THE PROBLEM WITH THE HOUSE CHURCH MOVEMENT AND A SEARCH FOR THE UNITY OF HIS BODY.
By Andy Zoppelt
We in the house church movement in many ways are taking the same path as those in previous movements. We have accurately pointed out the major faults and flaws in the institutional church: pastor, pews, programs, buildings, indifference, denominationalism, hierarchy-- the list seems a mile long. We all agree that this institutional system of church is absolutely different from what we read about in the early forming of the body of Christ. It is, without exaggerating, a 180-degree turn from what Jesus and the apostles set up in the early church. At this point we all agree. But have we really looked at the sin in our own camp.
Problems that need to be addressed
1. The spirit of division. Most house churches I have visited are quite content in being "us four and no more." Because they are meeting in the shelter of a house, they have turned inward in believing that somehow they are inherently different� even New Testament! Most are having little or no impact on their community, the poor, those in prisons, those in need-- and many are not even impacting missions. They easily have forgotten that even the early house church was never meant to be an end in itself. They have forgotten the responsibility of being connected and functioning locally in the city. They reject others meeting in homes in their same area. We now have micro-division rather than macro-divisions.
Jesus made it clear in John 17 that unity was not an option for His disciples. We are either gathering or scattering, we are either for Him or against Him. We don't have many options if we are truly going to follow Jesus and keep Him at the center. Each group or leader clutches their group as though it were theirs. Whose church is it? Whose people are we? The people are scattering looking for shepherds after His own heart.
2. There is a spirit against leadership. House churches often overreact to the false leadership of the institutional church by denying the biblical need of the five-fold ministry. Their kind of "priesthood of the believer" has denied the ministries function within the body of Christ and denied many of His servants on a universal level. They forget that these ministries are gifts to the church as "God has appointed." (1 Cor. 12:28-21 and Eph. 4:11)
A tremendous price will be paid by denying those whom Jesus sends and anoints. Our individualism and independence have created a false sense of body ministry. Because we deny the diversity of ministry of the universal church, without which we cannot survive in times of shaking, God has withheld from us His power and presence.
Many individuals feel threatened by the experience and revelation of the five-fold ministry and shelter themselves in isolated home meetings. They have forgotten that the diversity of all ministry is not competition but it complements and builds up the body of Christ. This is one reason that the church has such a low level of maturity.
3. No burden for the needy. Ministry has almost come to a complete stop in the house church. When I was an institutional pastor, we would go to the streets to minister and feed hundreds of people. Even the city of Fort Lauderdale stood up and took notice; they asked how they could help. The local newspaper did a full 2-page write-up on us. We went into the jails and nursing homes. We were a light on a hill. Now I feel disconnected from my local brothers rather than us pulling together. The only burden we have is what we shall bring for the meal after the meeting. If we don't have His burden, we cannot know His will, nor can we speak for Him.
4. Giving. Our anti-tithing doctrine has led to a greed where giving is non-existent. It matters little what we believe concerning the tithing issue if our believing doesn't include giving up our selfish attitude toward our finances to pull together locally and trans-locally. If we don't support the poor, we are worse than the institutional church. Paul mentioned over and over his concern for the poor. Jesus said the ministry to the poor was a sign of one being his sheep. Even John questioned the presence of the Holy Spirit being in a person of indifference in 1 John 3:17-18
We often think of homosexuality as the sin of Sodom and the reason that God destroyed it. "Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit." Ezek 16:49-50
5. Its conventions are about information not building. Our conventions are no different than the institutional church conventions. We have focused and exalted the prominent speakers to a level of entertainment status. We have experts giving us information while we experience little of the life of the body. Many can't even remember what the speakers have said after the convention. We are more entertained with information expertly presented than a building together. We hope that some holy huddle around a 10-minute break around the table will connect leadership. It is the same old "us four leaders and no more." It becomes exclusive and therefore anti-inclusive. I go to them and feel like a dummy with nothing to add. I feel stupid and am supposed to listen as I sit in my seat as the professionals explain how to do it. I weep and cry to be built with other leaders and am too often disconnected, standing alone. I want to get together in order to pray together, to be one with one another, to share together, to support one another. I am a "lone ranger" in the midst of divisions of every flavor.
When I read the resumes of the speakers, I have flashbacks of institutionalism. Who do we recognize for their suffering, their servant's heart, their loyalty to the sheep? Aren't these the people we need to hear from?
Our meetings are salted with information, strategies, how-to methods, and the spread of house churches. Does this not have the sound of institutional program-ism? We hear much about the why's, how's, and what-to-do in house churches--but we are void of any establishment of being built together and of leaders being reconnected in the body of Christ� true restoration. It pains me to think of all those house churches disconnected in any given locality. Should we not build and not just inform? Is not building an apostolic mandate?
6. a universal disconnect. The universal church, as it is often called, is the unity that gave the early church meaning and power. Without power we are forced to form. Because there is no recognition of the church in the city, there is no understanding of the universal church and the need for universal ministry. The early church started out as a universal church among 120 persons. As it grew, it maintained its universal identity. The church functioned in houses and cities but maintained its identity in universal unity. Leadership was not established in house churches but in the city and in the universal church. Every house church didn't have an elder; but the eldership functioned locally in the city much like Israel. Because there was a universal unity, much of the five-fold ministry could function locally and universally. There were letters from city to city to keep them informed and in communication with one another. There was a body that was connected. Disconnection brings about death. All we need to do is look at our physical bodies for a moment; it has a lot to tell us about being connected and the death that results from being disconnected. How long does it take for a member being separated from the body before it's too late to be reconnected? We need more connection not information.
