House churches in and of themselves are not the silver bullet to the American church’s problems. The truth is that house churches can have all the same problems any other prevailing model or institutional church might have. Bad leadership, weird theology, or an inward ethos can sink any church, regardless of size or whether they meet in a building. Models on their own don’t solve basic qualitative problems. In fact, house churches might even be more vulnerable to some of these deficiencies – especially when they are isolated or not part of a network. Healthy house churches, however, do have major built-in advantages

Jesus could have said “Kingdom” or even “Israel.” Instead, He used one of the most inclusive and yet generic words available in your entire language. And He used it to describe the community He would build here on earth. He even said He would use it to tear down the gates of hell. In Greek the word is “ekklesia.” This is the word you would use to describe something as large and unruly as a political protest, or as small and mild as a group of friends meeting on a sunny hillside. It simply means a group of people who have been gathered or called together. That had to be intentional. He must mean something by it. But what?