CHURCH--THE CALLED OUT ONES NOT INSTITUTIONALIZED

GOD IS NOT OUT-OF-REACH         "The early Christians knew that God could be known, that we could meet Him directly, heart to heart, right here and now. In a different sense, we also meet Him in face-to-face, down to earth fellowship with other Christians. The early Christians saw no need for stained-glass and steeples to points upward to God just out of reach  He is here! He is among us! But walk into a cathedral and you will immediately be staring upward toward an unreachable apex in the sanctuary. Permanent AWE, permanent frustration."  James Rutz, pp 63-64, OPEN CHURCH The Roman school declared that church buildings have been with us from the second century on. It further taught that the church build­ings erected during the Constantinian era were built on the sites of pre­vious church structures. This dogma was universally accepted as fact. CHRISTIAN ARCHEOLOGIST FIND i' But recently, Christian archeology has gone back to reinvestigate ') those sites. The findings: Without exception, there was no church building or any other kind of Christian meeting place to be found//buried beneath any Constantinian-era church buildings.           Archaeolo­gists found either virgin land or pagan temples or marketplaces or maybe even an occasional Pizza Hut, but no evidence anywhere of any kind of building used for Christian gatherings. The implications were staggering-and still are! They are a call to the whole church, Catholic and Protestant, to rethink the nature of what we call "church." THE MOST REMARKABLE DISCOVERY      In one way, the most remarkable discovery was that of a single Christian meeting place-the only one ever found from the pre­Constantine era! Even it was not a church building, but a home that had been converted into a meeting place for Christians. The site is a town in Syria with the odd name of Duro-Europa.      Exhaustive studies have been made of this building, The upshot is this: It was just a home used in the mi.o1-200s as a place for Chris­tians to gather. One of its peculiarities: A wall had been torn out between two bedrooms to make one large room that would hold about seventy-five people sitting on the floor. CONSTANTINE INSTITUTIONALIZED THE  CHRISTIAN CHURCH AND CONSTANTINE (STATE MONEY) STARTED BUILDING THE HUGE BASILICAS AND CATHERALS OBVIOUSLY, THIS FOCUSED THE ATTENTION ON THE BUILDING NOT THE "CALLED OUT" BELIEVERS. THE POINT?  Until Constantine, there was no such thing as a church building or "Christian" architecture. A church building had never been dreamed of in a dream. That which we know as the Chris­tian faith was a living room movement!  The Christian faith was the first and only religion ever to exist that did not use special temples of worship; it is the only 'living room" religion in hu­man history. FURTHER DISCOVERY House Churches in Africa  Let's look at yet another surprising archeological find. Imagine, if you will, a group of Christian archaeologists plowing their way through thousands of deeds and property records of towns and cities in North Africa. These deeds, surveys, title changes and tax records an dated from A.D. 100 to 400, and often stated the uses being made of each building. Some of these documents tell the name of the family that lived in each house, the occupation of those employed, and their religion. Some of these records also tell what other activities the building was used for besides living quarters. ("Baking located here"; "Pots made here," etc.) Lo and behold, from time to time notations are found that say, essentially,                                                                                                             "The Christian ecclesia sometimes holds meet­ings in this house"! WOW! DOES THAT MEAN                   HOUSE CHURCHES WEREN'T               HOUSE CHURCHES                                                             BECAUSE OF PERSECUTION??