In the seventeenth century, Phillip Jackson Spencer advocated small private meetings in homes for meditation, chain prayers and sharing emotional experiences. Recently, a brother has written a book advocating that churches should meet in homes, rather than large buildings, and some churches have had members who think this is more spiritual and therefore large churches should not exist.

It is certainly scriptural for churches to meet in homes (Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19), but their place of assembly had little relation to their spirituality. The church in Corinth assembled in a place other than their homes (1 Cor. 11:18,22; 14:35). About three thousand souls were baptized on the day of Pentecost and they “continued daily with one accord in the temple…” (Acts 2:41,46). There were places in the temple that would accommodate large crowds. Brethren in Ephesus met “in the school of one Tyrannus” (Acts 19:9), and the church in Troas met in a building that had a third story (Acts 20:9). The size of the meeting place has little relevance to spirituality.