by John White

Dear Church,

A good friend who is in the construction industry mentioned to me the other day about a church construction project that he is working on. This particular one was going to cost $10,000,000. This made me think more about the "paradigm shift" that we will need to undergo as God restores New Testament church values.

From the beginning, churches met in homes. Graydon Snyder in his book ANTE PACEM: Archaeological Evidence of Church Life Before Constantine says, "The New Testament Church began as a small group house church (Col. 4:15) and it remained so until the middle or end of the third century." (p. 166) The idea of "the church building" really didn't get going until the early 300's with Constantine. (This is when government began to get involved with church.)