We have invited some folk from our community who are interested in learning a little more about the "house church movement" to join us for some coffee and discussion. It has provoked me to reflect again on the basics which I always find to be an invigorating and useful exercise.
So, if you do not mind, I will use y’all for a sounding board here by outlining some of my thoughts.
- The "house church movement" is not about getting the church out of bigger buildings and into smaller, homier, ones. I would suggest that it is about seeing the church become a movement again as intended. In other words, the church is God’s people lit up by the fire of the Holy Spirit. Our sense of this, from the New Testament, is that God intended his church, his people, to truly be a wildfire taking his life, power, and transformation from one person to the next until the world is engulfed with him. God was and is on the move through his people. A movement that is led by the Spirit of God (the church) can not be contained nor controlled without it losing its very essence. In that sense, he never intended for us to build fireplaces.
- Over the years we have, with very good intentions, become focused on building fireplaces. Much good has come from this. However, we have often found ourselves so busy with housing the fire that we have lost the intensity and fervor that fuels a movement. It is this movement that God has always been after and that he is restoring.
- Simplifying church back to its basics makes room for us to re-align our time and energy with God’s purposes to fuel movements of his Holy Spirit everywhere. Just because we have simplified church does not mean this will happen. But it does provide the opportunity for us to put the priority focus back on those things that can facilitate that movement.
- The basics of "simplified church" are:
- Shared community life. This simple dynamic is far more powerful than we realize. It is the basis for transformation as well as for support for the "quests" that each of us are called to be a part of.
- Participatory community life. This is also a simple concept with powerful results. As each one learns to take responsibility and develop his or her gifts for the good of the community (1 Cor 14:26), there is a maturing process for the whole body of Christ that is so vitally needed. We become "self-feeders" rather than living dependently on others to bring us the milk of the word. We are thus equipped to become mature disciples and to multiply ourselves in others.
- Missional living. We discover the joy and adventure of partnering with God out in the world where life happens and where God’s life is meant to be shared. This is a unique journey for each and every person and we are not expecting one person’s adventure to look like anothers. But… we learn to get out of our Christian-go-to-meetin’ comfort zones and allow God to develop our missional-adventure-partnership-with-God lives.
Well… that’s a basic outline! It’s a challenge to walk it out. Pitfalls and victories along the way. Stumbling and learning as part of the process. But at this stage in my Christian life, I would not want to be pursuing anything short of God lighting us all on fire for his purposes.
Comments
9 responses to “Reviewing the Basics”
Well put Roger. I think what also is invovled is living out the bible. I find it fascinating that we say “I follow what’s in the bible”, yet at the same time live in structures which do not support biblical living.
So theology ends up being a key here. when I talk of theology I’m just just talking about facts, a living belief, that everyone can see
I would add the importance of hearing from God/being led by the Spirit and the importance of prayer. It is not about a model, but a committment to doing nothing on our own initiative. The Spirit speaks, we listen and obey.
I think that one of the main things is the idea that if “the church” is seen as being the minister, worship leader and a few who do the stuff then the rest can kick back and watch. The current model of church encourages observation instead of participation. In some circles I have been in this model also hinders authentic transparent sharing of one’s life because the model is a man who appears to be perfect. The minister projects an image which may have nothing to do with reality. The congregation ends up chasing an image and trying to be like something that is not real. Ivory Towers must be pulled down and glory given to God alone. In the house church environment I think this happens. I went to a house church in the middle east while I was in the Navy. I was amazed. It was in someone’s house and there was singing and sharing and God’s Spirit was there more so than in any other place I had been. I thought……..how can this be happening…….there are no pews, there is no organ, there are no bullitens, no thing on the wall to tell you what hymns to sing……..to me it was like a glass of wine without the glass. It was completely amazing and I have never had a situation that was more powerful in a group setting.
I have a question for anyone who can answer it:
We are currently doing house church, but it seems like a catch-22.
If people in a house church don’t like each other, they will stop coming. If they do like each other, they will tend not invite new people for fear they would grow too large and have to split in two.
Option A is failure, and option B is stagnation. What is option C, and how do you acheive it?
