Simple Church Journal

Jim Rutz has used George Barna’s research to paint an interesting picture on house church involvement in the United States:

But this week, even I was shocked to discover how big our house church community in North America really is. Briefly stated, we’re right about halfway between the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention (which is the second-largest denomination in the U.S.).

Rutz goes on to comment on this trend:

Bottom line: Worldwide, the original church is back, re-creating the biblical model: "Day after day, they met by common consent in the Temple Courts and broke bread from house to house." (Acts 2:46) God is again pouring out His power on plain folks, bringing a megashift – not in our doctrine, but in our entire lifestyle.

House churches in North America are no longer seen as being in conflict with the traditional church. In fact, much to our amazement, noted leaders like Rick Warren have recently come out strongly in favor of house churches. Saddleback Church is even sending out their own members as "missionaries" to start house church networks! And just last week, John Arnott of Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship asked me, as a house church spokesman, to speak at his big annual conference. Unheard of.

You can see the entire article here.

Sometimes it is good to reflect on the stories that come out of "house/simple church." Most stories that we relish are not about something earthshaking taking place, but rather they are about simple events that reflect the culture and lifestyle that has become so special to us…

Led by an Eight-Year-Old

We recently had a significant part of one gathering led by an eight-year-old, precocious, darling little girl by the name of Sarah. She led us in prayer. She shared some songs that she had brought and taught us some hand motions to one of them. Every time a new song would begin, she would shake her hands and say, oooh, I love this song so much. She had the words memorized to every worship song we sang together.

Finally, when the songs finished, she said quite matter-of-factly, "I think God told me that I am suppposed to pray for anyone here who is sick." So she did!

I am sure that, reading this, one would assume that there was a room full of adults patronizing this little "children’s church" experience. But really that is the point of this. That was NOT what was taking place. Because we have so embraced the reality that the Holy Spirit works and leads through every member of the body, including the youngest, this room full of adults was as worshipful and as intent on the working of the Spirit as if a "famous spiritual leader" was present in our midst. That’s what makes this simple story so powerful. Jesus was present to us through a child… and we got it.

NonChristian Enjoys Worship and Scripture

The house/simple church lifestyle is one of taking the Good News out to the smoking section of life–where people live their lives. Nevertheless… someone recently invited a nonChristian to come to a house church gathering (a rather traditional approach) and this woman came! God can work any ole way he wants to!

In any case, this woman had just faced up to an inevitable divorce and found herself driving home the night of this house church gathering that she had been invited to. She had not intended to come but, in her words, "the car just turned onto this street." When she introduced herself to the rest of the group she said, "I don’t know why I am here. I don’t even care for Scripture."

Nevertheless, tears fell down her face during a time of worshipful music and when the group opened Scripture to learn from and talk freely about, she shared some powerful insights from her own background that helped illuminate the discussion. I believe what made all of this work for this nonChristian was that we were not engaging in a theological exercise or debate, rather we were sharing our own real life stuff and interacting with Scripture as though it had something to say to us, in our day-to-day needy lives.

As she was leaving, she told her friend that had invited her, "Don’t tell those folks, but I really enjoyed the Scripture."

Father Performs Marriage Ceremony for His Son

Sometimes people want to know how house churches handle weddings, funeral, etc. We really like to see these ceremonies revolve around the natural and spiritual extended families as much as possible.

The young man who approached me to marry him was not involved in house church, he was looking for a traditional wedding, he grew up knowing me as a card-carrying pastor, so he asked me to perform the wedding ceremony. However… his parents are involved in house church… so I wondered if I might be able to steer this in a different direction.

Mind you, I am not opposed to stepping into a traditional role when it is insisted upon. I believe those who are getting married should do whatever is most meaningful to them. But, after speaking to his father, I just put the suggestion out to this young man… "What would you think about your own father performing the ceremony?" (It so happens, that in our county, any person can apply for a one-time license to marry someone!)

