We have seen that the western world has changed dramatically. It has become much like a Wild West, where many cultures have exploded into one location doing their own thing. Yet, throughout this change the church has continued to do church in the same way. This series, called Wide Margin, is to show a new, though old way of doing church that can connect to the world we are in. The church needs to “marginalize” themselves. That is, instead of being a central entity, the church must now function in the margins of society. Much of the world is speaking this “margin” language now. We must join it.

The first step we saw for churches was that they needed to adopt a different view on the size of a church gathering. We need to break that paradigm of 100-200 people in a gathering to something like 10-20 in a gathering.

Step 1 was going from few large gatherings to many small gatherings.

Now in taking that first step, it will open up our next step to happen. And it has to do with space.

Here is an obvious truth : The church must gather “somewhere”.

If it is some sort of gathering it must happen in some location. Now, technically a gathering could happen anywhere.

But are all locations equal? Are some spaces better than others? We need to think of the purpose for a gathering. Are there particular spaces that will work well for the purpose of what the church is to do?

If I were to study for an exam, would it work well for me to be in a food court with people? Or to be in a quiet room by myself?

Spaces are crucial.

So with that, this next step is going to highlight what the Wide Margin church should do in regards to the location of the gathering. I will highlight 6 points to show that this type of gathering is a better form of gathering.

Step 2

From Meeting in Halls
to Meeting in Homes

We must take the Halls head on. What I mean by Halls is anything like a Temple, a Church-type building, a High School, any sort of major public building. Now everyone knows that the Church is not the building. Therefore Church does not need to be in them.

But I think people have a hard time separating Church from the Hall. When they think of “Church” they see a particular Hall, a large building. We need to get rid of that idea.

Now Step 1 is going to help us. We have broken the paradigm that a gathering was to be about 100 people. If it were the case that a church gathering had to aim at that size, then a hall would make total sense. If we were to tell you to have your gathering in a home, you would be hard-pressed to do that with 100 people.

But if you have a gathering of 10-20 people, now what looks silly? The Hall does. The temple does. Meeting in a cinema or a school gym looks silly. But what makes perfect sense now? A home. A house.

So below I will give 6 reasons why meeting in Homes is far better for the church than meeting in Halls.

Homes are Earlier

I need to state that meeting in a home is not a new idea. This is an early idea. The early church regularly met in peoples homes. Occasionally they met in the temple square, but the primary gathering was as small groups in the homes of people.

Even to this day, I believe that much of the church still gathers in homes. They don’t make the headlines. They are a bit invisible. But it is a common “gathered” setting of the church at large. One reason for this is because of persecution or just due to the size of the gatherings.

Actually, churches meeting in Halls didn’t really happen for the first 300 years of the church. Much of the letters of the New Testament were written to small gatherings of people that met in houses.

Homes are Everywhere

Everyone has a home. Halls are fewer in number. In fact, in a country town there may only be a handful of halls to go in. But with homes, there is never a shortage of spaces. I believe that if we are to greatly influence this “Wide Margin Culture” we must utilize the homes more.

Again, if you are a large gathering you are forced to think of your gathering in a Hall. So the idea of a House may sound desirable for you, but impractical. Unless you split. We saw a taste of this happening in the COVID days. Many churches were not allowed to meet together but only have small gatherings in houses. Some groups liked church in this way so much that when COVID was over, they continued to meet in the home rather than the hall.

It made people think of church in a new way, that it could be done all over the place in people’s homes, rather than at this old building in the centre of town.

Homes are Less Expensive

Some churches, in order to gather, rent out spaces like a school or a cinema, costing them thousands of dollars each month. This is and will continue to be a major problem. That of resources. Even if a church owns their own building, there’s always upkeep happening. Renovations to happen and costs to keep the lights on.

So the church is constantly in this money battle to keep church gatherings happening in halls. There’s no easy way to look at it. Some churches will “rent out” the hall during the week to non-Christian groups, as the building usually sits vacant for much of the week.

Now again, all of this makes sense if you think of church gatherings as 100-200 people. But if you start to think of gatherings of 10-20 people then the Home makes much more sense.

Now granted, having it at someone’s home may make it harder for the host. But overall, the cost of gathering for church is dramatically cheaper, meaning the church can use those dollars for something of greater value for the community.

Times are changing. Things are expensive. If the church can find a less expensive and even better way of going church gatherings, then, as good stewards of God’s money, we should implement this. Much of the money the church makes goes to the upkeep of the building. Imagine the money we could save?

Homes are More Expansive

Homes can adapt better to the increase of size. Halls struggle in this area. Let’s say you have a group of 200 in a Hall. There may be a point where you think, “What happens if we outgrow this space?” You may have to find another “Hall”. This may require many dollars, time, and labour. Therefore, expansion in the Hall system is extremely expensive and slow.

But think of a Home. You have reached 20 people gathering in your home. You have outgrown the size. What could you do? At the drop of a hat you could split into two groups of 10 people. One meeting in a home, one meeting in another home. The Home System is extremely expansive and fast.

If anyone wants to make church gatherings fast the easiest way is to have smaller gatherings meeting in homes. There is no end to how exponential it could expand.

Homes are More Edifying

They are called “homes” for a reason. They have a home feeling. Halls cannot replicate this. Even if a hall has couches and coffee and lamps it will not feel like a home. The space of a place completely changes the heartbeat of the gathering. If a church wants to excel in love, discipleship, fellowship, and edification, a home can do this more than a hall.

Now when you add Step 2 to Step 1, that’s where the House Gathering can be extremely edifying. If there’s less people, then you get to know them better, you get to share your story better and use your gifting better.

Many churches already know that edification and discipleship are better in the smaller setting. They would typically do this in things called “Home Groups”. During the week, many of these smaller groups gather at a person’s house to do life together. My experience of church has been that that was a better ground of building me up than the larger gathering.

So why don’t church just make the “Home Group” setting the main thing? I believe that switch will happen soon for many Institutional Churches.

Halls are distant, cold, unrelatable, uncomfortable. They are not the best ground for edification.

Homes are More Evangelistic

I believe that a new person would prefer to enter a home than a hall. You could argue with me that it is easier for someone to slip into the back of a hall in a larger gathering. But I think, if they are generally curious, they would prefer a setting where they could ask questions, meet everyone, and somewhat participate rather than watch a presentation.

Especially if they already know half the people in the smaller gathering, they will be more comfortable in that setting. Plus I believe the home is a better and easier setting for them. The Wide Margin Culture is not one for flashy presentations. They want something homegrown, authentic, riddled with mistakes.

Imagine if that new person found Christ in that setting, and then offered their home up for a new gathered space? Already the church is in the harvest in new neighborhoods reaching out. The central field people were used to coming to a building in the centre of town. The margin field I believe people want to walk to something local with their friends.

But alas, many people just don’t know of Church gatherings that meet up like this. Had they known I believe they would prefer to meet in one of these as a starting point.

So there’s a few ideas about the home.

Now, at this point, we have smaller gatherings that meet in homes, and you may be thinking:
Hey, isn’t this just “Cell Church”?

Our next step will change that.