“Greet Priscilla and Aquila [and] the church that is in their house” (Rom 16: 3, 5).
I’ve been a believer for fifty-four years. During that time, I’ve been a member of both large and very small churches.
I’ve had good experiences in large churches. I’ve also had good experiences in small churches.
Teaching and fellowship in small churches is often excellent. Small churches are like small towns where everybody knows everybody, and people go out of their way to be hospitable.
Did you know that there is no mention of church buildings in the New Testament? And we know of no early churches that had over fifty people in attendance.i
Paul greeted fifteen different small churches in Rom 16:3-15. It should be noted that he addressed these churches via the names of individuals he knew who must have overseen, hosted, or been a member of a given church. The biggest of these churches likely had fewer than forty people because they were limited by the size of the homes or apartments. Many of them met in small, rented rooms and likely had ten or fewer members.
For a more in-depth discussion of the various churches in Rome, see Robert Jewett, Romans: A Commentary, ed. Eldon Jay Epp, Hermeneia (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2007), 55-88.
If you are a part of a house church or a small church that meets in a rented facility, you should not be discouraged. You should be encouraged that you are part of something vital.
Church consultants help churches grow numerically.
Maybe we need church consultants who help churches shrink numerically. Churches can multiply by planting new churches all over their area. What if a church of 400 decided to plant two new churches in their area, sending fifty people to each new church? The mother church would be reduced to 300 people, and the two new churches would start with fifty each.
If the mother church grew to 400 again, it could start two more churches.
GES is not a church. We seek to help churches and believers. We would love to see thousands of Free Grace churches being planted in the U.S. and around the world. The need is great.
Ed Stetzer wrote:
If you want to make disciples, you must plant churches. If you don’t plant churches, you are not serious about making disciples.ii
Keep grace in focus, and you’ll be enthusiastic about church planting.
i Acts does report that there were over 3,000 believers who met from house to house in Jerusalem after Pentecost (Acts 2:42). But Luke specifically reports that they broke bread (the Lord’s Supper) “from house to house” (Acts 2:46). Scripture does not support the idea that there were large churches in Jerusalem, Rome, or anywhere else during the first century.
ii I believe this quote is from his book, Planting Missional Churches, but I couldn’t find it via search in Google Books. I found this quote via AI (Gemini).
