Sizing Up Koinos Churches

By Robin G. Jordan

I had originally planned to examine in this article the similarities and dissimilarities between house churches and home fellowships. But my research for the article revealed that the number of kinds of house churches and home fellowships have proliferated since I first became interested in this phenomenon in the 1980s. It is no longer as simple as it was then to distinguish between these gatherings. The terms “house church” and “home fellowship” are often used interchangeably.

In Planting Missional Churches: Planting a Church That's Biblically Sound & Reaching People in Culture, Ed Stetzer uses the term “Koinos churches” to describe what the house church movement is doing. Stetzer is a missiologist and researcher for the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board. "Koinos" is derived from the Greek word "koina" that the New Testament uses to describe Christian fellowship. He goes on to write:

Koinos churches are churches that, at their core, have committed to have face-to-face relationships in such a way that they truly live life together. This requires a commitment to community beyond larger churches in that they will always intentionally stay small so that people cannot be a part of the church without being truly connected in biblical community.

Stetzer notes that the potential for Koinos churches is high in culture that “values intimate relationships, shared leadership, transparency, and teamwork.” There are indications that house churches may play a significant part in Christianity’s future in North America. At the same time Stetzer acknowledges that Koinos models are not at the present time being effective in North American culture. They have not succeeded in penetrating “the culture of lostness” as a number of common models have. He has, however, seen several examples of Christians gathering in intentional Koinos communities to practice solid New Testament church structure and to reach out to their neighbors, which encourage him to believe that more are possible.

Stetzer has assembled some of the literature on Koinos churches available on the Internet at www.newchurches.com.

He believes that a basic understanding of the difference between Koinos church and home cells might prove helpful:

A home cell is a part of a larger church and supports the ministry of that church. Most churches planted in the last few years have a large celebration service for worship accompanied by meetings in homes for small group care.

The Koinos church is different in that it doesn’t see itself as a part of a larger body—it is a church. The Koinos church performs all the functions of the church—baptism, Lord’s Supper, study, giving, etc. It is a church.

Koinos churches do not start in a home with the hope of moving to a large rented or permanent facility “when it grows up.” The home is their permanent facility. The church is a church in a home.

I recently trained church planters in Romania. Their church-planting strategy involved building a “mission house” or a “house church” where the missionary church planter would live. The missionary would reach out to the people of the village and invite members to meet with him in his home—which included an extended living room with benches. As the church grew, it would then builds its own building.

The same pattern is very common in North American church planting today. The vast majority of new churches start as churches meeting in a home. But they do not stay there. Eventually they move to a larger facility.

The Koinos church is different. Fundamental to its design is the idea that it will remain a Koinos church. As it grows, it will multiply into other homes, businesses, coffee shops, etc.—not enlarge.

The Journey, the Southern Baptist new church plant with which I am presently sojourning has home cells, or Life Teams as they are called, which are an important part of its discipleship process. New Life Teams are formed every year in September at an event called Synergy. Newcomers are encouraged to try a Life Team for an initial period of six weeks. At the conclusion of this six-week period the participants in a particular group will contract with each other to meet as a Life Team for eighteen months. The church staff will help people find a new Life Team if they found the group that they tried was not the right one for them. The Journey has both open and closed Life Teams. Open Life Teams accept new participants; closed Life Teams do not.

The Church of the Beloved, an eight-year-old Episcopal church plant with which I was involved to some degree in its early stages of development, began meeting in a home. As it grew, it moved to a vacant house in a new subdivision. Later it met in the conference room of a local Holiday Inn. It presently meets in the sanctuary of a local Lutheran church. The Church of the Beloved had a good start and at one stage was attracting newcomers with the Alpha program. The Church of the Beloved was launched before the Gene Robinson consecration and his consecration devastated the newer churches in the Diocese of Louisiana. At least one that had just become a parish lost so many families that it was forced to become a mission again. The Church of the Beloved suffered a decline in its attendance from which it has never recovered. While the church itself is conservative, it has not been able to overcome the radical liberal image of the Episcopal Church in an area that is conservative in its values.

Both the Journey’s Life Teams and the Church of the Beloved are highly relational. However, they are not Koinos churches. The Life Teams are a part of a larger church—the Journey. The Church of the Beloved is a church that in its early stages of development met in a house but its vision is to eventually become a church with its own building.

Defining the house church is difficult, Stetzer further notes, because it has so many expressions. In his article, “Some Streams of the House Church,” Frank Viola identifies eleven streams of house churches.

While some Koinos churches see themselves as a church, Stetzer draws to his readers’ attention, they do not function as one. They neglect some of the ecclesiology described in Scripture. They de-emphasize New Testament patterns of leadership. They do not covenant with other Kairos churches and assist and support each other. They do not practice baptism and the Lord’s Supper. For a Koinos church to be a biblical church, it must have all the characteristics of a New Testament church. The North American Mission Board has developed and adopted a guiding ecclesiology to help church planters and starters to ensure that the churches they are planting are biblical churches. This document is available on the Internet at Church Planting Village in PDF format. I have examined these guidelines, and they offer one example of how a denomination is seeking to ensure that all churches being planted by church planters and starters affiliated with that denomination represent its understanding of the biblical church. Any Anglican body seeking to use Koinos church models in its church planting strategy will need to develop its own guidelines that are consistent with its own understanding of the biblical church.

While there is a broad range of answers to how the Koinos church works, Koinos church proponents all agree on one thing—Koinos churches do not need a building. Meeting in a non-facility is fundamental to the new Koinos church. As the Koinos church grows in size, it multiplies into other houses. The Koinos church does not move into a building.

Only by staying small does a relational church stay relational. Koinos churches usually multiplies into small groups before they reaches thirty people. Twelve people are about the optimal size for both a home cell and a Koinos church. Both home cells and Koinos churches become increasingly less relational once when they move beyond fifteen people. They also become increasingly less interactive and participatory.

The Koinos church can definitely help Christians to make the transition from going to church to being the church.

Dick Scoggins has a number of resources on his website. Click "books" and then "PDF Downloads and Translations." They include Planting House Churches in Networks and Handbook for House Churches. Also check out "Other Resources" and "Websites."

The following websites have resources for further reading:

http://www.hccentral.com/index.html
http://www.housechurch.ca
http://www.home-church.org
http://www.house2house.com

The views on Koinos churches presented in these websites may vary widely. My advice to readers is work methodically through the material on the Internet to gain a better understanding of the different expressions of the Koinos church. One of my own concerns is making the most effective use of the Koinos models in North American culture while also preserving the essentials of an Anglican identity. Some Koinos models may be a better choice for Anglicans than others. Sifting through the literature and experimenting with a variety of models will be useful in discerning the best models for Anglicans.

A Koinos church may be the best option for Anglicans who live in communities that cannot sustain a conventional church for a variety of reasons. A Koinos church that is New Testament in its church structure is as real a church as any conventional church. Koinos churches in several communities might network together for mutual assistance and support, and occasionally meet together for fellowship and worship. These meetings would not be seen as “real church.” Real church would take place whenever and wherever the Koinos church meets.

Koinos churches do present a number of challenges for Anglicans. In this article series I will be looking at ways of meeting these challenges as well as examining other models of home based faith communities and the challenges these models also present. I will also be taking a look at the use of The Book of Common Prayer in the worship of churches and groups that meet in private houses and exploring a number of other topics.