Converting houses into churches: The mobility, fission, and sacred networks of evangelical house churches in Sri Lanka

• Main Author: WOODS, Orlando
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2013
• Subjects: house church; conversion of space; structural mosaic; sacred networks; evangelical Christianity; Sri Lanka; Asian Studies; Religion; Urban Studies and Planning
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2424; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/3681/viewcontent/Converting_houses_into_churches.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

In this paper I examine the processes and politics associated with the formation of evangelical house churches in Sri Lanka. In doing so, I show how the sacred space of the house church is constructed through the development of sacred networks, which emerge when a group of Christians assemble for prayer and worship. Sacred networks grant the house church an important degree of mobility, but they also encourage church fission. Whilst the house church enables evangelical groups to grow in hostile environments like that of Sri Lanka, it is often a superficial form of growth that is unsustainable in the long term. To conclude, I suggest that an understanding of sacred networks can help inject a sense of scalar dynamism into the study of contemporary religious movements.