I just put down a small booklet entitled: "AN ARMY OF ORDINARY PEOPLE: 2006 House Church Conference." It started out with a quote from Time Magazine, march 6, 2006. "Some Evangelicals are abandoning megachurches for minichurches based in their own living rooms. There is no pastor, choir or sermon just...believers and Jesus among them, closer than their breath." Ok, they had my attention. The first headline read, "REVOLUTION IS AFOOT...WITH AN ARMY OF ORDINARY PEOPLE!" It said, in part, "Every day, people like your friends, family and neighbors are discovering the blessings of living abundantly in a fresh church atmosphere where everyone is welcome to share their gifts and questions, ideals and burdens. According to recent research, there are as many as 30,000 house churches sprouting throughout North America, and more are multiplying every day." The next paragraph: "A FRESH STORY WITH ANCIENT ROOTS." It read: "...people are on a quest. They want to connect with God and other people in a real, honest way. The church has been responding to Jesus' call to get over her "edifice complex" ad fully claim her birthright as the hands and feet of Jesus Christ - in houses, the marketplace, and throughout creation." It's true. Jesus wants His Church back. It appears God is taking Her back to square one. Read what Scripture says about the early Church. No buildings, no church staff, no paid preacher. Take a look: Romans 16:5 ("Likewise greet the church that is in their house") 1 Corinthians 16:19 ("The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house.") Colossians 4:15 ("Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.") Philemon verse 2, ("...to Archippus our fellow soldier and to the church that meets in your home."). Based on a regular series of national surveys conducted by his company, the Barna Research Group, during the past 25 years, George Barna discovered that discontent with congregational churches, changes in lifestyles, and even a desire to get closer to God, have caused many people to seek new ways of being in relationship with God and other God-seeking people. In 2000, most of the nations organized religious activity took place at or through local churches. Barnas research reveals that. Today, the action is shifting to different forms of corporate religious commitment. Different, yes, but by no means are they new. Barna found that, in a typical week, 9% of all American adults participate in a house church. An even greater proportion 22% - engages in spiritual encounters that take place in the marketplace (e.g., with groups of people while they are at their place of work or play, or in other typical daily contexts). Even the Internet serves as the foundation for interactive faith experiences for more than one out of every ten adults, usually in tandem with other forms of religious group experiences. I can attest to that. Jon Zens, editor of the quarterly publication, "Searching Together," and an advocate of New Testament church life being lived-out today, has observed a growing exodus of people from institutional churches across America. He explains. "After years of starving in the institutional church, they leave to find New Testament realities. People study their Bibles and come to perceive a huge chasm between the New Testament and the traditional church and often they leave after the institutional church disregards their pleas for change." GOING TO vs BEING THE CHURCH The New Testament writers referred to the PEOPLE of God as God's building (1 Corinthians 3:9, Ephesians 2:19-22), God's temple (1 Corinthians 3:16-17), God's house (1 Timothy 3:15, Hebrews 3:6, 10:21, 1 Peter 2:17), God's household (Ephesians 2:19, Galatians 6:10) and Christ's body (Romans 12:4-5, 1 Corinthians 12:12, Ephesians 3:6, 5:23, 30). Though most Christians - even ministers - would say 'Amen" to that, such a response is generally little more than mere lip service. Did Christians in the New Testament GO to church? No, for the first three centuries of her existence, the thought never entered their minds. They WERE the church! They understood that they WERE God's dwelling place - everywhere they went. They were His temple! As Howard Snyder writes in "The Problem of Wineskins Today," "A church building cannot properly be "the Lord's house" because, in the new covenant, this title is reserved for the church as people. So, if church buildings have any justification, it can only be practical; simply a place to meet and carry on essential functions, as necessary." The Book of Acts is STILL being written, my friends. RUNNING THE CHURCH LIKE A BUSINESS What we in the West typically refer to as "The Church" is taking its toll on the people we hire to run these organizations. Zens said, "Divorce, suicide, nervous breakdown, burnout, etc. abound among clergy. The average pastorate in the Southern Baptist Convention is under 18 months. The high-pressure altar call tactics have proven to produce "converts" that rarely last. Even with all the empirical evidence that many things are amuck in the traditional model, the real issue is 'what does the New Testament teach?' If any model contradicts or stifles the New Testament pattern, it should be jettisoned for such reasons alone. The early church had no clergy and no sacred buildings, and in this regard was radically different from all other religions, including Judaism. The proliferation of expensive church buildings constitutes a fundamental compromise of what Christ intended to build. Thus, believers gathering in informal settings [in] homes, rented store-fronts, outdoors and apartments apparently provides the best context for the 58 "one anothers" [in the Bible] to be fleshed out." In his article entitled "Four Tragic Shifts in the Visible Church, 180-400 A.D.," Zens writes. " I think the primary theological point of the New Testament in this regard is that under the New Covenant there are no holy places. Contemporary Christianity has almost no grasp of this significant point. Taking a cue from the Old Covenant, people are still lead to believe that a church building is 'the house of God.' Believers are free to meet any place in which they can foster, cultivate and attain the goals set before them by Christ. The problem today is that many church structures neither promote nor accomplish Christ's desires for His body. Homes are a neutral place for believers to meet, and the early church flourished well into the first and second centuries without erecting any temple-like edifices. But the issue is still not in what type of place believers gather, but what shape their committed life together takes as they wrestle with the many duties and privileges flowing out of the priesthood of all believers." Christian Smith, writing in the journal "Voices In The Wilderness," adds, "God intends church to be a community of believers in which each member contributes their special gift, talent, or ability to the whole, so that, through the active participation and contribution of all, the needs of the community are met. In other words, what we ought to see in our churches is 'the ministry of the people,' not 'the ministry of the professional.' The role of the clergy is essentially the centralization and professionalization of the gifts of the whole body into one person. The