Gathering Together
Photo by Corina Rainer on Unsplash
By Jeremy Ogunba
In March of 2020 when the pandemic hit, many churches were forced to close their doors. Different communities responded differently to the new challenges. Most people went online and live-streamed another ministry’s Sunday experience, others still gathered in their community, but did it virtually, and others risked their own lives and the lives of those close to them to worship God—or at least to gather in person.
In July of 2019, my family left our local church in pursuit of an alternative model to organizing a church community. We were excited, but it was also very difficult to no longer wake up on Sundays and go to “church.” Sundays became our new sabbath, and it felt great! I wasn’t preaching or leading in any way, and it felt like a gift from God. At first, I felt like I wasn't a Christian anymore, or that I was far from God, because I had associated my attendance at church with my relationship with God. Not being in a formal church forced my family and me to develop our own spiritual practices as a unit. I had to keep reminding myself that I left western conceptions of church, but that I did not leave God. The Bible tells us to not forsake the coming together, but that passage doesn't tell us what that coming together looks like. After a few years of study, prayer, and personal experience, I am convinced that God's design for the community of believers is much smaller than our biggest dreams. I believe God’s design is to meet and gather in smaller groups, around a meal and a table, as family. I question if Jesus pictured our gatherings in a large theater with a stage. I am convinced that the early church did not see church as a building that they gathered in, but as a community that shared life with one another, in the most vulnerable of places: the home. These are things that many church leaders will say and teach, but they will tell you these things while still maintaining the current church model and structure. In part, I don't think we even have a paradigm for something different, so we choose to replicate what we know. I no longer could invest in that space and expect a different result than a consuming and self-serving community that sees their main priority as showing up on Sunday. Many churches are better than that, but that seems to be the norm. Church life and personal life for the early church were not in two different spaces, but overlapped and intersected constantly, because that space was the home. How much more can you talk about Abba Father’s adoption of us into God’s family than inviting people into homes and doing life in familial spaces?
The word that Jesus uses for “church” is the Greek word ecclesia, meaning the called-out ones. This was a group of wise men that would meet to govern, direct, and lead their communities, to settle disputes, and to guide those that were lost. The first Christians met in homes (Col. 4:15; Phil. 1-2; 1 Cor. 16:15; Rom. 16:5; Acts 5:42, 12:12). Scripture tells us that the early church also met in larger, more public groups (Acts 5:12), but that was not the primary model for gathering.
These communities were led by a group of elders who were more mature in their faith, not just a gifted speaker and teacher. The house church was more equipped to support the community with shared resources and to build deeper bonds with one another. It's hard to hide in someone’s living room, compared to the rows and pews of most churches. Paul tells us the church should be led by a group of people who collectively make up the five-fold ministries needed to have a healthy church community (Eph. 4). I see a community with a group of elders who possess a variety of gifts—gifts needed for the equipping of the saints.
The early church met in homes and were persecuted up until the Roman Emperor Constantine made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire. At that time the current model of the church began its formation. Martin Luther’s reformation in the 16th century was a reformation of theology, but the church structure and model, for the most part, remained intact. At this point in history, a structural reformation and return to what was, could be what is needed to see the church revitalized in the west.
When most people are vaccinated and churches are able to gather safely, will many people return to formalized churches? I wonder if the pandemic has opened up an opportunity for the followers of Jesus to reconsider what church is, and what it means to gather together. Industries are changing because of the pandemic; I wonder what we will say ten years from now about the ways in which the pandemic pushed the church to grow, adjust, and transform. I am praying for a structural revival—new wineskins for new wine!
Jeremy Ogunba is an InterVarsity staff member who enjoys reading, listening to podcasts, and coaching football. He lives in Rhode Island with his wife Charity and their two beautiful daughters, Hope and Grace.