This young man and his fiance absolutely loved the idea. Though the wedding has not taken place yet, it is already apparent that the meaning of this event has been heightened ten-fold by the family dynamic that is taking place as the ceremony is being planned between father, son, and future daughter-in-law!

Simple Stories

Again, these are simple stories that, undoubtedly, have more meaning to those experiencing them than those hearing them. But they do, hopefully, express something of the uniqueness of the simple church lifestyle.

If you have a relevant story to share… feel free to do so in the comments.

Dick Scoggins, a veteran house church planter, has written an excellent article in the recent Frontiers Missions magazine: "Nurturing a New Generation of ‘Pauline’ and ‘Petrine’ Apostles."

Whew… hefty title… but some very good meat.

First off… Scoggins clarifies what he means by "apostle." He does NOT mean "someone who gives oversight to large churches or groups of churches." Rather, he sees apostles as "mobile, dynamic groups of emissaries of the Kingdom. They are called to minister as bands or groups – at the very least in twos, as Jesus taught (cf. Acts 13:3,4;14:4,14; 15:39-41), and sometimes with helpers (cf. Acts 13:5)… The key mark of apostleship is not a big personality, but rather big suffering (cf. 1 Cor. 4:9-13).

Okay, that said, Scoggins goes on to talk more specifically about "Petrine" apostleship… the apostle called to reach his own people (as opposed to Paul who was called to go cross-culturally to the Gentiles).

Peter helped to bring new expressions of the Kingdom of God for the Jews who would follow Jesus.

I believe we are seeing a similar pattern today. Western Christendom is in a key transition, perhaps undergoing as large a cultural shift as occurred during the Reformation (when I think that last great era of Petrine apostles brought the Church out of medieval forms and into modern forms). The world is changing, and the Western forms of church, birthed very much according to modernity, are not keeping up. I believe that the world has changed so much that simply adapting existing church structures will not enable appropriate expressions of the Kingdom to come forth for new generations. What is needed is a whole new way of doing “church” (and I think we actually need to drop the word, but that is for a different article). New types of communities of the Kingdom need to be envisioned and created to be Good News in a new era. I believe that apostles are the creative agents sent by God to bring about radical, creative forms of the Kingdom.

Many of you reading this are the very apostles that Scoggins is writing about… You are seeking new and relevant Kingdom expressions for our generation. and many of you have paid the price for exploring new forms of communities. You will find this article affirming.

Scoggins goes on to say:

If the Western church is not going to die out, then we will require new expressions of Kingdom communities. I think this will require a recovery of Petrine apostles – creative pioneers who will explore Kingdom communities appropriate to our postmodern world…

These pioneers are not called to make further adaptations to faltering models, but rather, like Jesus, Peter, James and John, call God’s people to move on from old formulations in a journey to the new. Such a journey will be every bit as radical and terrifying as it must have been for those early Jewish believers who watched the destruction of their nation and traditions. Today’s Petrine apostles will bear the same primary mark of apostleship – persecution, for their ministry is bound to be misunderstood (at best) by existing churches.

You can read the whole article by going to this link and then clicking on the article that reads "Nurturing a New Generation of ‘Pauline’ and ‘Petrine’ Apostles."

We asked Neil Cole to spend an hour with a group of "church planters" on a phone conference… just to pick his brain a bit. He gave us quite an earful on living the missional lifestyle. His biggest challenge was that Christians tend to have few, if any, deep, personal relationships with nonChristians. I suppose we all know this, but it was a good kick in the booty to give some real thought to being intentional about real, deep, nonChristian friendships.

Neil’s challenge, which is well documented in his book Organic Church, is to get out of the "Christian ghetto" and to do life, as Christians, in the smoking section.

My hope is that as we simplify church and programs that we are freed up to actually live the kind of 24/7 everyday-missional life we are meant to live.

Neil offered some direct pointers starting with the necessity of prayer. He mentioned four types of prayers that he regularly engages in.

