This is an unsettling book, for its premises, if carried to their logical conclusions, would stand most of our present church organization on its head. The basic theme is that it is in the mutually committed fellowship of the house church and not in large, formal hierarchical structures that church renewal and revitalization are likely to be found.
Birkey writes from a Mennonite back ground with its emphasis on mutual responsibility within the caring community. He was affiliated with a house church for more than 10 years, and the book is part of his work for his D. Min. at Bethany Theological Seminary. The book is conservative in its faithfulness to the biblical text, but radical in its approach to Christian living. It is scholarly and well referenced, but easily readable.
Birkey begins by developing a theology of church renewal that, he contends, must combine both revelation and relationships. He then traces the history of the house church throughout the Bible and Christian history. He makes the point that every New Testament congregation was a house church and that no ecclesiastical buildings were constructed. He holds that the phenomenal growth of the early church was not in spite of this, but because the face-to-face milieu fostered a dynamic faith that attracted others. He also points to such modem examples as China, where Christianity grew strong and vital through house churches despite the fact that public expression of religion was illegal for many years.
The second part of the book examines the qualities that have given the house church its power: servant leadership and the exercise of individual spiritual gifts. Birkey also provides an enlightening biblical and historical survey of the ministry of women and says that women's ministry was originally accepted on an equal basis with that of men. He also discusses the worship liturgy. He claims that sermons in the New Testament were used only to communicate the gospel to unbelievers and were not used in the believers' worship service. Rather the congregation met together and dialogued in a circular set ting, encouraging each other in the faith, and celebrated the Lord's Supper in an informal setting. The key is that the believers must be completely committed to the body and individually responsible for and to each other.
Birkey admits that the house church is not a panacea. He acknowledges its problems—lack of pastoral support, lack of resources for multiple ministries, the potential explosiveness of such an emotionally charged atmosphere, and other problems—but he passes over these lightly. Given present-day realities, I see no chance that this model will become the basic structure of the church. But it is very possible that some of the vital elements that he identifies may be incorporated into our present congregations and thus lead to renewal. The book is worthy of careful study.
