2I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many people, including me. 3Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. 4They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. 5Greet also the church that meets at their house.
There in Scripture we find a mega and a mini! The thousands strong church and the house church. Two very different FORMS. I am sure that in between those two were churches of all sizes who met in all sorts of places. The particular form that the church takes is never really an issue in the New Testament. The church is a gathering of Christ followers - believers in Him. Where it meets and how large or small it is doesn't seem to matter.
What matters is its FUNCTION. Does the church function as it should? Function does not include style of music, congregation size, preaching/teaching style - those are forms. The essential functions are found in Acts 2:42-47 - Worship / Community / Discipleship / Service (which includes gospel sharing). Does our gathered community of Christ followers Worship? Do we have a place where community (real community, doing life together community) takes place? Is there a process that grows our community spiritually, helping them to be more like Christ and build other followers of Christ? Are we serving our our families, community, our world? Those are functions.
It seems to me that we often get so bogged down in preferred forms that we completely lose sight of the necessary functions.