7. Seeing the house church as the end. Somehow we see the house church in the New Testament as central to changing the world rather than Jesus. In past years I have seen and experienced church emphasis on many issues: Community, government, gifts, repentance, five-fold ministries, discipleship, evangelism � and now the house church movement. The circle of teaching, books, conventions and strategies surround the emphasis. We have come to think that it was the house that changed the world, and we have made it an end.
8. Denominationalism. This is a curse word to those of us who experienced the horrific divisions and competition created out of "naming" a Christian movement. Denominations got their start around some biblical truth or some person. Denominate means "to name". Rarely are we content with just being Christian; we somehow want to name our special movement and separate ourselves from all those who are of "Babylon." It is the name of Jesus that identifies us, not our network. We have subtly fallen into the previous entrapments, which we learned from the institutional church (Babylon) and created streams and networks. We want to box our move under something we can identify as being "us" exclusively. Now, no one will admit this but, the fruit reveals the root of our denominational affiliation. It is a "let-us build" kind of heresy. When the Assemblies of God started around the early part of the 20th century, it wanted to join the divided Pentecostal movement. Today the Assemblies of God is just another denomination among many. What do we think will happen with all our streams and networks? They to will be become another denomination with a label. Comenius says, "The great number of teachers is the reason of the multitude of sects, for which we shall soon have no names left�"
Where did this come from? Gen 11:1, 4� 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name (denomination) for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.'"
It was the first inclination of Peter when he saw Jesus speaking with Moses and Elijah: "Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, �Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah'"
I can hear it now, "Which tabernacle do you go to?" Once we name it, we divide it. For years I heard these defensive excuses: "We are just setting up networks to �" and then they go on to explain. I just can't see Apollos coming into a city and leading a number of people to the Lord and then setting up a network or stream-sourcing to his apostolic ministry. Denominationalism comes in many forms. If we are of the same carnal nature as the denominationalist, we will find a way to create a name without looking and feeling denominational. In the discipleship movement we found a way to appear non-denominational-- we called our divisions "streams." In that way we could identify who it is we were "under". Later in the restoration movement we created "networks;" names were given to each network and we related to specific leaders, apostles� whatever. The results are the same. We take something that doesn't belong to us and we put our label on it in order to control it and identify with it. Mankind naturally likes names and titles. So in order to build, we need a name. The name identifies who we are and our group; natural successes give us a sense of achievement that we could not achieve individually. There is power in numbers and recognition in names.
9. False Identification. I keep hearing how we in the house church movement are the largest movement in the world. We use China and others in the third world nations to make this point. But there is no comparison between them and us. I met a brother from China a few years ago; his word to me was that we didn't have life, we had form. We have accomplished a form without life� if we dare to be honest. We are not the same as many in the third world nation. They are not what they are because they meet in houses, but because they have life... Maybe we need to identify with their life and not their house meetings.
10. Numbers: When God sent me into the institutional church as a youth pastor, I learned a powerful inside lesson: it was all about success and numbers. We can't get away from success and numbers. When I go to a house church convention, I hear, "How many house churches have you planted?" or "How many are in your house church?" Whoever has planted the most house churches or has the most successful house church is placed on a pedestal. Is that different from the institution? Many real five-fold ministries cannot become manifest if we continue to judge by such a narrow standard.
11. There is no room for a strong word. We organize till we paralyze. We have created a comfortable environment and a box, which we protect with tooth and claw. Institutionalism is based on organizing to the point where God has no place for moving outside the program or box. I am convinced we need a good strong and hard word now and then. A famous man of God once said, "If you have not gotten a hard word from God, I doubt that you know Him."
I remember one time I invited Art Katz to speak in our church; he blasted us and pointed out every problem. I must say, I loved it. We need to make room for others to speak into what we are doing. Conventions are afraid that "confusion" might set in if such a place is made for this to happen. But we admit that in our local house church meetings we face many hard issues all the time. I had times I wanted to close down the meeting and get with God alone, but if I did, I would have missed the life that comes from confrontation and conflict. Do we organize house churches to end any confusion? No, because to the patient, it is fertile soil to grow.
12. Where do we go from here? If the power of Pentecost was because of the disciples of Jesus and the unity of the body coming together, just maybe we should consider such a humbling position. Let us throw away our differences and come together and pray, fast, and serve one another. Let us let God put us together, build us together. Let us fall in love with Him and one another--no matter how long it takes and no matter what it takes. We cannot dodge such important issues as love, unity and fellowship. Without love we all are nothing and are building on sinking sand. If we don't learn from history, we will repeat it.
So who am I to make such a request to other leaders? I am nobody, so let's get me out of the picture, something we often don't do, and let's consider a real restoration of the body of Christ. I know that this is the cry of many leaders to whom I have talked and written.
