentalized and the close fellowship you had at the beginning is lost.