Romans 1:7-8 –To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. 
Paul established a lot of churches — it was what he did as “evangelist in chief” to the Gentiles. He didn’t, however, found the church in Rome. In fact, we don’t know who did? But by the time Paul wrote his letter it was well established — the faith of its members was “spoken of throughout the whole world”.
When you think of the church in Rome what do you imagine? A colony of slave, perhaps, furtively assembling in the catacombs? It really wasn’t like that. Reading Chapter 16 of Paul’s letter gives us a nice cross-section, 28 individuals.

Priscilla and Acquila are good Roman names … and the church met in their house. Even if it was only the people mentioned in the text, it was a fair sized group and the house would have been large enough to suggest they were fairly wealthy.

Ampliatus was another Roman name that might point to a good family. Urbanus is a Latin word — “of the city” or “city born”. It might suggest a slave.  “Those of the household of Aristobulus” and “those of the household of Narcissus” probably refers to slaves — or at best, freedmen. The names Aristobulus and Narcissus are highly suggestive too — there was an Aristobulus who was from a rich Idumean family, and a Narcissus who was a senior servant in the household of the Emperor Claudius — which might add a very “high society” flavor to Priscilla and Acquila’s house church!

I’m not going to go through all the names. I’m hoping you’ll share my point of view. You see I can’t help feeling that, like the Jerusalem church described  in the first few chapters of Acts, the Roman church was a model. In fact it’s a model we might do well to get back to.

The church in Rome was a wonderful mixture — it seems it was open to all races, slaves and free, male and female (with at least one woman, the deaconess Phoebe, being very prominent). Perhaps this is what Paul had in mind when he wrote to the Galatians:

For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:27-28)

There is, perhaps, something unhealthy about any church that does not feel welcoming to all sorts and conditions of Christian. Let us commit to diversity!