The suggestion I have heard from many is that we meet together and talk first. Then, if God leads, maybe we could have some real weeping between the porch and the altar and repent (Joel 2). Maybe God would give us a prophetic word, where we could sound the alarm on His holy mountain. We need to blow the trumpet with a clear warning and a true word from God in this day of shaking. Let us come together-- because it is good for the brethren to dwell together in unity. It is there He proclaims the blessing� something we all need. Let the Lord separate the wheat from the chaff, but let those who are willing in the day of His power come together.
Dare we come together in unity and build upon Jesus?
Why House Church Isn't the Answer: Living in the Relational Church - Part 7
By Wayne Jacobsen
BodyLife � February 2002
When 20 years of countless prayers didn't fix it, I had to conclude either that God was ignoring me, or that I was asking for the wrong thing. Anxiety used to be my constant companion, and quite honestly he was no fun to hang with. He used to punch me in the pit of the stomach when I least expected it and his ravings kept me awake at night.
Every time a circumstance emerged that caused him to appear, I begged God to change it so I would not be anxious. Rarely, if ever, did he answer those prayers. Finally, I concluded that the circumstances were not the problem, but the anxiety itself was. My prayers changed. I stopped begging him to fix my circumstances and instead asked him to remove my anxiety. It only took a decade this time for me to realize these prayers weren't working any better and I grew incredibly frustrated at God's seeming indifference to my concerns.
I didn't know then that in God's heart my problem was not the circumstances that allowed my anxiety to emerge, nor even the anxiety itself. The problem God wanted to fix was the fact that I didn't trust him to work in my circumstances to accomplish his purpose. My desire to be in control of my own life and achieve the success I thought I needed to prove my worth to him, and ultimately to myself, was the real captor.
Anxiety was only the symptom of a deeper need that God wanted to expose and heal with a clearer revelation of who he is and what he wanted to do in me. Many of you have read the chronicle of that journey in these newsletters and in He Loves Me! The more he showed me how great he was and how much he loved me, the less often I met with anxiety. Even though my circumstances had not changed, my trust in him had. I have ended up not even wanting God to satisfy my agenda anymore, but just to let me live in his every day.
In my best wisdom I had been trying to get God to fix the wrong thing. Real freedom didn't lie in conforming my circumstances to my expectations or simply removing my anxious thoughts. He wanted to build a relationship with me that would set my heart at rest regardless of the circumstances that came my way. For thirty years I had sought a cheap substitute for the real fix.
I see people doing the same thing in discovering how to be part of God's church. Having seen the weaknesses and failures of many religious structures, they have turned towards house church as the answer for authentic church life. Unfortunately, they are likely to be just as disappointed there.
It's Not the Form - For those who read BodyLife, you know I love seeing the body of Christ find ways to live out its faith and fellowship in household-sized groups where people can be active participants together in the journey of faith. The early church found the home to be the most natural environment for people to share God's life together.
It is easy to convince people that house church just might be the answer to all they have desired to experience in body life, that is until they get involved in one. It quickly becomes evident that meeting in a home isn't necessarily all it's cracked up to be. What do we do about the people who only want to use the group for their own needs? Where can we find enough people willing to pay the price to share that kind of life together? What do we do when the meeting is boring and we're tired of staring at each other?
Moving things out of a larger building and into a home does not of itself answer anything of substance. While it does provide the possibility of more active participation and deeper relationships, just sitting in a house together for a meeting does not guarantee that those things will happen. If people aren't discovering the substance of what it means to live as the church, changing the mechanics will only provide a platform for people to commandeer the group in their thirst for leadership or pull it down by trying to make their needs or passions the focus of the group.
What's wrong with the way we do church today has far less to do with the forms we use than it does the journey we are on. If we are looking for house church to meet the needs that more institutional forms couldn't touch, we are likely to be disappointed by our experiences in house church. Any time we begin with our needs as the focus, instead of God's purpose, we will end up disappointed by the results.
Mutual Accommodation of Self-Need - Like my attempts to get God to fix my anxiety my way, many of us are programmed to try to relate to God through our needs. If we begin to build our sense of church based on those self-needs, we will only end up frustrated with a cheap counterfeit of the real church God has created us to embrace. If we are looking to relate to the church because we need acceptance, or security, or a place to demonstrate our gifts, or people to love us in a certain way or someone to tell me how I should live in Christ, we're already headed in the wrong direction.
Most people never see that because the things they want, like being free from anxiety, are not evil things. It's the way we go about getting them met that provides the real trap. A friend of mine who was a denominational pastor for many years, in the end defined much of organized religion as the mutual accommodation of self-need. Some people need to lead; others need to be led. Some need acceptance and others relish in acting as their savior. Some need to get up front and sing; while others want to sit through a moving service. Some people have a passion for children's ministry and others just want to drop their children so others will disciple them.
His contention was that congregations exist only as long as they can effectively overlap these needs. When they do, the congregation gets along famously. When they don't they get trapped in gossip, power-struggles, and people leaving to find congregations that will meet their needs or form new ones with a different group in control. There the cycle begins all over again while most never realize that the life of the church is not built on our self-needs, but on God's purpose in his people.
Changing the venue from a building to a home doesn't solve this problem. If we're going to seek to find church life by having our needs accommodated by others, we will find moments of fulfillment mingled with long, dry periods of discontent and frustration.