problem is that, regardless of what our theologies tell us about the purpose of clergy, the actual effect of the clergy profession is to make the body of Christ lame. This happens not because clergy intend it (they usually intend the opposite) but because the objective nature of the profession inevitably turns the laity into passive receivers." THE CORPORATE PYRAMID IN THE CHURCH Passive laity? Pew potatoes? Their existence is borne out in such passages as Romans 12:4-8, 1 Corinthians 12, and in 1 Corinthians 14:26, the latter stating: "What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church." Ministry in the New Testament church was not centered on one individual, but involved each member of the "ekklesia" (that's you and me, "the called out ones") as a functioning "priest" (1 Peter 2: 5, 9) under the headship of Christ and directed by the Holy Spirit exercising his/her gift for the mutual strengthening of the body. The New Testament refers to no spiritual hierarchy, but calls all Believers 'saints.' Neither does it recognize a special priesthood in distinction from the people, as mediating between God and the laity. Clearly, there is only one high-Priest, Jesus Christ, and the New Testament clearly designates a universal royal priesthood, as well as universal kingship of believers (1 Peter 2:5,9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 20:6). So, what are we afraid of? Most Christians react more out of fear and a sense of loyalty to tradition than a commitment to Biblical truth as they poo-poo any such notions as being nearly heretical. So, when did everything change then? It happened in 312 AD when the Emperor Constantine was dubbed Pontifex Maximus, head of all things spiritual, including paganism and Christianity simultaneously. When he made institutional Christianity the state religion in Rome, he converted pagan temples into Christian "churches" and used state funds to support the clergy making ministry another elite "job" to which many would aspire. In this atmosphere, politics reared its ugly head in a supposedly Christian context as wealthy people would lobby to get "junior" a coveted post in the church world. Howard Snyder, in his book "Radical Renewal: The Problem of Wineskins Today," writes, "A Biblical conception of the church will make it clear that the church is essential to the gospel, for it is the body of Christ...At the same time, it will be clear that human institutions and structures are not themselves the church; they are not hallowed. These are days when Christians must be clear about what the church is and what it is not. Just as many false Christs will come in the last days, so many counterfeit and apostate "churches" will litter the spiritual landscape. The church must be prepared, both as persons and as the Christian community, for the lash of persecution and the lure of the antichrist. This means the necessity for doctrinal clarity and authentic community - for both orthodoxy of belief and orthodoxy of community. Under the threat of persecution, life in community becomes both more difficult and more essential. Thus the priorities of structures which are flexible, mobile, inconspicuous, and not building-centered." A THING OF THE PAST RESURRECTED What we are so committed to here in the Western Church is simply not working. That should be our first clue. Anyone can read the facts regarding the church: Most modern conversions are taking place in third-world nations. Our churches close at a rate of 3,800 annually. Eighty percent of what we refer to as "church growth" is little more than "transfer growth" as people leave one organization for another like we change political parties, sports teams and spouses. 53,000 Christians are walking out weekly, many claiming they had to leave the traditional church in order to find God. Is this "house Church" thing just a fad? No, it's been around a long time. A significant home church movement began in Australia in 1968. For decades, home meetings have been the norm in China, Latin America and other places. If persecution erupted in America, the house church model could suddenly be very common, as churches that require immense weekly overhead to operate could fold virtually overnight. It will take a catastrophic event to awaken the church to what is important in the Kingdom. The Church flourishes under persecution. When that happens, the shape of believers' lives together will change rapidly. Zens writes, "As long as our affluence continues, the informal approach to church will remain. But whether something is minority or majority is hardly the issue. Our concern must be, 'how will we follow Christ in all areas of our lives? Are we going to obey the New Testament or not? One brother in our assembly has said, 'our way of doing church is not popular. It requires hard work and commitment.' The home church movement, of course, is not monolithic," Zens pointed out. "... no movement will prosper long if it does not center on exalting Jesus Christ and obeying His Word." Mike Morrell, zoecarnate.com, writes, "What we're witnessing is nothing less than the return of the 1st Century church in a 21st century context. We're rediscovering the peculiar genius of Jesus and His earliest apprentices afresh today." Although it goes by many names (e.g. house church, simple church, open church, organic church, etc.), it is simply a group of people getting together with Christ as their center, and the Bible as the ultimate authority. These groups can gather anywhere--homes, workplaces, coffee shops, anywhere that people naturally gather! "Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am, in the midst of them," Jesus said. WILL YOU JOIN US? The booklet says, "The House Church Conference is an opportunity to share stories and connect with men and women throughout North America and the world who share a passion to be the Church in all Her original life and simplicity...." I belong to a home church (we meet at a local Bed & Breakfast on Thursday's at 7PM but, when I injured my back last week and could not function very well, the group grabbed their pecan pie, poured the coffee into a thermos, piled into a van and showed up at my door to pray for my healing). My wife and I felt SO tremendously blessed! Our group is planning a road trip to Denver Colorado on September 1-4. There is another version of the conference taking place in St. Louis, August 25-27. The conference we are attending costs $134 for individuals and $248 for couples and there are rates for young adults (ages 15-21) and kids (ages 6-15). These prices do NOT include hotel stays. There are rates for groups of 6 or more as well. Interested parties should call 1-800-444-2326 to register and book hotel rooms. You may want to register online at www.house2house.com. These are EARLY BIRD RATES and you must register by July 16th to receive them! For someone out there, reading this now, something rang true as you read, as if your name has been called out. You felt as though your heart has skipped a beat. If that's you, come with us. If you live in the Stephenville, Texas area, please consider taking part in this caravan pilgrimage with us! Write me and let's talk soon. At the very least, look for me at the conference. See you there! Every blessing, Michael |
