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For nearly three hundred years, early Christians met almost exclusively in private homes initially built only for domestic use. In this study, Roger Gehring investigates the missional significance of house churches from the time of Jesus through Paul in light of both theological and sociohistorical considerations.

All church structures take shape in the tension between preestablished theological requirements and the concrete social situation. Even in the New Testament, the emergence of separate house churches involved the potential danger of splintering the Christian movement. Nevertheless their essential family-based foundation has proven to be the life-generating cell and fundamental core of the missional church.

The development of early Christian ethics, the emergence of leadership structures, and the growth of ecclesiological concepts were all noticeably influenced by the households in which believers lived and gathered. In the last twenty-five years the house church phenomenon has generated a great deal of interest among New Testament scholars and church practitioners. Research has focused primarily on the architecture of these homes and on its corresponding social and theological implications.

House Church and Mission offers scholars the first comprehensive summary of evidence concerning home churches in the New Testament and supplies pastors and lay leaders with a well-crafted discussion of the nature of “church” that explores the practical implications of house churches on outreach.

“Massive erudition deployed with a deceptively light touch. Gehring connects the emerging twenty-first-century church with the apostolic first-century church in significant and revealing ways.”
—Leonard Sweet, Drew University

“If 75 percent of U.S. churches are declining and only 1 percent are growing by converting the “unchurched,” it is time to rethink how we do church. Gehring gives a broad and deep foundation for this reassessment. Panoramic in coverage of the literature, exegetically rich, archaeologically informed, socioscientifically alert—this fine work should bump discussion of the nature and mission of the church to a new level. By taking such careful stock of history, Gehring is in a position to shed light on practical concerns faced by pastors, church planters, missionaries, and others involved in church growth in our analogous current setting. His close attention to relevant academic debates ensures that this volume will be welcomed by New Testament specialists as well.”
—Robert W. Yarbrough, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

“This is far and away the most comprehensive survey of the role of the house—and household—according to the New Testament. It demonstrates persuasively their centrality for both church and mission in early Christianity. While, at a few points, modern assumptions may affect the author’s interpretation of the evidence, these are exceptions to his fine handling of the evidence. In a final chapter he also argues for the relevance of house and household for ecclesial life and Christian outreach today.”
—Robert Banks, Macquarie Christian Studies Institute, Australia

Reviews

“This important study, which originated as a doctoral dissertation, illumines a key dimension of early Christianity. Gehring traces in detail the archaeological and textual evidence for the central place of the household and the house structure itself as the characteristic gathering place for Christians in the first three centuries. The house church underwent development as it became an exclusive place for instruction and worship, until the appearance of the basilica structure in the Constantinian period. The importance of the household is already signaled in the Gospels and Acts as Jesus and the early community are portrayed as gathering in homes. The size and context of the home and its extended household gave distinctive character to Christian life, just as the home was a key component of Jewish life in the wake of the destruction of the Temple. Gehring concludes his study with some reflections on what the household setting of the Church might mean for Christian life and mission today.”
—The Bible Today

“Early Christianity was rooted in the structures of the household for its first three hundred years. This simple fact is often left out of most basic books on the church and seems increasingly important to the renewal of the church in our own time. If church and household were intimately related, and if church and household were thus central for church and mission then what role did they have in the early church? Gehring, adjunct professor at George Fox University in Portland, Oregon, has served on the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ and thus retains a profound interest in both scholarship and the health of the church.

“Gehring’s writing style is engaging without being overly technical. This is a truly comprehensive treatment of a major issue in renewal. I highly recommend serious practitioners read and discuss this worthwhile volume.”
—Reformation and Revival

This fine work is a translation by Roger Gehring of his Hausegemeine und Mission (BMW 9; Giessen: Brunnen, 2000), which was presented as his doctoral thesis in Tübingen under the supervision of Peter Stuhlmacher. Having this study so soon after its initial publication in German makes available in the English-speaking world the most recent European scholarship on this complex topic. Gehring reaches back behind the Pauline communities to examine the use of houses within the ministry of Jesus as presented in the Gospels, primarily in the Synoptics. Following this treatment of Jesus’ ministry, he then takes a chronological approach in looking at the early houses in Jerusalem named in Acts, then moves to the Pauline house churches and the later household codes in Colossians and Ephesians. His final chapter reviews this material for the ecclesiological and missional function of the house churches, as well as their significance. An appendix provides floor plans and reconstructions of some houses, house churches, and what Gehring calls church houses. As this brief overview indicates, Gehring brings together architecture, social analysis, and theology in a study of the phenomenon of the “house church” from 50 to 150 C.E. . . I certainly recommend this book for all students of the New Testament.
—Review of Biblical Literature

“[House Church and Mission] is [stimulating and helpful], and it is worthy of attention by all those interested in the structure of early Christian communities and the ‘growth’ of early Christianity.”
—The Catholic Biblical Quarterly

“Because the book is so comprehensive in scope, it is a welcome addition to the literature on house churches. Gehring demonstrates throughout the book that the household setting was vital in the expansion of Christianity.”
—Restoration Quarterly

“House Church and Mission deserves a wide reading by the missions’ community. It joins solid, detailed, biblical research with questions of practical mission work. Though the study assumes the reader has some knowledge of Greek, the lay leader will benefit as well. Biblical scholars will likely cherish this volume as an important resource for years to come.”
—Evangelical Missions Quarterly

“The place of the house church in early Christianity has been acknowledged for many years but serious study of the subject has been resumed with fresh vigor in the last twenty-five years. This book is a sustained attempt at the highest level to spell out the importance of the theme . . . [and] is one of the most extensive recent treatments of house churches in the New Testament, shedding light on architectural and ecclesiastical developments reaching into the early fourth century of the Common Era. It is a thorough, well-documented and illuminating study of a complex but important study.”
—Toronto Journal of Theology "

Since the birth of the Church, believers have gathered together in private homes for fellowship, worship, evangelism, and teaching. Though there have been other NT scholars to take up the pen and write about the significance of house churches in the apostolic church, most of their writings have focused on the architecture of the homes and on the social and theological implications of house churches. While taking into account such previous scholarship, Gehring offers a fresh perspective on the topic in that he addresses the missiological significance of house churches.

"House Church and Mission is the English translation of Gehring''s original publication of Hausgemeinde und Mission (Bibelwissenschaftliche Monographien [BWM], Band 9; Giessen: Brunnen, 2000), which was the edited version of his Th.D. dissertation Hausgemeinde und Mission: Van Jesus bis Paulus. The author is an adjunct professor at George Fox Evangelical Seminary in Portland, OR, and has served on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ since 1972 at Arizona State University, the Free University in Berlin, and Justus liebig University in Giessen, Germany. Despite the fact that this book is based upon Gehring''s doctoral dissertation, it is a readable though lengthy work.

"House Church and Mission is divided into six chapters, several appendixes, an extensive bibliography, and three indexes.

"Overall, this is an excellent work showing the natural wedding between ecclesiology and missions. Gehring has done a superb job with such a neglected topic in both NT and missiological studies. Due to the scholarly treatment of the subject, this work is best used as a textbook in graduate and doctoral studies.”
—Evangelical Theological Society

Roger W. Gehring is Adjunct Professor at George Fox Evangelical Seminary in Portland, Oregon. He has served on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ since 1972 at Arizona State University, the Free University in Berlin, and Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany. House Church and Mission is a translation and revision of his doctoral dissertation, written under Peter Stuhlmacher at the University of Tübingen.