Absolute Dependence - Experiencing the joy of authentic fellowship begins when we realize that all our dependence must be centered on Jesus himself. We don't share fellowship because we need to. We don't do it to get our needs met. True fellowship can only be known where our dependence upon Christ spills out in our love for others. Knowing the joy and freedom of his life, we can't help but share it with others.
Scripture is clear. True life is only found in Jesus. There is life in no other--not even a correct arrangement of Christians in houses or buildings. That's what Paul meant when he called Jesus the Head of the Church, declaring that it was God's purpose for him to "have first place in everything." Our needs are not the focus of body life. His presence living among us is.
We've taught for years the mistaken notion that we need to go to church to fill up on the life of God. Not true! We can only fill up on God's life through a transforming relationship with the Father through his Son. We were never meant to come to fill ourselves with church, but to live full of him and then share his life together with God's people.
Here is the problem with most of what passes for church life today, including many house churches: Rather than teaching people how to live dependent on Jesus Christ, it supplants that dependency by its misguided attempt to take the place of Jesus in people's lives. Instead of teaching them how to live in him, they make them dependent on the structures and gatherings of what we call church. Our expressions of church life just become another thing to stand in the way of people living deeply and fully in him.
But people who are learning to live deeply in a relationship with Jesus will find the sheer joy of sharing life with others who are doing the same. They can cross paths for a moment, or walk together for years, without having to manipulate or control each other. Because those people will realize that Jesus is the only one in control after all.
Unfortunately most believers have no idea how to live that way. We seem content to keep them dependent on our programs and services. It explains why so many expressions of church always promise more than they deliver. We can tinker forever with different methods of church life, but if we don't get this right, all our efforts will fall short. If you need help find some people who are living this way, who are not gathering a 'band of disciples', and ask for their help.
Church life grows out of a group of people who are focused on Jesus. Focus on the church, and you will always be disappointed. Focus on Jesus and you will find him building the church all around you.
Everywhere a Movement - Everywhere I go now, people ask me about the 'house church movement,' hoping it will provide the answer to their hunger for real body life. While I greatly prefer relational environments to institutional ones, every time I hear the word 'movement' my heart sinks. I'm convinced that the day we call what God is doing a movement is the day it has already begun to die. I've seen many movements come and go --Charismatic, discipleship, deliverance, healing, intercession, spiritual warfare, prophetic, worship, and apostolic just to name a few. All of them came up hollow in the end, not because God wasn't in some of it, but because people hijacked his work to serve their own needs and ambitions.
Calling something a movement inflates our own sense of importance and separates us from the multi-faceted working of God that transcends any particular way of doing things. Many years ago I was part of a denomination that called itself a movement. We used that term to make people feel that they were part of something more significant than other 'less enlightened' believers who didn't do things the way we did. I think God grieves at such distinctions.
Labeling the joy of learning to share Christ's life in our homes as the 'House Church Movement' takes our focus off of Christ and puts it either on the uniqueness of our methods or the voices of self-appointed experts. Either way, we trade our focus on Jesus for our own self-needs and miss the joy of authentic body life.
Sitting in a home in Buffalo, NY recently a friend handed me a new book on the house church movement. The subtitle nearly floored me, "...from the Radical Men Who Are Leading this Revolution." One of the authors I considered friend enough to write and ask him if he could explain to me how the cover of his book was anything less than blasphemous.
If the church is truly the work of Jesus, and in it he has first place in everything, how does anyone claim to lead what God is doing? It is either his work or it isn't. Please understand I don't think these are malicious men out to harm God's church. These in particular honestly want to see the church come to some kind of wholeness, freedom and life. However, the way they go about it demonstrates that while they understand a bit of God's ways, they've come to know little of his character.
So while their book highlights many of the ways God has asked us to share his life together, it's laced with the poisonous notion that we can produce that life by getting the mechanics right or by following the right leader. Such teaching actually circumvents the priorities it espouses by imposing a structure that will undermine those priorities.
Of course my friend did not agree with me. In fact, he said, the book was selling briskly. I have no doubt of that. Part of the reason we create movements is because people want models they think they can simply implement in their own communities.
Super Models - Many people ask me for a model for church life, hoping some future book might lay it out for them. I hate to disappoint them, but I don't even believe there is a model they can implement that will produce the vitality of authentic fellowship. It is not produced in mechanics but in the hearts of people God is transforming to be like himself.
You can take the most biblical guidelines in the world and if you implement them at the expense of learning how to live dependent upon Jesus, it will still only be a substitute for Jesus presence rather than a place where fellow-pilgrims share his life together.
Jesus did not leave us with a model to build, but a guide to follow. We experience the life of the church not because we meet a certain way or in a certain place, but because we learn to listen to God together and let him teach us how to share his life. If we substitute any method or design for that process, we will end up following it instead of him and building a counterfeit instead of the real deal. I know of no greater distraction to the depth of relationships God wants us to share, than when we give our best efforts to doing something great for God. He didn't ask us to work for him, but with him.
Beware of any model or would-be leader who wants to tell you what to do, rather than help you hear Jesus. Are there real leaders in the Body of Christ today? Of course! But they are not heading up movements or devising models, they are helping people know who Jesus really is and learn how to follow him. Religion results when men and women, with their best intentions, best activities and best programs try to accomplish God's working. It always leads to well-intentioned programs that will do some good, but never rise to bear the great fruits that God intends and that only he can accomplish.
