House churches provide intimate place to worship

Jason Rohlf grew up attending Missouri Synod Lutheran churches. He went to church with his family on Sunday where they would read the liturgy, sing the hymns and listen to the sermon.

It was the kind of church where “you could go ... anywhere in the country and you'd know the hymns, you'd be able to recite the liturgy,” he said.

Rohlf, 29, his wife, Leah, and their children now worship in a more intimate type of gathering - one that's on the rise across the country - in their Coralville home. They of host one of five Mars Hill house churches.

House churches - small gatherings in a home or place other than than church building - are gaining in popularity as people continue to search for new forms of the local church, according to a recent study by the Barna Research Group.

According to the Barna study, about 22 percent of adults attend a religious service - not a “worship service” - in someone's home in any given month.

It's just what Mars Hill pastor Dan Bovenmyer was hoping to create when he and 19 other members of the large Stonebrook Community Church came to Iowa City from Ames six years ago. Stonebrook, a church of about 600 members, like many other churches was set up as a large church and then members broke into smaller groups.

“We looked at that model and we got to thinking,” Bovenmyer said. “What if we put the small groups first? It's not so much bringing everyone together, but more sending people out into the neighborhoods where they live.”

Bovenmyer serves as pastor of Mars Hill but doesn't lead any of the house churches. That job rests with lay leaders, like Rohlf.

Rohlf tried attending a traditional church when he went to college but said there “wasn't a sense of community, I didn't feel like I was being spiritually fed.”

As co-leader of the house church with friend Jonathan Windham, Rohlf said his faith is focused and motivated, something he credits to the church's size.

“It keeps me from being a lazy Christian,” he said. “If I was in a traditional setting I would just kind of coast through.”

Each house church holds its own service, complete with music, scripture reading, prayers and discussion. What they don't have often is the formality of a traditional church setting. When children are finished with their portion of the service, Bovenmyer said, often they're sent outside with one of the adults.

“If the ‘high church' model is important to you as a person, then a house church isn't necessarily the place for you to start,” he said.

What was one house church with 50 membersm, is now five churches with 15 to 20 people.

Each group has its own personality, Bovenmyer said. The fastest growing group is one of singles; Rohlf's group is mostly young families. Just as each group is different, Bovenmyer said, so is each service.

“I don't think there's just one way to do a service,” he said. “You find what works for you and do it that way.”