Ryan
These are very good questions. I don’t answer many blogs any more but your questions are very important. What was your original hope of what would happen? Recently my wife and I have settled on a definition of church for ourselves which goes something like this “The church is Christ’s body sent by God to reconcile the world to Himself.” We believe that mission is the church’s raison d’etre and community is the essence of church. We are not interested in a house church whose life revolves around a meeting (programmed or otherwise). Choice C is what Roger is saying Simple church is a missional movement. It is not a fireplace experience. Unfortunately too many house churches want that fireplace experience. We become stuck with these people who have no intention of moving past the once a week meeting. What is needed is a blog where we begin to dialogue around a working definition that has mission and community at its core (not the meeting). It doesn’t have to be the definition my wife and I chose but something similar to it. The dialogue must be rich and deep enough to move us forward with risk and transformation. I’ll end with a quote from Maurice Smith:
Third, there is a tension within the House Church movement and its leadership between those who understand it as a genuine spiritual revolution and those who are seeking to treat it as a mere re-organization. Is House Church an overturning of the existing religious order and a re-defining of the nature of Church, or is it merely a re-organizing of the existing religious order, a re-shuffling of the way we do church (i.e., “We now offer home groups for those who are interested”)? Spiritual revolutions are led by Apostles & prophets. Re-organizations are led by consultants and staff.
Go to simplychurch.com and scroll down until you see a picture of a man (Jim Rutz) in a blue shirt and press the play button.
Thanks, Frank, for jumping in here. I really apppreciate your response to Ryan. We use the words “house church” but we really are talking about embracing the core values that Frank spoke of: authentic community and mission-as-lifestyle. If people are “attending” a house church without the core values, then they are simply attending a small version of a traditional church. The problem here is that they will still be looking at it through the lense of “what’s in it for me” and end up “coming” or “not coming” based on whether it meets their “want list.”
If we are embracing a simple church lifestyle, committing to build authentic relationships, and seeking to live missionally in a broken world, then we will instigate these types of conversations among others and those who become involved will be those who are embracing these same values.
Love the imagery of the wildfire and the fireplaces we have built. Great!
It is oh so important to know exactly what we are doing here – and to be able to simply communicate it to anyone who asks. If we are not able to sit down over coffee and describe everything one would need to know to “catch fire” in this movement with notes written on nothing more than a napkin, then we have become too complex to replicate. These basics are some of the essential things I would put on that napkin. Thanks.
In response to Ryan. I think that you are over-thinking things. First option A isn’t a failure you tried something, it didn’t work like you thought so you learn a little and move on. Option B can happen but that’s a poor reason to not give it a try. We tend to focus so much on the organizational problems. “How can we attract more people” or “What do we do about this problem”. We need to understand what is our responsibility and what is not. We need to learn how to allow God to be God. We need to allow Him to lead. Lead our times together, lead our growth, lead the changes. God’s leading is at the heart of our relationship with Him but we seem to have lost what that means. Try to allow God to lead the formation of your group and also the growth and changes. I don’t believe that it is your responsibility to make the group function properly. Just do your part and let God do His.
Option C is a group of people who may not have it all together but they love Jesus Christ to the very best of there ability and they want to honor Him by loving, encouraging, and building up the others that the meet with on a regular basis.
I’ve heard it said that anytime there is a problem that arises in a relationship, whether it’s two people or a group, somebody (maybe more than one) thinks more of themselves than they ought. Sometimes the struggle of trying to get along with others helps us understand that it’s not about us and it’s not about them. Our times together are about Christ and honoring Him.
Greetings Brethren:
I am new to this site, and have been reatly encouraged in reading all of your comments.
I have visited a few meetings of this kind over the last couple of years and it inspires me to see folks gathering with a true desire to follow the leading of the Spirit, discover what the Lord is doing and participate with Him.
Have seen and experienced option A, option B and sprinklings of option C.I believe that in all 3 scenarios, those involved are sincerely seeking the Lord, but ancient patterns are hard to break out of. I have heard is said, “that you can take Isreal out of Egypt, but more importantly can you get the Egypt out of Israel”. Most of us who have been searching for our place in the body of Jesus can relate to these words.
I continue to pray daily for His body, and will include you all in my prayers. Jesus in Community and Mission, is what I believe in and have been searching for, for many years, perhaps some of you are answers to my prayers in agreement with our Head and the body that is joined to Him.
Looking forward to meeting some of you, as He leads me and joins me to the place in His body, that only I can fit.
IN HIS GRIP
thomas