Many think I'm so concerned about organized religion because I've been hurt by the worst of it. That isn't quite true. I think its greatest danger comes not when it is obviously flawed, but when it works well--giving people an aesthetic experience or a place to park their guilt, and missing out on a real engagement with the King of Glory. When it convinces us that sitting in the same room or greeting each other briefly in the parking lot is real fellowship, we'll miss the greater joy of supportive relationships that will help us all respond better to what God is doing in us
Accept No Substitutes - What I love about the work of the Spirit in our day is that it is not being driven by an organization, a book or a charismatic speaker. God's Spirit is creating a hunger in his people that defies the confines of religion or a particular way of doing things, and seeks to drink deeply of his presence and share an effective life with other fellow travelers.
Some people are finding others with that hunger inside more institutional congregations, and some are finding them outside of it. If you haven't found people like that yet, don't despair. God has not made all the connections he is going to make. Just don't over trade the passion in your heart to settle for a shadow of body life and miss the real thing.
Real body life allows Jesus to have first place in everything, and encourages people to the heights of knowing him. It frees people on the journey of being transformed by God to be authentic and not have to conform or pretend. It shows them how to get involved in each other's lives, not to manipulate others but to encourage God's greatest work in their lives.
Why is that so difficult to find? It may be that too many believers are so focused on their own needs they don't know how to engage others in true fellowship. It may be that we settle for cheap models that do some good in the short-term, but in doing so disarm the deeper yearnings for authentic body life. It may be that we've never learned the sheer joy of letting Jesus be the Head of his church.
If we don't get this right, it won't matter where or how we meet. It will still be centered on us, and fall far short of his glory. Why don't you ask God to teach you how to let Jesus have first place in your heart and to help you find people who share that passion? I can't imagine a prayer that would excite him more and when that happens he will show you how and where you can live out that life in him.
It is not the physical structured material building that concerns God as to where you meet to worship Him and fellowship with others... it is your heart in your physical created body made of clay that He seeks to meet you, and have you to fellowship with others.
Many speak of revival sweeping the world. But what is the nature of this revival? Is the 'revival' happening in an unexpected manner? Perhaps even outside what is conventionally considered the Church? The George Barna Research Group's 2004 study discovered that the number of adults in the USA no longer attending church has almost doubled since 1991, from 39 million to 75 million. The adult population grew 15% over the same period. "It is mainly the men," says Barna, "who make up 55% of those who have left churches.
Around half of churchgoers in the USA claim to have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour," as do 12.5 million, or around 16%, of those who no longer attend church. This represents a significant number who have a personal relationship with Jesus, but do not go to conventional church meetings. But the USA is not the exception to the rule. David Barrett, author of the World Christian Encyclopedia, estimates that there are already 112 million 'out-of-church Christians' around the world - 5% of all who call themselves 'Christians'. He expects this number to double by 2025. For the most part, this figure is based on information received from countries where Christianity is practised openly.
It is estimated that close to that figure is the number of Christians in China, who are for the most part 'out-of-church' This figure increases by up to 10,000 per day in China alone. "Why are tens of thousands of committed Christians leaving the Church? Is it a 'movement'? What is causing this global phenomenon?" asks New Zealand author Andrew Strom.
The critical question to ask - "Is this a movement?" I must admit that question worries me because of what the word 'movement' has led to in the past. There is little doubt that something is afoot throughout the world but the normal human tendency to structure and formalise should be kept in focus if this 'movement' is not to become another denomination.
Many people want a 'church address' and so the naming of what is happening is seemingly inevitable; our contention however is that this is not necessarily the case. Some call them house churches. Some call them home churches. Some call them organic churches. Some call them simple churches. Some call them 'the emerging church.' It matters little what you call them; Ephesians 2:19 uses the term 'God's household' and that is personally meaningful to me. It is what they are in relation to God that is of greater importance. They are rapidly multiplying, simple communities of believers, meeting in homes, offices, campuses, wherever God is moving.
The Bible itself gives a clear guideline - where two or more are gathered in His name, there is church. What brings people together is the spiritual "DNA" which, through their mutual experience with Jesus, exists among them. As the house 2 house website puts it - "Buildings, programs, and professional clergy are not essential elements of a church." They go on to describe what they understand by 'simple church'
By 'simple church', we mean a way of doing and being church that is so simple that any believer would respond by saying, "I could do that!"
By 'simple church', we mean the kind of church that is described in the New Testament. Not constrained by structure but by the needs of the extended family, and a desire to extend the Kingdom of God.
By 'simple church', we mean a church that listens to God, follows His leading and obeys His commands.
By 'simple church', we mean spiritual parents raising spiritual sons and daughters to establish their own families.
The name given to this website is www.housechurch. This may suggest that the church meets in a house. That is simply not true which is why the so called 'house church movement' is faced with a grave danger. It matters very little where you meet but rather what happens when you do meet. It involves simply 'spiritual parents raising spiritual sons and daughters to establish their own families.' That is what happens in any functional physical family.
We have 3 sons, two of whom are married, one with a child of his own. We are still their parents but our expectation of them is that they establish and raise their own families - it is not our responsibility and we are grateful to God for that. From the day of their birth, our conscious goal was to bring them to a place where they were no longer dependent on us. They have their own gifts and areas where they serve God and so our relationship with them now is one of interdependence.
