Ever felt like you were just another marble in a sack full of marbles? Ever sat in the church auditorium, feeling you were just another piece of furniture? And if you weren't there, nobody would notice?

It wasn't that way in the beginning. People then were involved. They were excited. They each were passionate with activity. They each were inflamed with a mission to tell the Gospel story. And because they were each one so ardent, their neighbors were drawn to them by the masses. When persecution hit them (Acts 8), they still grew with rapid speed, so much so that by the end of that first generation, Paul said the Gospel had been preached to "every creature under heaven" (Col. 2:23). And as each one came in, each one got involved.

Why? That's the question. Why were they so on fire?

We think three reasons:

Number one, they had each been saved by the Christ whom they crucified. The sweet taste of rescue was personal and it motivated each of them to save others. "Then those who gladly . . ." there's the secret word, ". . .. gladly received the word were baptized" (Acts 2:41). Joy drove them every one back into the temple (Acts 2:46), this time to find their Uncle Harry and Cousin Jane. "This Jesus is both Lord and Christ!" (Acts 2:36). It was house to house! Read Acts 4! Read it! Read Acts 5! Read six and seven and eight! Read all of it again! Peter spoke for each of them, "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:20).

Second, they knew their God was alive and close, and at work in each of their lives! The Sanhedrin saw it in them. "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13).

Third, and herein is the weight of this article, they knew that each one of them was important, was equally needed, was equally missioned, and was equally permitted . . . no, not just permitted, was equally "expected" to step onto life's stage and act. They didn't feel like fixtures in the temple. That's because there was no temple, no Christian temple, that is. There were no pew sitters in the first century. There were no pews! There was no clergy to do their work for them, no pulpiteer. That first century church was a movement, not a monument. It was a grassroots, person-to-person, house-church, people-talking-to-people movement. Read Acts 4:23-37. Read Acts 5:42. Read Acts 10:22. Read Acts 16:40. It sprang from their homes.

There's sanity in returning to our roots. That is, from OUR HOMES explode the dynamics of growth. Our buildings are good if we use them properly, but being confined in our church houses, imprisoned in them historically has killed us. There's good judgement in saying, if we are going to grow, we must escape present-day confinement in our temples . . . and get back also into the homes. The house church is our roots. The church house is postapostolic; the house church is apostolic and is actually our birthplace. Call them what you will... call them "cottage meetings;' which was the term God's people used in the 1950s and 60s (by the way, this was when we grew the fastest in recent history). Call them "home Bible studies;' call them "house churches;' call them "small groups." Call them what you wish, but there is sanity in our returning to our roots.

So, lest we shackle one another with 'temple' tradition, it is good to be reminded once in a while of a little history:

There was not a single large church building on planet earth until 313 A.D. Imagine! That's three hundred years after that famous Pentecost day; that's longer than the USA is old. The first large church house ever built was when Emperor Constantine built his city of megalomania, Constantinople. And that was, of course, postapostolic. In it, he built both pagan temples and "buildings for Christians to meet in:' He built both kinds because Constantine, called the first "medieval believer;' was completely dedicated to Christianity but still helplessly controlled by his pagan superstitions.

It is interesting that these Christian meeting places were shaped like government civic auditoriums, which had bleachers and stages. And he built them everywhere, in Rome, in Jerusalem and in other parts of Italy, all between 323 and 327 A.D. His efforts started, in fact, a massive "church building" fad all over the Roman Empire.

Because tax money was being poured more and more into "Christianity;' (in fact, exclusively into it by A.D. 400), pagan

priests were becoming "Christians." Why? Primarily to keep up with their money. Following both Constantine and their priests, then, pagan people were flowing into "Christianity" by the thousands. Soon, as Christians were transferring their assembly into these church buildings furnished to them, the home gathering became all but a memory.

So, our roots in Christianity really are in the living room. That's our history And is it any wonder that the first century church grew so fast!

Why were they so on fire? That is the question here. Why? Because, first, personal rescue creates joy! Second, they knew God was alive and intimately close and at work in their own singular lives. And finally, they knew each one of them was important. Each was equally needed, was equally missioned, even co-missioned, and was equally permitted . . . no, not just permitted, equally "expected" to step onto life's stage and act. In that first century, all were on life's stage; all were God's players; it was a universal priesthood. They grew because all were active members of the cast. All had jobs to do. All were expected to give, to work, to tell the Gospel. And tell it they did! Their church didn't stifle them. Rather it conditioned them . . . for growth!

They each could express their plans, their joys, their experiences, their new insights from scripture, and do it somewhere in the context of "one another." They were told, just as we, to "provoke one another;' to "confess (their) sins to one another;' to "teach and admonish one another;' to bear one another's burden;' to "encourage one another and build each other up:' And it seems people are more open to do that in informal homes and less open to do it in formal "temples:' So along with using our church buildings, there's wisdom in finding a place to use also our homes in our Christian work and ownership with one another, all still obeying scripture!

Dear brethren, if our "church buildings" are stifling growth, spiritual or numerical, we think it's time to reexamine the "home gathering:' Reason? For Heaven's sake, it's time to grow again.

Simply, it's time to get back to our roots.