(LifeSiteNews) — The first churches in Rome were house churches. Breaking hierarchical structures and social divisions, clandestine congregations of Jews and Gentiles, slaves and freedmen, worshipped together in private homes. There are remains of at least 25 of these domus ecclesiae – the original parishes of Rome.
The first Christians were celebrating the Eucharist by “breaking bread in their homes” (Acts 2:46). In Romans 16:3-5, St. Paul greets Prisca and Aquila “and the church which is in their house.” St. Justin Martyr records how house churches were the norm in second-century Rome, even after they grew fairly exponentially.
Pastored by a plurality of presbyters, these house churches became the engines of evangelism and the powerhouses of discipleship. Among the very earliest accounts of persecution against the church, St. Luke reports that Paul went “from house to house” in Jerusalem, arresting men and women and dragging them off to prison (Acts 8:1-3).
As recorded in The Acts of Justin and His Companions, when St. Justin and his six fellow-Christians were hauled before the Roman prefect, Junius Rusticus, he testified that he presided over a congregation that met in his apartment above a bathhouse and that there were several domus ecclesiae throughout Rome because there were too many Christians to fit in a single house.
House churches spark exponential Christian growth
“Most of the explosive increase of Christians in China has taken place in house churches (or underground churches),” write Paul Marshall, Lela Gilbert, and Nina Shea, Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians). “In the last thirty years, these church networks have experienced the largest pattern of church growth in world history. In no other country, at no other time, have tens of millions of people come into the Christian faith at such a pace.”
Missiologists have identified house churches as the main vehicle of conversions in China. Desperate Communist autocrats have passed laws forcing the house churches to register. House church pastors resist registration because they don’t want authorities censoring their sermons. The Dwellings website estimates that there are 160–200 million members belonging to more than 10 million house churches in China, and 80 million people in India meet in house churches.
India’s Hindu supremacist government is now poised to impose draconian legislation banning house churches, especially in northern states, which have resisted the Gospel for centuries. In the last few years, however, there has been an unprecedented explosion of Hindus coming to faith in Christ. And again, the dynamo of church growth and discipleship has been through house churches comprised of locally-led indigenous leaders, who are mostly converts from Hinduism.
Administration set precedent by banning house churches in Chhattisgarh
On August 14, the police authorities invited pastors to a public meeting in Raipur, the capital city of Chhattisgarh, and announced that they could no longer worship together in house churches. The Assistant Superintendent of Police told the pastors that Christians would only be permitted to meet in officially registered church buildings and that he had ordered his police to stop all prayer meetings in houses to maintain law and order.
“We derive the concept of house churches based on biblical guidance. The government doesn’t understand this,” Dr. Arun Pannalal, president of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum, told the media after the meeting between pastors and the police.
Pannalal said that the police were ordering them to shut down all house churches. He explained that the authorities were in effect deciding on who is a Christian and who is not based on the flawed assumption that all Christians worshipped in purpose-built church buildings. The police told the pastors that they were receiving numerous complaints about the house churches.
“If you are receiving complaints, investigate them—reject the fake complaints and process the genuine complaints,” Pannalal told the police.
A pastor who spoke to the media after the meeting with the police said that they were prepared to install CCTV cameras and maintain files of voice recordings as evidence that house churches were not engaging in forced conversions. He also said that the police orders banning house churches were unconstitutional and illegal.
On his YouTube channel, Christian influencer Pankaj Kumar said that the situation could get worse over the coming months and years and pose a grave threat to freedom of religion as the government was determined to stamp out the house church movement because it was so successful in bringing Hindus to Christ. The precedent set by the Chhattisgarh administration could become a template for state governments to implement all over India.
House church movement spreads across India
In February 2024, Hindu supremacists began intensifying inflammatory rhetoric against the proliferation of house churches in Chhattisgarh after 25 tribals in the Bemetara area converted to Christianity in a house church, provoking an investigation by the district magistrate. The conversions are said to have taken place in a house provided to tribals by the government under its housing scheme.
Hindutva activists were also incensed that some of the new converts had installed crosses on their houses. The converts say they surrendered their lives to Jesus after experiencing physical healing and also deliverance from addiction.
A missionary organization recently reported training workers who planted 28 new house churches in the Sundergarh district of Chhattisgarh. The Conference of Catholic Bishops of India has also established Basic Ecclesial Communities all over the state. Hindutva activists misconstrue the BECs as house churches.
In October 2024, the missionary organization, Dynamic Church Planting International (DCPI), reported that the house church approach “has been incredibly successful, with many new Christians being healed and delivered through Jesus Christ and then going on to plant house churches in villages across India.”
“These house churches typically range from 30-50 people, sometimes as much as 100, and are led by indigenous leaders who have a deep understanding of the local culture and are respected in their communities,” DCPI said. “This radical movement is sweeping the Indian nation and is transforming lives and communities.”
The most subversive aspect of house churches is that they are “breaking casteism and bringing people from different backgrounds and social classes together in worship,” DCPI stressed. “A house church in Bihar on average totals about 50 people but can have people from 20 different people groups.”
Hindu supremacists intensify persecution of Christians
Meanwhile, Hindu militants have stepped up the persecution of Christians in Chhattisgarh. In a shocking incident, anti-Christian supremacists exhumed the body of 40-year-old Somlal Rathore, a Hindu convert to Christianity who died on July 26. While his family buried him on private land following Christian rites, a mob of around 1,000 Hindus in Jamgaon rioted and insisted that his corpse be cremated outside the village. The mob also vandalized the church building in Jamgaon.
On August 11, Hindu supremacists attacked eight Christian families in a village in Kanker, Chhattisgarh, beating up children and women after stripping them of their sarees. According to the police, 36 people were injured in this incident. The condition of two women is said to be critical.
In the same week, Hindu activists surrounded a house in Saraswati Nagar, Raipur, accusing the participants of bribing converts. The police stood by and watched as the Christians in the prayer meeting were assaulted.
“The matter of house churches has now gone to the High Court. Until the court rules on this, the government wants us to maintain the status quo, but we will not stop praying in house churches,” Pannalal maintained.
Jason Jones is a film producer, author, activist and human rights worker.
