Homes or Public buildings, this produces questions, criticism, and is the foundation of certain groups. By homes or public buildings, I am meaning have home churches or typically more organized and traditional churches that meeting rented space or their own church facilities. There are all kinds of extreme views that organized churches meeting in buildings are almost demonic while meeting in small groups in homes is the most saintly and biblical way to be church. The anti-organized church people often post on social media a list of verses that say things like, “They went house to house” and use this to support their position. As always, we can get the answers from the Word!
When I have seen those posts on social media, I always knew they were like many posts, biased and presented with only half the facts. Since I first saw those posts, I wanted to scour the New Testament and actually do a count on the references and so I have now done so. As I have studied in the last year or two, I have specifically looked for those kinds of references and with my recent search here are the answers. Jesus and or disciples meeting in buildings, the temple or synagogues there are 49 references while meeting in homes has 37 and about 17 that appear to be open air meetings. I did not count those references that appeared to be referring to the same encounter within that chapter of the Bible. The significance of the references to meeting in the temple or synagogues is that many of these say “he taught daily” in the temple or synagogue which truly ramps that number up in a significant way. There is no reference to say they met daily in homes. The word “church” was not used since in most cases it is in reference to a body of believers, not a building.
The word synagogue in most cases is never explained in the local church and this is a tragedy. The Greek word is basically like our more common definition of church today, a place or assembly or a congregation. I believe most think of a synagogue to be a special Jewish house like a mini temple or something in which its just a meeting building. Explaining this really helps put much of the New Testament stories where a synagogue is mentioned into a more understandable context.
Back to church building or house churches. In recent years especially, I have seen the great need for organized church and a stable environment. This does not mean that I am against having services in which the Holy Spirit is free to move, this too is very necessary, one does not negate the other. Both can have their benefit but there is nothing like a larger more organized group and facility that can meet more needs. When The Father’s House was doing services, due to our small size and lack of connection with a larger organization, we were limited to what we could do, even when the needs that are in a larger church show up in small ones as well. Trust me, larger churches and organizations have their issues as too, but we have to work around these issues as well.
The conclusion is that Jesus and the apostles ministered daily in the temple and various synagogue which would be like modern churches today in many ways. Jesus and the apostles also did open air meetings and in homes on a regular basis. We should not be critical of any group that is meeting in any place as long as they are sharing the Word and love of Christ.
| Public Building – Church, Synagogue, Temple | Houses | Open Air | |
| Total | 49 | 37 | 17 |
| Matthew 9:10 | 1 | ||
| Matthew 9:23 | 1 | ||
| Matthew 26:6 | 1 | ||
| Mark 1:29 | 1 | 1 | |
| Mark 2:15 | 1 | ||
| Mark 3:25 | 1 | ||
| Mark 5:35 | 1 | ||
| Mark 7:17 | 1 | ||
| Mark 7:24 | 1 | ||
| Mark 9:28 | 1 | ||
| Mark 9:33 | 1 | ||
| Mark 10:10 | 1 | ||
| Mark 14:3 | 1 | ||
| Luke 4:38 | 1 | ||
| Luke 5:29 | 1 | ||
| Luke 7:36 | 1 | ||
| Luke 8:41 | 1 | ||
| Luke 11:17 | 1 | ||
| Luke 14:1 | 1 | ||
| Luke 19:5 | 1 | ||
| John 11:20 | 1 | ||
| John 12:3 | 1 | ||
| Acts 2:46 | 1 | 1 | |
| Acts 5:42 | 1 | 1 | |
| Acts 9:17 | 1 | ||
| Acts 10:22 | 1 | ||
| Acts 11:11 | 1 | ||
| Acts 12:12 | 1 | ||
| Acts 16:32 | 1 | ||
| Acts 16:40 | 1 | ||
| Acts 18:7 | 1 | 1 | |
| Acts 18:8 | 1 | 1 | |
| Acts 20:20 | 1 | ||
| Acts 21:8 | 1 | ||
| Romans 16:5 | 1 | ||
| I Corinthians 16:19 | 1 | ||
| Colossians 4:15 | 1 | ||
| Matthew 12:9 | 1 | ||
| Matthew 13:54 | 1 | ||
| Mark 1:12 | 1 | ||
| Mark 3:1 | 1 | ||
| Mark 6:2 | 1 | ||
| Luke 4:16 | 1 | ||
| Luke 6:6 | 1 | ||
| John 6:59 | 1 | ||
| John 9:22 | 1 | ||
| John 12:42 | 1 | ||
| John 18:20 | 2 | ||
| Acts 13:14 | 1 | ||
| Acts 14:1 | 1 | ||
| Acts 17:1 | 1 | ||
| Acts 18:4 | 1 | ||
| Acts 18:19 | 1 | ||
| Acts 19:8 | 1 | ||
| Matthew 12:6 | 1 | ||
| Matthew 21:14 | 1 | ||
| Matthew 24:1 | 1 | ||
| Matthew 26:55 | 1 | ||
| Mark 11:11 | 1 | ||
| Mark 11:15 | 1 | ||
| Mark 11:27 | 1 | ||
| Mark 12:35 | 1 | ||
| Mark 14:49 | 1 | ||
| Luke 2:37 | 1 | ||
| Luke 19:47 | 1 | ||
| Luke 20:1 | 1 | ||
| Luke 21:37 | 1 | ||
| Luke 22:53 | 1 | ||
| Luke 24:53 | 1 | ||
| John 5:14 | 1 | ||
| John 7:14 | 1 | ||
| John 8:2 | 1 | ||
| John 10:23 | 1 | ||
| Acts 3:1 | 1 | ||
| Acts 5:20 | 1 | ||
| Acts 21:26 | 1 | ||
| Acts 22:17 | 1 | ||
| Acts 24:18 | 1 | ||
| Acts 26:21 | 1 | ||
| Acts 13:1 | 1 | ||
| Matthew 13:2 | 1 | ||
| Matthew 14:5 | 1 | ||
| Matthew 17:14 | 1 | ||
| Matthew 20:29 | 1 | ||
| Matthew 21:8 | 1 | ||
| Mark 2:13 | 1 | ||
| Mark 7:33 | 1 | ||
| Mark 9:14 | 1 | ||
| Luke 5:19 | 1 | ||
| Luke 6:17 | 1 | ||
| Luke 8:45 | 1 | ||
| Luke 12:1 | 1 | ||
| Luke 19:37 | 1 | ||
| John 5:13 | 1 | ||
| Acts 2:6 | 1 | ||
| Acts 4:32 | 1 | ||
| Acts 5:16 | 1 |
Flagship Apostolic 
Posted on May 29, 2022
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