The question about house churches being inward and not reaching out came up in some recent comments that I wanted to bring to the forefront.
My friend, Mark, commented:
When reading Dan Kimball’s post and the comments, he makes a very valid point about the necessity of house churches reaching the lost. How has your experiences been in this regard? Dan seems to have a pretty jaded view of house churches as being inward and non growing. Is this a pretty valid perspective?
Here is the response that I offered Mark… and I would love to hear comments from others as well:
Hi Mark… Good to hear from you.
In regards to house churches reaching the lost… I continue to learn myself… but I would like to say that churches do not reach the lost. Followers of Jesus reach the lost. Whether we gather in churches or in buildings, the gatherings themselves are not the focal point for outreach (in my opinion). I doubt if few unbelievers were reached, in the New Testament, while the believers were sharing meals house to house. However, MANY unbelievers were reached when the believers took the love and power of the Gospel out into the world.
So, yes, our house churches can easily become inward… if we are merely transplanting Christians from church buildings to house buildings. For me, the challenge is not to do church differently, but to learn, as Christians, what it means to BE the church all day, every day, taking Kingdom life, love, and power wherever we go. House churches, hopefully, are just a simple way to facilitate community life for those going-Kingdom-minded Christians.
Is that happening for us? Yes and no. No, not as much as I would love to see. Yes, it is happening to some extent and growing. I always start with myself… Am I reaching out the way that I want and feel called to be? That is the first question. Let me consider it… I currently go to a small restaurant that locals hang out at in which I am well known and through which God gives me opportunities to minister to the lost. I have recently been invited to join an "investment group" (long story–believe me, I am not some major "investor") through which I am building relationships and sharing my spiritual story. I am also, currently, praying about the next Person of Peace that God will show me to start a new church alongside. In fact, I realized today that one of those guys in that investment group could well be a person of peace.
So… that’s my input on the subject of reaching out. Like I said, we are still learning… and I love to hear others tell their stories of living kingdom in the marketplace. This is really the heart of BEING the church, much more so than how or where we gather.
Comments
9 responses to “Inward Focused or Outward Living?”
I extend a hearty “amen” to your response. Jews dwelling in Jerusalem were the first to hear the message of salvation by faith in the finished work of Jesus the Christ, a work that he accomplished for all humanity by his perfect doing and dieing. People in Judea and Samaria came to hear the message of salvation only after “a great persecution” caused believers who formerly met “house to house” to flee. These individual believers “went about preaching the word” (Acts 8:4).
Our coming together or assembling, as God’s people, is an opportunity to share in those things that will edify each other (First Corinthians 14:26). Our calling involves far more than the things we do when together. It involves every aspect of our lives. As for making the Savior known to the lost and introducing them to the community of saved, that will only occur as we go about “preaching the word.”
Very well said! I appreciate your answer. This issue is not where we gather but what we do when we are not gathered! Does our life of worship and care extend beyond the walls of a building (House or “Church”). Are we listening to the Holy Spirit as we engage the market place? Do we have a concern for the lost much like Jesus did?
Blessings!
Thanks for your response. I was thinking about this very issue today. It doesn’t matter what kind of church structure we have (“traditional” or house or whatever), it’s easy to lose sight of the mission. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about house churches recently and I had to reign things in a little and remind myself that it’s not about being a house church for the sake of house churches (just as it’s not about having a Sunday school for the sake of Sunday school). I’ve had to remind myself that it’s for the sake of the Great Commission. If house church facilitates that in a given context, great. If not, find the church context that will.
Thanks for posting, brother. I liked very much when you said: “churches do not reach the lost. Followers of Jesus reach the lost. Whether we gather in churches or in buildings, the gatherings themselves are not the focal point for outreach.” AMEN!!!
I also really liked this part, until it confused me: “For me, the challenge is not to do church differently, but to learn, as Christians, what it means to BE the church all day, every day, taking Kingdom life, love, and power wherever we go.”
“As christians” sounded like you meant a group taking that challenge together, but when you said “wherever we go” it sounds like you mean each individual trying to “be the church” by interacting with as many others as possible during the day.
My own thoughts aside, could you elaborate please? What do you mean by “living kingdom in the marketplace?” Is that like an individual commission?
And thanks for the interesting post. I’m looking forward to reading more on here.
I believe our commission is two-fold: 1. Being the salt and light everywhere that we are, everyday, in everything we do. This is my meaning behind “living kingdom in the marketplace,” though it is really broader than marketplace–it’s everywhere we are. This would be an individual commission. 2. Going wherever he sends us, whenever he sends us. We are often “sent” outside of our own natural sphere of influence. This “sending” is probably most often a “group” of at least two people as in when the disciples were sent out by Jesus two by two.
