The traditional American mindset is that churches are supposed to meet regularly in a central location. We’re certainly not in any way against meeting in a traditional church building. The historic church has met this way for a long time which has resulted in thousands of great churches. The Old and New Testament point to the church not as a building but a gathering of people, and biblically minded Christians in a traditional church context understand this concept. What is foundational for the establishment of a church is a local gathering of Christians saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus; committed to Jesus and to each other, hearing God’s Word spoken and participating in the sacraments (Baptism and the Lord’s Table).

Historic congregationalism was brought to New England by the Pilgrims and Puritans. They strongly believed that a church was constituted not by a building but by a body of people who entered into covenant for the purpose of worshiping God.¹ This belief was reflected in the design of the buildings where they gathered for worship, the village meeting house, which had many other uses besides their Sunday worship.

The Meetinghouse Church has taken these values (the church as a local assembly of believers in Jesus and historic congregationalism) and employed the component of home groups. We feel that meeting in homes cultivates genuine community and relationship. We believe this is a great avenue for speaking and living out the gospel.

We don’t consist of autonomous house churches. We’re one church which is governed by elders and the congregation with Christ as our king. But we’re structured and networked as home groups. We think meeting in homes once a week and gathering the home groups together once a month for worship and the Lord’s Supper cultivates living the gospel internally (home groups) and externally (faith lived out in life) really well.

¹The Cambridge Platform of 1648, the definitive statement of congregational polity, states it this way, “The government of a church is a mixed government. With respect to Christ, the head and king of the church, and his sovereign authority, the church is a monarchy. With respect to all the members of the body and the authority granted by Christ to them, it resembles a democracy. With respect to the elders and the authority committed to them, it is an aristocracy.” (Modern Day Pilgrims, “Historic Congregationalsim,” Peter Murdy, p 105.)