It’s important to know that the church is about people and not about places. The word church in the New Testament is a translation of the word ekklesia, which means “called out ones” or “assembly.” It doesn’t refer to a building or place, so it would be wrong to give too much importance to any location a church chooses to meet.

The Bible often refers to the early church taking place in people’s homes. Here are some verses that show examples of the variety of people opening up their homes for church:

In I Cor 16:19 Paul says, “The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings from the Lord.”

In Philemon 2 he sends greetings to “Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house.”

And in Col 4:15 Paul sends greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.” (Col 4:15)

It is essential that we don’t idolize a model, but keep our focus on Jesus, the Word, and the Spirit, wherever a church happens to meet.

That being said, some of us today need permission to gather in a different form and the Bible gives us plenty of room for creativity in how and where we meet. As John Piper stated, “Nowhere in the NT is it commanded or forbidden that local churches meet in homes. It is perfectly acceptable that they do, and acceptable that they don’t. This is not something God thought it wise to regulate. No doubt, I think, in part because of the incredibly diverse cultural situations the church would find itself in for the next two thousand years: under trees, in garages, in stores, in cellars, in caves, in cathedrals, in homes.”

While a sermon is a helpful tool, it’s just one of the ways a community can learn about God and the Bible. Another way to learn is through interactive discussion that’s based on Scripture. Jesus often taught his disciples through dialogue rather than a one-person monologue. He engaged people in a discussion, through asking them questions. He taught Scripture through a back and forth conversation, inviting people to think and respond. Being in a smaller community or house church makes having a group dialogue around Scripture possible.

In the New Testament, Paul instructed the early church to “teach and admonish” one another, and he encouraged each person to participate in the gathering. An interactive style of teaching and learning seems to be the way the early church was set up, and it’s a way we can still approach learning in our smaller communities today.

The good news is, based on Colossians 3:16, musical talent is NOT REQUIRED for Christ to dwell richly among us. What’s required? Grateful hearts and singing.

But from a practical standpoint let’s talk through a few ideas for leading worship without musical ability.

Sing to recorded music: the resources for playing your favorite worship songs are ENDLESS! Utilizing streaming services of any kind on any device of your choosing is a great way to worship together without having a musical leader. You can even utilize online worship videos that tend to have the lyrics displayed so everyone can engage. What I love about this, is anyone can help facilitate this in your gathering, they don’t have to be musically inclined whatsoever.

Worship together in a circular setup: why does this matter? Well a circle helps to eliminate the visual presence of one leader at the front. If we are all together in a circle or similar shape, this relieves pressure of any one person to lead the worship. Instead it encourages all people to sing together, over each other, admonishing one another just as the scripture says.

Have the kids lead: this is a fun way to help the children feel a part of the group and relieves the pressure for one person to lead the worship. If the children help to lead the songs, everyone feels the need to participate to help them feel comfortable. What ends up happening? You find that everyone starts singing along! This can be with recorded music or acapella. In addition, the kids can create motions to the songs or you can utilize an online resource for this, to help the children feel more comfortable singing with everyone.

By our current leadership standards in churches in the West, Jesus’s own disciples probably wouldn’t even be considered adequately prepared for leadership. And even some in Jesus’s time had trouble with who he considered qualified to lead in his mission. In Acts 4, as the two apostles Peter and John were boldly speaking to the crowds before them, people were astonished, knowing they weren’t trained in a way that qualified them to do so. The more qualified people in the crowd questioned where the power behind their words even came from. Finally, they realized it was less about their education and more of the company they had been keeping: Acts 4:13 says that they recognized they had been with Jesus.

Jesus chose ordinary people to become his followers and eventually start the church, which primarily led in homes. Here are some names of men and women that the Bible started had churches in their houses: Apphia, Archippus, Lydia, Nympha, Priscilla and Aquila, and Philemon.

One thing we are noticing today, in other parts of the world, is that ordinary people are sharing about Jesus as soon as they decide to follow him. And taxi cab drivers, school teachers, and former drug dealers that are devoted to Jesus and His Word, and are filled with the power of the Spirit, are leading networks of rapidly growing house churches.

It seems that some of the qualifications we put on leaders of churches, from PhDs in seminaries to having to have charismatic personalities to lead the masses, simply weren’t qualifications in the early church and aren’t qualifications in much of the church outside the West today.

Now there are definitely reasons you should pause before leading a house church. Some of these reasons include:

anger and wounding at the church that has not been dealt with or healed

lack of support from fellow believers and mentors

and being stuck in a pattern of sin.

People that will do well leading a house church are typically Christ followers that have been WITH Jesus for some time, who are generally spiritually and emotionally healthy, who are already making disciples, and are ready to be on a Spirit-led adventure for at least two years. They don’t start alone, but with a few other passionate followers of Jesus who are humble, dependable, and ready to share in leadership.

● It depends how that word is understood. Too many times in our current Western model, the word “Pastor” has come to mean the person that does it all - leads a staff, preaches sermons, counsels people, leads new initiatives, keeps the budget, and more. As more and more leaders in the church experience burnout, we have to go back and redefine what it means to be a pastor, and also understand that there is more than one leadership gifting that is meant to carry the whole. Pastors are part of five functioning ministries also including Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Teachers.

● The word shepherd is used interchangeably with other words such as overseer or elder. These are three different Greek words for differing functions of the one role. There is no concept in the NT of a traditional pastor figure over and above the elders in the church. The way the church was designed to work was the elders teams and other 4 ministries work together. Read more about this in our leadership documents.

● 5-fold ministry according to Eph 4:11-12 was given not to DO the ministry but to equip God’s people for ministry. Too often professional ministry has sidelined ordinary disciples from walking in their spiritual gifting because it has been reserved for the so called ‘qualified’. Paul says only when these function properly will the body of Christ be built up, be united and mature to look like Jesus in His full stature and character.