Good stuff.
Great dialogue.
While we have done a great job of reviewing our priorities in this discussion, and the weights of importance we assign to various elements of our walk, I sense we are still left with the looming question about “church.” At least I am anyway.
In the interest of further clarification…
I assume we all assume that Hebrews 10:25 compels us to meet and/or that there’s just too much in scripture that seeks to offer guidance in “meetings” and “doing church” to assume we are free to remain “solo acts?” Then again, there is so little offered in the sense of “commands” that, when combined with the imperfect church, I can understand the inevitability of debate.
A friend once mentioned to me the concept of the “irreducible minimum” of what church is. In other words, what does God actually require of us in terms of “church?” There is so much commanded of us on an individual basis. Yet, there seems to be much alluded to and very little commanded in terms of “church.” Of course that opens up a number of cans of worms such as “what do you do with the silence of scripture?” but I’m not trying to go that deep in this discussion (if I can avoid it) at this point.
I don’t pose the thought of the “irreducible minimum” from a standpoint of “what can I avoid” or even “what can I get away with” as much as a “what have I imposed upon myself regarding ‘church’ that has reduced the effectiveness of my walk with God” or even “what have I allowed others to impose…”
With all of this in mind, in December of 2004, my wife and I initiated a one year self-imposed sabbatical from church to seek God on the matter. I have devoted myself to read the entire Bible with a focus on ecclesiology, such that I not miss a single word that might apply to my quest for understanding. Our sabbatical ends with the calendar year 2005 and I am on schedule to be done with my reading and study at that time as well.
Already, I sense that God has done, and will be doing, more to change me than the church :+). While I sense that He has confirmed that there is a spec in the eye of today’s “church”, well, you all know the rest of that story. Apparently, the beam is heavier than I thought. :+)
The concern I face is interacting with a community of believers who have come to accept an ineffective model of church and begin to place an unrealistic expectation upon my service to it. I tried to challenge that in love and compassion and was basically – well, you know.
Still, leaving church for a year was like leaving a corporate job and starting my own business. Suddenly I was personally responsible to God on all fronts in a way that I had never sensed it before. Could I stand before him in good conscience and say that I was truly seeking His will and not my own preferences and comfort? I would not have taken the sabbatical had I believed otherwise.
(If interested, you can go to http://www.hutchdeloach.com and click on “spiritual” and read my spiritual history to get a perspective of where I’m coming from. It’s been an interesting journey so far.)
Thanks for your comments. I can speak from someone who has been involved in a house church and my home for over a year, and who was a youth pastor for 11 years or so in a traditional church before that….both have their positives and negatives. The danger is in focusing on the gathering instead of the MISSION. One of the hardest things to do an any form of “church” gathering is to maintain that missional mindset. It truly is about BEing the Church….Christ’s BODY in our life everyday with those whom the Father places in our sphere of influence. Too often we focus on “fooling” those whom are in our church circle, making them beleive that we have it all together. When I look at the first disciples, they for sure didn’t have it all together….but they had true community and they influenced everyone they came into thier path.
Love God and Love others…..THAT IS THE MISSION! When we keep the MISSION in front of us…we experience the Kingdom-Life we should has His Children. I really don’t think He cares too much when, where, how we meet together for our gatherings, but more so in how we respond to the broken world around us in our everyday life.
I was a deacon in an institutional church but God called me out and led me into a house church network (www.citytakers.com) I am now leading our first home church in our region. We have a great group of believers meeting together and the love we share towards one another is something I never experienced in church. Lately God has been having us focus on developing the love and power of the Spirit in our group, but the emphasis is to experience it here and begin to take it out into our world. Be a listening ear, show care and sympathy, offer prayer, lay hands on the sick and heal them. These things are new to both the new Christian and the ones that come from a non-charismatic background, so we need to first experience God’s love and power coming to us through believers, learn to flow in them, and then take them to the lost. It is good to be in-centered in order to pour your selves into each other, each contributing something to the mix. The challenge is to build up the confidence in the believers to take what they recieve and pour it into those outside the meeting. I am stressing the fact that we will not be together as a group for long. We will grow and expand and all must grow and learn to flow in the love and power of the Holy Spirit so they can minister to whatever group they are in and wherever they are.
My blogsite is http://www.homechurchforum.blogspot.com
Gene
I appreciate your blog very much. Thanks for the forum.
I agree that in general all believers face the danger of an inward focused religion. I have been reflecting of late on the Bible’s missiological focus. It seems that in our post-Genesis 3 world we all need to be converted and reconverted to the mission-oriented heart of God.