This blog is worth chewing on: http://www.theforgottenways.org/blog/16

Bob
Fides Quaerens Intellectum

Extract:
- They were an illegal religion throughout this period: At best, they were tolerated; at the very worst they were very severely persecuted.
- They didn’t have any church buildings as we know them: While archaeologists have discovered chapels dating from this period, they were definite exceptions to the rule and they tended to be very small converted houses.
- They didn’t even have the Scriptures as we know them: They were putting the canon together during this period.
- They didn’t have an institutional leadership: At times of relative calm prototypal elements of institution did appear, but from what we consider institutional these were at best pre-institutional by comparison.
- They didn’t have seeker sensitive services, youth groups, worship bands, seminaries, or commentaries, etc.
- They actually made it hard to join the church. By the late second century aspiring converts had to undergo a significant initiation period to prove they were worthy.

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Bob Pratico
Fides Quaerens Intellectum
(my Sojourn blog)