This same pattern is what is God's plan for the church. And this extends in all areas of church life. There may be times when as a parent, I gather my children together to 'teach' them some things but for the most part this is done on a one-to-one basis or even more so, a learning by example, because, as parents, we share life with them. To do otherwise would probably be dismissed as foolishness by our children.
It is this which we need to clearly understand as we move out of formal church structures. If we are to transfer the 'structures' of big church into somebody's living room, we are heading for disaster with a capital "D". Gerald Coates amusingly describes his first attempt at 'house church' when he tried to copy what he was used to in his Plymouth Brethren meeting in his living room.
What we need to carefully note is that 'house church' is not the magic potion to solve all church problems. It is not the latest fad on the church scene!! It will not the means to win the 'world for Jesus.' Although the organisational structures in conventional churches present a major obstacle to people experiencing the reality of Jesus in community, changing or deconstructing them will not necessarily bring about the reality for which we believe people are crying out. It requires us to begin to practice the Biblical 'one anothers' on a 24/7 basis from the heart and that needs a transformation of what we have often come to understand the church is and what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Please note, that the term 'follower of Jesus' is used; being a 'believer' falls short of the mark because even the devil believes and trembles. It is more than doing and saying all the right things because we can even say - "Lord, Lord" - and cast out demons and perform miracles and still not know Jesus and he know us.
To get out of the so called 'church system' may be a first move but what is of far greater importance is to get the 'church system' out of us. All too often being removed from all the 'bells and whistles' of conventional church meetings just exposes heart problems in people. What was a problem that was hidden in the crowd now becomes one which is sitting in your living room - that can be pretty scary. At all costs we need to avoid an attitude that because we have fled institutionalism we have now arrived. Our personal experience is to the contrary - we quickly realised how much we had depended on the system to do things for us. Take heed of the warning of Peter in the Bible - "God gives grace to the humble but he opposes the proud." The benchmark against which our Christian experience should be measured is whether we are progressively becoming more passionate in our love for God, our fellow Jesus followers and the lost for whom Jesus died.
The danger of house churches is that they can become mutual backslapping clubs devoid of the life that produces more life. It is great to experience a deeper sense of relationship and fellowship but to not produce children will eventually lead to its demise. God is community and He produces community that grow new communities. That is what families do!
There are many who love the modern day mega churches in the prosperous communities where over 50 % of their budget is for the mortgage, utilities and maintenance of luxurious temples of Satan such as Joel Osteen's center for the Satanic Prosperity Gospel. They even make fun of the Chinese house churches who are filled with courageous saints who are greatly persecuted.
How are the present day churches far different from the Biblical early churches?? The early churches worshiped in private homes and did not spend over 50% of their budget on luxurious church buildings. The USA churches spend about 1% of their budget to support the really poor in foreign countries. The present churches believe it is OK to join armies and become professional killers. etc etc etc
Romans 16:5: "Greet the church that meets at their house!"
I Cor 16:19: "Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house!"
Philemon 1:2:"To the church that meets in your home!"
Luke 12:33,34: Jesus says, �Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted....For where your treasure is there your heart will be also.�
Presently the poor in the USA have cars, cell phones, TV's and food stamps. Whereas there are over 2 billion people in the world who makes less then a dollar a day!!
Matthew 20:20-24: �All these {Commandments} I have kept, the young man said. �What do I still lack?� Jesus answered, �If you want to be perfect, go, sell tour possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. **THEN** come, follow Me.� When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus says, �It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.�
Luke 6:20: Jesus says �Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.�
2 Corinthians 6:4-10: As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance, in troubles, hardships and distresses, in beatings, imprisonments; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love, in truthful speech and in the power of God; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; dying, and yet we live on; beaten and yet not killed; *POOR*, yet making many rich; *HAVING NOTHING*; and yet possessing everything.�
I Timothy 6:5-10: There are men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain. But godliness with Contentment is great gain....If we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.�
I Timothy 2:9,10: �I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.�
Matthew 19:27-30: Peter said to Jesus, �We have left EVERYTHING to follow you! What then will there be for us?� Jesus says, �I tell you the Truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me {Including Paul}will also sit on 12 thrones...And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for My sake will receive 100 times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last {In this life}will be first.� And there will be plenty of room for 100 houses and 100 fields in the New Jerusalem since it will be over 1377 miles long and wide and high.
The early church followed these Biblical commands:
Acts 2:44,45: "All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to everyone as he had need!!"
Acts 4:32: All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared EVERYTHING they had!!
Luke 6:27-30: Jesus commands, But I tell you who hear Me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not keep him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back!!"
2 Cor 10:3,4: "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have Divine Power to demolish strongholds!!"
Matthew 28:19,20: Jesus commands, "Make disciples of all nations..... teaching them to obey **EVERYTHING** I have commanded you!!"
I John 2:3-5: "We know that we have come to know Him **IF** we obey His commands. The man who says, "I know Him," but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the Truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys His Word, God's love is truly made complete in Him!!":applause::angel::peace:
How are the present day churches far different from the Biblical early churches?? The early churches worshiped in private homes and did not spend over 50% of their budget on luxurious church buildings. The USA churches spend about 1% of their budget to support the really poor in foreign countries. The present churches believe it is OK to join armies and become professional killers. etc etc etc
Acts 17:11: Tells us to read God's Word daily.
