you have, with the exception possibly of erastus, no one from the aristocratic orders; no one who would be a member of the city council. you have no agricultural slaves who are at the bottom of the hierarchy. but in the rest of the social pyramid, everything in between, you seem to have representatives in these early christian groups. so we begin to get a picture of upwardly mobile people, to use a modern anachronistic way of describing them-- people who have mixed status, who probably will be viewed by the aristocracy outside as nouveau riche; not people who don't quite belong, but in their own eyes perhaps deserve more status than they are getting from the larger society, and have found within this community a role of leadership and a role which is recognized. >> the worship of an early christian house church probably centered around the dinner table. the term "communion" actually comes from this experience of the dining fellowship. we also know that all other aspects of worship that we think of as going with early christian practice probably happened around the dinner table as well.