House Churches

The Rev. Dr. Joshua Daniel

Associate Rector for Discipleship and Worship
202-363-4119 |

Joshua Daniel joined St. Columba’s staff in March 2020 as Associate Rector for Discipleship and Worship. Joshua loves working in the Body of Christ, in all its strange and wonderful forms. He hopes to bring a sense of excitement about the possibilities of growing in faith, deepening in worship, and doing his small part to help make the kingdom of God a nearer reality in this corner of the world.

Born and raised in Bentonville, AR, Joshua studied philosophy and theology at Greenville College, Oxford University, and graduated with a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Arkansas. During his time at the University, he taught philosophy, worked for an academic journal, and served as the Episcopal Chaplain, transforming a small college ministry into a vibrant and diverse community. Prior to his arrival at St. Columba’s, in his first call to ordained ministry, he led a spirit-filled congregation as Priest-in-Charge of a parish in the Mississippi Delta.

Joshua, his wife Jenna, and their three children are thrilled to return to the DC area after graduating from Virginia Theological Seminary in 2018. While at VTS, Joshua co-edited "Reasonable Radical?" (Pickwick 2018) with the Dean and President of the seminary, the Very Rev. Dr. Ian Markham.

A Reflection on House Churches

What role has the "house church" played in our tradition?

In the first three months since COVID-19 has disrupted our normal worship practices we have pursued a distinctly 21st Century response: a simplified digital worship experience that preserved many of our core values of corporate worship (reading scripture, praying, singing, preaching, and blessing).

They have preserved many, though not all of our core values. Our inability to gather as a corporate body has also meant, quite literally, that we have not been able to share in the Body of Christ. In response to a crisis not in our control we have appropriately abstained from this form of sacramental worship. But for more than a generation the calling of the Episcopal community to table fellowship has defined us and the task of discerning its restoration is paramount.

As our communities emerge from strict isolation, we are afforded another opportunity to exercise a creative and faithful response to this particularly defined moment for our parish. What will it look like to worship in each other’s presence in this continued age of social distancing? We need to find environments that are both natural for small groups to gather and also flexible enough to adjust to the particular needs and contexts of different groups.

Fortunately the Church has already experimented with one such model. It's perhaps the oldest model in our tradition for sacramental worship: the 1st Century house church. After the Resurrection, the church met in houses. In houses, at first, because that’s where Jesus found them. But in the weeks and months (and for the more than two hundred years) that followed they met in houses, in part, because of persecution, but mostly because those early Christians had neither institutional credibility nor the monetary assets to access large public gathering spaces. The church met in rather disorganized fashion in the only context they could: the homes they lived in.

And so we find ourselves, nearly two millennia later. The Body of Christ dispersed into the world yet without access to large public meeting spaces. In this moment might we return to where we started?

The Rev. Dr. Joshua Daniel