HOUSE CHURCHES
The uniform evidence of the NT is that the church in the first century met together for worship in domestic houses (cf. 16:19). Houses were used not because other options were unavailable (for example, a lecture hall) but because the house provided what was necessary for the gathering: kitchen space to prepare and serve the common meal. Houses were also by definition private space, allowing Christians to gather together as a community and drop the social boundaries that otherwise defined their daily lives. The host may have only provided
the space; this is the case in Philippi, where Lydia hosted the
"brothers" while Paul was leading the assembly (Acts 16:40).
Almost any house could have hosted a gathering, from small
flats in large Roman block apartment buildings (insulae) to
expansive urban villas. The size of the available rooms would
dictate the size of the worshiping congregation. Only once does Paul explicitly state that the whole church in a city was present in a single house (Rom. 16:23).
A house church was a domestic residence used at least weekly by the Christian community; therefore, by definition. a house church would be almost impossible to identify archaeologically unless it was altered to accommodate
Christian worship. A possible house church has been identified
in Capernaum, venerated in later generations as the site of Peter’s home The first architecturally defined house church known in the Roman Empire is from the mid-third century in Dura-Europos, a frontier city on the Euphrates River. This house was altered to include a large assembly space, a special space for baptisms, and special decorations. A third-century prayer hall has been found in a Roman military camp at Kefar Otnay in Israel. A floor inscription mentions “the God Jesus Christ.”
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