1. On a daily basis be begs God for the souls of a specific list of people that he keeps.
2. He prays the Luke 10:2b prayer asking God to raise up workers and asking God to raise up workers from the harvest itself. You can read more about the Luke 10:2b prayer virus here and here.
3. He prays against strongholds that may be keeping certain people or people-groups from opening their hearts to the Gospel.
4. When the opportunity arises, he prays with and for the nonChristian for their needs so that they can encounter God in their own life.

Neil also offered four suggestions for building relationships with nonChristians:

1. Listen. We need to connect with them in their world first. This is, after, just basic relationship. Caring about them.
2. Build bridges into their world. Engage in social activities with them that are part of their world.
3. Ask good questions that help them get in touch with the condition of their life and soul.
4. Break the sound barrier. At the right time, do not be afraid to let them know who Jesus Christ is.

If this sounds like some kind of canned "program" approach to friendship evangelism, that would be because of the way I have summarized it here. It’s not meant to be that way. It’s simply about loving others and engaging with them fully and honestly as friends. If we are doing this, we will certainly be praying for them, listening to them, sharing life with them, and opening our own life to them.

The challenge, again, is that we are so much more comfortable befriending like-minded Christians than not-like-minded nonChristians. For me, It’s about being willing to be incarnational with my life just as Jesus was and is.

Our local paper ran a Washington Post article entitled: "Going to church by staying home."  Here is a brief excerpt:

A growing number of Christians across Washington and around the country are moving to home churches — both as a way to create personal connections in the age of the megachurch and as a return to the blueprint of the Christian church spelled out in the New Testament, which describes Jesus and the apostles teaching small groups in people’s homes.

Estimates vary widely for a movement that is by design informal and decentralized, but the consensus among home-churchers is that they are part of a growing trend.

You can find the entire article here.

In George Barna’s latest research he notes that "house churches are moving from the appraisal phase into the acceptance phase."  Here are some excerpts from his recent article:

“The house church now appears to have reached ‘critical mass’ in the United States,” commented Barna. “Analysts typically find that once a new tool or institution reaches 15% market penetration, and has evidenced a consistent or growing level of affirmation for at least six years, that entity shifts from fad to trend status. At that point, it becomes a permanent fixture in our society. Today, house churches are moving from the appraisal phase into the acceptance phase. We anticipate house church attendance during any given week to double in the coming decade, and a growing proportion of house church attenders to adopt the house church as their primary faith community. That continued growth and public awareness will firmly establish the house church as a significant means of faith experience and expression among Americans.”

Barna noted that this change is already reorienting the nation’s faith dimension. “By necessity, the transition from a nation exclusively offering a conventional church experience to one that offers a choice between conventional church and other forms of spiritual experience is changing the rules and roles. New leaders are emerging to represent and guide house churches – people whose names are unfamiliar to the bulk of the country, but whose ministries will become more mainstream and well-known as time goes on. A new body of spiritual resources is being developed and utilized by the expanding house church community.

Full article here.

Jordan Cooper quotes Ron Sider in an excellent Next-Wave article:

The heart of the matter is the scandalous failure to live what we preach. The tragedy is that poll after poll by Gallup and Barna show that evangelicals live just like the world. Contrast that with what the New Testament says about what happens when people come to living faith in Christ. There’s supposed to be radical transformation in the power of the Holy Spirit. The disconnect between our biblical beliefs and our practice is just, I think, heart-rending.

I’m a deeply committed evangelical. I’ve been committed to evangelical beliefs and to renewing the evangelical church all of my life. And the stats just break my heart. They make me weep. And somehow we must face that reality and change it.

Cooper goes on to explain why our "success" mentality and tendency to insitutionalize the church keeps us from making the changes that are needed:

While we still love the church, we see the church having failed it’s own basic mission.  I wish I could hear a big Amen at this point but the reality is that not everyone sees it that way.  I have colleagues in ministry that point to the Sunday attendance of their churches and their building programs and tell me that everything is going great and they criticize those of us that go in a different direction.  All denominations deny this but the sweet allure of success is just too powerful, successful and big churches drive the agenda’s of many denominations, either formally or informally.  Success is largest impediment of change, which is why most downtown cores of cities across the United States and Canada are full of massive church buildings that were the megachurches of their day.  What made them successful made it very hard to change from that.  Change and new initiatives don’t traditionally thrive in most institutions and need to be nurtured and protected at times.

