Church history begins with the cross at which the Church is birthed. The next important happening was Pentecost at which the Holy Spirit came. As a result the Church in Jerusalem came into being consisting of 3000 souls. It continued to swell in numbers and after some years we enter into the next phase of the Church. Persecution started and as result lots of Christians fled Jerusalem and spread all over Israel and abroad. Then Paul entered the scene. In his former life he was called Saul and was a prime persecutor of the Church. Through an encounter with the Lord Jesus he got converted to Christianity and became the apostle to the heathens whereas Peter was the apostle to the Jews. Little is known about the other apostles. It's though widely accepted that Thomas went to India to preach the gospel about Jesus.

 

The first century up towards the first half of the second one is the story of several Churches which were started by Paul or his co-workers. They were situated mainly in Asia Minor, Greece and Italy (Rome).

 

Two scenario's what happened next:

1.

As Paul and his co-workers went to be with the Lord there apparently weren't any workers anymore in the old sense of the word. It's unknown why this happened. Paul's idea was actually to train workers. What happened instead was that local presbyters began to emerge as the resident "successors" to the unique leadership role played by the apostolic church. They usurped a role which was different from the elders which had functioned during the time of Paul and his co-workers. Back then all Christians within a fellowship had equal standing and the workers didn't take up residency in the churches for which they cared. The elders simply led the Church by their exemplary  action. With the present move of the local presbyters a single leading figure became to be the norm.

 

2.

Paul had trained his co-workers to lead the Churches. He had ordained elders in every Church and people the like of Timothy were given instructions how to teach the Churches. When the Emperor 'converted' to Christianity, it became more powerful. The independence of Local Churches gradually gave way to a hierarchical system in which certain Local Churches were regarded as more important than others. Several Local Churches didn't go along with this but the damage was done.

 

This (scenario 1 or 2) ultimately led to the Catholic Church and the 7 Ecumenical Councils. The outcome of that was a split which resulted in the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church both claiming to be the only true Church on earth. Both were ignorant or on the offense about Christian groups which were still fellowshipping in the old ways. Throughout history these groups continued to exist. Sometimes small, sometimes big, but always seen as a danger to the Institutional Church.

 

Many centuries later the Reformation changed the course of history. Well, it did and it didn't.  Protestantism entered the world scene and has given rise to numbers upon numbers of splits about all imaginable and unimaginable matters. While Protestantism was a reaction to Roman Catholicism meanwhile some Christian groups continued to be just Church in the old way.

 

The 20th Century has been an age in which many Christian sects started to enter the world scene. They were many a time an reaction to protestantism with its unending number of denominations. Another reaction to Protestantism were the free Churches, Evangelical Churches, Pentecostal Churches and charismatic Churches. These latter groups saw themselves as returning to the roots of what was Christianity all about and believed the institutional part of Christianity to be spiritually dead or at least spiritually inferior. The Christian sects though set themselves apart from all of it.

 

The latter part of the 20th Century and into the 21th Century saw a move towards house churches and organic Church on the one hand and Roman Catholic Church, Orthodox Churches and Anglican Churches on the other hand. At the same time there is a lot of talk about the Ecumenical movement and about Evangelical platforms which both aim for unity within their respective branches. While Christianity is very plural in its presence the scales are turning slowly but steadily towards the old ways of Church which is what the House Churches or Organic Church is all about.

 

The Church is preparing itself worldwide to become the Bride of Jesus.

 

 

 

Though I wouldn't necessarily agree with all or most conclusions reached at in 'Pagan Christianity' I do believe that small gatherings of people constituted all of the Churches of the New Testament era. Therefore you can only find below recommendations to Organic Churches and House Churches. As old the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches are, the House Churches are older of which Organic Church is a specific form. House Churches do exist nowadays in all kinds of forms. They may even take the form of the Roman Catholic Church or the Orthodox Churches in places with very few christians...

 

We highly recommend the book 'Pagan Christianity' written by Frank Viola/George Barna.

Frank Viola's website is: http://www.ptmin.org/

George Barna's website is: http://www.barna.org/

 

Other recommendations are:

-The untold story of the New Testament Church by Frank Viola:

 

-The Torch of the Testimony by John W. Kennedy:

 

The following link explains the concept of organic church.

 

The next two links are about two groups which express organic church.

 

The following two link are part one and two of what pastors say about Pagan Christianity.

 

The following link is an article about the opinion of American Christians about organic church. It's from the Barna Group which is a famous institute doing research on Christianity.

 

 

- Houses that changes the world by Wolfgang Simpson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google Maps shows the whole world and you can zoom in to the level of individual streets. Therefore all localities can be seen on Google Maps and gives you therefore an idea of the many, many Local Churches there could be around the world. All of them already exist in the spiritual realm but need to become a reality too in the material realm of day-to-day life.