We can read God's Word in the Bible or in tracts or on billboards or on cars or on signs or on housetops: The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God.
Matthew 10:27: Jesus commands, "What I whisper in your ear proclaim from the housetops!!"
There are some who follow the Satanic Prosperity Gospel of Joel Osteen, PJ or ET and believe we are still under the OT obsolete Covenant:
In the old covenant God's commandments were only preached to Jews but in the New Covenant Jesus commands us to preach to every nation in the world teaching them to obey *EVERYTHING* He commanded and everything would also include all of the approximately 400 NT commandments also taught in Acts to Revelation {See 2 Timothy 3-16 to 4:2.}
There were 613 OT commandments and Jesus changed many of them including all of the strict Sabbath commands and all of the commands to stone someone for sinning {Jesus says that he who is without sin should cast the first stone} Jesus also eliminated all the strict Levitical dietary laws declaring that all foods are now clean. And Jesus also commanded us not to make any vows or oaths {Matt 5:33-37}on anything Just let your Yes be yes and your no, no.
Jesus also eliminated the eye for an eye laws and commanded us to always offer up the other cheek and to love {See Matt 5:38-48} our enemies. And of course Jesus eliminated all sacrifices and offerings for sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Jesus also eliminated the earthly rewards for faithful service and commanded us to sell our possessions and give to the poor and get *TREASURES IN HEAVEN* and **THEN** come follow Him.
Luke 12:33,34: Jesus says, �Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted....For where your treasure is there your heart will be also.�
Matthew 20:20-24: �All these {Commandments} I have kept, the young man said. �What do I still lack?� Jesus answered, �If you want to be perfect, go, sell tour possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. **THEN** come, follow Me.� When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus says, �It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.�
Isaiah 53:5,6: "He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him. and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all!!"
Hebrews 9:15,26b-28: Christ is the mediator of a **NEW COVENANT** so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance--now that He has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant...But now He has APPEARED once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the SACRIFICE of Himself... so Christ was SACRIFICED ONCE to take away the sins of many people, and He will *APPEAR* a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.
Hebrews 8:8,9,13: God found fault with the people and said {In Exodus 25:40}: The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a **NEW COVENANT**{Read Deut 18:17-19!!} with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will **NOT** be like the covenant I made with their forefathers.....By calling this covenant **NEW**, He made the first one **OBSOLETE**; and what is **OBSOLETE** and aging will soon disappear.� {When all the words of the New Covenant were completed by the Book of Revelation in AD 96!!}
Hebrew 10:8-10: Jesus said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them. Although the law required them to be made. The He {Jesus} said. "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He {Jesus} set aside the first {Covenant} to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus ONCE FOR ALL!":applause::angel::peace:
Richard, speak from your personal experiences as being a part of a house church, since you hate the traditional church, you hate the mega church, you hate the small church..
WHAT HOUSE CHURCH DO YOU ATTEND? And what are you and your house church doing for the glory of God in your community beside sitting around leading each other astray with your false teahcings in error of the gosepl?
Speak to us about your personal experiences that you are seeing of God working and moving through your small group or house church group, in your sommunity... how many bew souls are you sitting out to reach nad have reached that you know for a fact have coe to your samll group meetings confessing and professing Jesus Chirst as Lord and Savior?
Share with us what God is doing that you see, the apostles and Paul tells us how God increased the membership fo the church, and they saw His hand add to the church.
So you share with us what you have seen in your small group or house church of souls coming to know Jesus Christ?
George, I take it you did not read the articles I posted form those who were apart of small fellowship groups.
Farmer
I only had to read a small portion,as the poop was begining to pile higher then my boots.
Ella writes
You are using an article comparing China to the Wets- America, well in case you did not know it house churches are a must in places like China because most of them are underground, becasue it is a crime for Christians to openly express their faiht in Jesus Christ. So they hold houses churches, plus the people are poor and can't afford to build or rent buildings to hold thier worship services.
Farmer
I happen to be well aware of the plight of the ELECT-Saints-Chosen of Yeshua-Body of Believers-Priesthood of Believers,that are in China.
I do not belong to a MEGA 'church' were people have to be spoon fed the dribble that flows from the so-called senior pastors lips.
The reason the Chinese people are meeting in Homes,the forests and other places is because of the 'PROMISE of Yeshua'.
Joh 15:17 These things I command you, that you love one another.
Joh 15:18 If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it has hated you.
Joh 15:19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
Joh 15:20 Remember the Word which I said to you, A slave is not greater than his lord. If they persecuted Me, they also will persecute you. If they kept My Word, they also will keep yours.
Joh 15:21 But all these things they will do to you on account of My name, because they do not know the One who sent Me.
Have you EVER seen the fulfillment of the above Scriptures happen in this country.
I will answer my own question,NO!!!!!!!!!!!!
The reason is this,the Real Biblical GOSPEL is not being proclaimed within the bBig places where the people meet.
If the Real Gospel had been proclaimed then there would be a strong Body of Believers benefitting from the persecution.....
Ella
There are many house church all over the world in third world countries, as wella sthere are here in America, most for the wrong reasons here in America, rejecting authority, mad at the pasotr, etec... and most every church that gets started in Amercia starts as a house church until they have grown and GOd blesses them to get a building to hold its members.
