Focus on Reproduction, Mentor's Guide, MG12

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F O C U S O N R E P R O D U C T I O N

6. The household and Aristobolus, Narcissus, and others at Rome, Rom. 16.10-11

C. Evidence exists that households, once converted to Jesus and his Kingdom, could themselves constitute a church.

1. Note the Pauline language “the church ( ekklesia ) which meets in their house ( oikos ),” Rom.16.3-5

2. The different classifications included in the “household codes” in Ephesians and Colossians—husband and wife, parents and children, master and slave—are those who would be a part of a single New Testament household .

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3. Oikia were stable enough to provide a nucleus or base out of which a wide group of believers could meet and live under its hospitality.

D. The structure of the household churches

1. Universal inclusiveness: Gentile and Jew are connected (literally, become “blood kin”) on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ.

a. Gal. 3.28

b. Eph. 2.19

2. Leadership and authority: oversight of the business of the church lay in the hands of elders, who were to be good managers of their own oikia, since they were called to care for the household of God .