A woman was asked one day why she cut the ends off the ham before cooking it. "This is just the way my grandma always did it," she replied. What she didn't realize was that her grandma had to cut the ham so it would fit in her small pan.

It is human nature to follow tradition without even knowing why. We often perform tasks as they have "always been done." Some traditions are positive and carry with them culture and history, and some bring us a sense of security and stability. Other traditions, like the ham-cutting, outlast their use and replace the original function altogether. This is called "putting form over function." The form is the tradition or way of doing a task or function; the function is the basic goal that lies at the root of form. The form should exist to bring the function to life, not the other way around.

Take for example the function of a prayer of petition. In one form, a priest in a high-liturgy church recites David's words from Psalm 51 included in the Book of Common Prayer: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." A layperson in another church leads the congregation, "God, we've messed up in many ways this week. Make us clean again. Put Your Spirit into us." A soldier in a foxhole simply cries, "Jesus, I'm sorry!" All three prayers share the same function but have various forms.

There is one form of church that has existed since Pentecost. Currently it is said to contain more Christians than any other kind of church worldwide. It is called "house church." As the name implies, it is a church that meets in a home. It was the only form of church found in the New Testament or in the world until the time of the emperor Constantine (with one or two archeological exceptions). Between the years A.D. 313 and 321, Constantine made Christianity the official state religion, gave tax benefits for donated buildings, put clergy on his payroll and claimed Sunday as the official day of worship. A tax-exempt, property-holding organization with paid clergy replaced the simple form of house church. Nevertheless, the house church has continued to exist to this day.

A simple definition of a house church is a group of believers who meet in a home to function as a New Testament church. This usually means a focus on the basics of prayer, fellowship, learning and evangelism among a smaller group of people. All are encouraged to participate, use their spiritual gifts and share life together in community that extends beyond meeting times. Examining the idea of house church challenges common ways of doing church and helps point us back to its biblical functions, because the house church essentially challenges three unnecessary forms in Western churches: buildings, clergy and programs.

A specific church building is one form that hinders essential church functioning. If a traveler came asking for "the church" in a typical second-century Roman town, he was directed toward a gathering of people, not a physical structure. Even the Greek word for church literally means "called-out ones," with an underlying idea of gathering together. So why is the question, "Where is your church?" answered today with directions to a physical address? The form of the building has overtaken the basic nature and function of the church as people.

There are no holy places in biblical Christianity. Only one holy God lives with a holy people. This notion began in the Old Testament. The holy ground around the burning bush was holy only because God was in the middle. The same was true for the tabernacle and the temple — God's presence made them holy. The coming of Jesus brought a full understanding of this concept. He spoke to the woman at the well, and when asked about the proper holy place He said, "... a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth ..."(John 4:23). No exact address needed.

Jesus knew the end of worship in the temple loomed near. Matthew 24:1 reads, "Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings." They were impressive buildings. Luke probably thought, Think of the ministry potential to the outcasts here. Maybe Mark pictured a healing and deliverance center. John stared wide-eyed counting the evangelistic possibilities. Judas weighed the money bag in his fingers as he watched people pay the temple tax. One would think a sensible response from Jesus would be, "Yes, yes. And I tell you the truth, apostles, all of this could be yours! Greater church buildings than this you shall build in my name." What Jesus said was not even close. Instead He responded, "Do you see all these things? I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." Jesus replaced the temple with something greater — Himself, with His holy people gathered around.

Church began at Pentecost. Instead of filling a "holy place" God filled the people who were seeking Him together in a house. Again, there is nothing magical about the form of church in a house. It emphasizes the biblical idea that church is people and can begin and exist anywhere God's people breathe. It drives the truth of Jesus' words: "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them" (Matthew 18:20). Instead of the emphasis on God's filling a "holy building" should we not ask God to fill a holy people? Paul asked the same question of the Corinthians: "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). The form of a building confines church to meetings under steeple and cross. The form of a house church creates space where it is easier to remember that church is people and that Jesus is among them.

Another form that threatens true church functioning is the false separation between clergy and laity. Martin Luther brought us a reformation of theology and began the Protestant church. He rediscovered the gospel of salvation through faith by grace, an essential function within the church. Unfortunately, Luther transferred the hierarchy of priests directly into Protestantism.

Jesus spoke of more than physical structure when He claimed to be replacing the temple. He also abolished the division and hierarchy of the priesthood. Matthew 27:51 reads, "At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split." Only the high priest could go behind that curtain, so when priests were instituted in the church the temple curtain was hung again. This curtain of "clergy" versus "laity" has separated holy people from God and mired their functioning in the church. Martin Luther coined the phrase "the priesthood of all believers." Unfortunately, he only applied it in the sense that we no longer need to go through a priest but have direct access to God for salvation. He forgot that it means every believer also has gifts and a role of ministry in the body of Christ. While I'm thankful for Luther, he simply replaced the old priestly structure with new priests and the same old structure. The church will never fully function until that curtain comes down once again. This idea will shake some earth and split a few rocks, but rediscovering church is worth suffering a little violence.

"Church is people" and "the priesthood of all believers" are both essential elements within the church, but what should happen when the church gathers together is continually at the center of focus and controversy. There is a worship renewal happening around the world. Not the thousands in the North American "renewal" movement or the tens of thousands buying the latest worship CD. The real renewal is happening with the millions around the world who are learning how to gather in someone's home and circle in prayer. People are leaving the complications of church programs and returning to the basic functions described in the book of Acts: "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ... Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts ..." (Acts 2:42, 46). Prayer, learning and fellowship are the biblical, basic functions of the church. Meeting in the temple courts and in homes, having the Lord's Supper and eating together were the basic forms for these functions in the early church.

The Lord's Supper is a good modern-day example of the form replacing function. William Barclay writes, "The celebration of the Lord's Supper in a Christian home in the first century and in a cathedral in the twentieth century cannot be more different, they bear no relationship to each other whatsoever." True Communion functions to remember Christ's body broken and blood shed among us. A tight liturgical script performed by pastors and priests has replaced the intimacy of that first Lord's Supper, shared together by Christ and His disciples. An elaborate and costly program is substituted for the simplicity of a meal. Sharing daily life together is pared down to a two-hour show on Sunday morning.

Gathering together as church has lost its original meaning. Only an honest reevaluation of church programs and liturgy will restore the biblical functions of the church. As the buildings are sold, pastors return to the circle of holy people and programs are cut, maybe then we will discover church once again.

Our beliefs about church do not need correction. Our church structures need a reformation. Rediscovering church will take recommitment to the original functions as well as a willingness to change common forms, even some that have lasted 1,700 years. Maybe it's time to sell the building, cut the programs, de-pulpit the pastor and come home. Picture the church as the family of God. People cannot "go to family" as one talks of "going to church." Yet healthy families do spend time together. They eat meals — many meals. Not the 300-person potluck, although it's a start, but dinners around a table with laughter and sharing. Meals with time enough to spill your drink and apologize as you clean it up. Time enough to get into an argument about something and then to realize that it's not that big of a deal. Time enough to get past the happy-Christian veneer to the real life sharing that church can become.

People ask what house church is like. House church is like an extended family that puts Jesus at the center and reaches out to those who are orphans. What we do is gather in homes to pray, learn and grow in relationship. Sound simple? It is. Delightfully simple.