Farmer
The building is as the womb of a WOMAN with a child.
As the child grows so to does the womb and stomach of the mother.
If the child never leaves the womb,but continues growing the woman would die,as her body is not able to contain and feed the over grown baby.
The same thing happens with the body of Yeshua.
As the people grow in numbers ( Not so much in personally knowing Yehsua and his word)they begin looking for a building, where most of the resources are used to fund the so-called pastor,and the people begin DYING,just like the baby in the womb.
Ella
The question is who leads the house church?
Farmer
Since trusting Yeshua to be saving my wretched self,I have believed that Yeshua was is and will always be the one LEADING HIS PEOPLE!
Joh 10:1 Truly, truly, I say to you, The one not entering through the door into the sheepfold, but going up by another way, that one is a thief and a plunderer.
Joh 10:2 But the one entering through the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
Joh 10:3 The doorkeeper opens to him, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.
Joh 10:4 And when he puts forth his own sheep, he goes in front of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
Joh 10:5 But they will not follow a stranger, never! But they will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of the strangers.
Joh 10:6 Jesus spoke this allegory to them, but they did not know what it was which He spoke to them.
Joh 10:7 Then Jesus again said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you that I am the door of the sheep.
Joh 10:8 All who came before Me are thieves and plunderers, but the sheep did not hear them.
Joh 10:9 I am the door. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in, and will go out, and will find pasture.
Joh 10:10 The thief does not come except that he may steal, and kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life and may have it abundantly.
Joh 10:11 I am the Good Shepherd! The Good Shepherd lays down His life on behalf of the sheep.
Nope,no mention of ANY man LEADING the Sheep of Yeshua.
Here is what i do read about men which take to themselves the position and authority of Yeshua.
Joh 10:12 But the hireling, not even being a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and forsakes the sheep and flees. And the wolf seizes them, and scatters the sheep.
Joh 10:13 But the hireling flees because he is a hireling, and there is not a care to him concerning the sheep.
Ella
Anyway you look at it all house churches have what the call spiritual leaders who are TRAINED, by those who advocate starting a house church...
Have you ever attended a house church? Do you know of any house churches. I can answer both questions with a yes. Samll groups gather in house all the time for Bible study, so what's new?...
Farmer
Yes,i habe been part of Home fellowship.
The ELDERS taught the people how to read,study and understand the Word of YHWH.
The Priesthood of Believers was emphasized when we would meet as a whole assembly,in a small stroe front.
As believers we had been instructed to study the word ourselves,and come with htings from the Scriptures to share publicly with the fellowship.
We had COMMUNION meal once a month.
The women made their best dish,and the singles would bring drinks,cakes,pretzels,chips,etc.
We assembled to remember Yehsua,each person was encoureaged to being actively involved in the meeting.
There were to be no people there as fans of worship,or the word.
The meetings Sunday morning were open,with the ELders teaching.
Yet they would ask questions and let the people know that they had a voice in the meetings,yet there was order under the Holy Soirits authority.
Ella
BTW, even if its in a building built with 5,000 members, and has been built especially for such, or even in a house with only two or three, its still called a CHURCH! AND HAS A LEADER.. uh, duuuuuh!
Farmer
Ella could you please show the Hebrew and GREEK Scriptures where the word 'church' is.
The word 'church' does not appear in the Hebrew or Greek manuscripts.
Yet these words do appear and are not used very often,if ever.
Elect / chosen
Psa 89:3 I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant,
Mat_24:24 For false christs and false prophets will rise up. And they will give great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.
Saints
Psa 30:4 Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
Rom 1:7 to all those who are in Rome, beloved of God, called-out saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
His body
Eph 1:22 and He "put all things under His feet" and gave Him to be Head over all things to the assembly, Psa. 8:6
Eph 1:23 which is His body: the fullness of the One filling all things in all;
Holy
1Th 5:26 Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.
1Th 5:27 I charge you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the holy brothers.
Priests
Exo 19:6 And you shall become a kingdom of priests for Me, a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the sons of Israel.
Rev 1:6 and made us kings and priests to God, even His Father. To Him is the glory and the might forever and ever. Amen.
1Pe_2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
1Pe_2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
Oh and this is not translated rightly in the KJV,and many other translations.
Matthew 16:18
(KJV) And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
(KJV+) AndG1161 I say alsoG2504 G3004 unto thee,G4671 ThatG3754 thouG4771 artG1488 Peter,G4074 andG2532 uponG1909 thisG5026 rockG4073 I will buildG3618 myG3450 church;G1577 andG2532 the gatesG4439 of hellG86 shall notG3756 prevail againstG2729 it.G846
(LITV) And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My assembly, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against her.
(YLT) `And I also say to thee, that thou art a rock, and upon this rock I will build my assembly, and gates of Hades shall not prevail against it;
The correct translation is 'ASSEMBLY / ASSEMBLIES '.
The gates of hell will not prevail against Yesuha from building His ASSEMBLY.
Ella,i hope that this will help you to understand why i believe the small assemblies are of YHWH,and better benefit the people.
George do you know you actually believe that it is wrong to say church, and to refer to a building as a church I have always known what the church is and always will be.
To say A home church is wrong any one would be in error, but what you are trying to justify is without exception is non scriptural and seated in rebellion.
