The idea of the church as a household is ubiquitous in the New Testament. In fact, the metaphor originates with Jesus Himself (Matt. 12:46-50). But it is one thing for us to say that our church ought to be like a family and another thing to know what the family looked like in the ancient world. It does us little good, and may even mislead us, to insist that the church is a household if we are not able to appreciate what the Greco-Roman household was like, what its purpose was, who were its members and what were their responsibilities. In this session we will look at the shape and significance of the ancient household so that we are able to see how the idea of family was employed as a metaphor for the church by the New Testament writers.