Finally, Cooper suggests that the real important reason that changes must be made, despite the discomfort and challenge of it all, is that the nonChristian culture around us simply will not be reached by the institution we have come to call "church."

The church seems to have failed at our mission of evangelism and discipleship. We find ourselves surrounded by empty churches that we are afraid or embarrassed to bring unchurched friends to because we know they can’t connect to a culture they have no experience in. Perhaps even more sadly, we are apart of a church that is living much differently than what it preaches.

Have we, in the house/simple church movement, figured it out and "got it right?"  Certainly not!  We have so far to go in understanding what it is to BE the 24/7 people of God that Jesus called us to be.  But at least we are experimenting, willing to cast off old forms and try new ones on.  Hopefully we are trying to keep our eye on the ball–becoming true, living Christians.  Hopefully, we are not pursuing change for change sake, but chasing the reality that church structures are meant to be fluid, constantly changing, as they support the lifestyle of growing, maturing Christians who are seeking to live missionally in their everday world.  Hopefully we are, at the very least, discontent NOT to change because of our longing to see the church (the people of God) more radically impactful in a world full of need.

Cooper’s entire article is found here.

I have been reflecting on a recent comment from a previous post in which Rhonda wrote: "It’s very difficult to leave an institutional church. There are so many facets to the process and it took me over 2 years to do it. I look at the whole thing as more of growth than the IC being a sin."

Her point is that we are all in a state of imperfection, whether we are in or not in an "IC."  The real question is, starting with where we are, are we continuing to to grow?  Are we growing up?  Are we maturing?  Church does not do it for us…  We each have the responsibility for starting where we are today… and continuing to grow.

At the same time, I want to affirm that the process of de-institutionalizing my Christian life has, in fact, provoked a challenging, and exciting growth process in me.  It is not simply changing one form of church for another, it is being challenged to trade in passivism for healthy activism and to trade in letting-others-do-it for a healthy self-responsibility.

As I think about this maturing process that has taken place in my life since moving out of the institutional world I see certain points of growth that I have gone through (and that I have watched others go through).  I am talking about a blossoming that takes places as we move:

• FROM CONSUMER/SPECTATOR TO PLAYER/PARTICIPANT
• FROM INVOLVEMENT IN WEEKLY OR BI-WEEKLY SACRED EVENTS TO LIVING A SACRED LIFESTYLE (HIS PRESENCE EVERYWHERE I GO)
• FROM DRINKING MILK PREPARED BY OTHERS TO LEARNING TO FEED FROM HIS WORD FOR OUR SELF
• FROM RELIGIOUS ROUTINES TO SPIRITUAL ADVENTURE
• FROM RELIANCE ON EXTERNAL PROGRAMS FOR OUR SPIRITUAL GROWTH TO DEVELOPING AN INNER DISCIPLINE
• FROM CONFORMITY TO OTHERS TO DISCOVERING A NEW CREATIVITY BASED ON OUR OWN UNIQUE CALLING, PASSION, AND GIFTS
• FROM “MY CHURCH” TO “WE THE CHURCH”
• FROM HANGING OUT IN THE CHRISTIAN GHETTO TO SHARING HIS LIFE OUT IN THE WORLD
• FROM MISSIONAL PROJECTS TO MISSIONAL LIVING
• FROM PROJECT PLANNING TO PRAYER MOVEMENTS
• FROM FINDING MY IDENTITY IN "MY" CHURCH, "MY" MINISTRY, OR "MY" MOVEMENT TO FINDING MY FULL IDENTITY IN SIMPLY BEING HIS–HIS CHILD–HIS BELOVED

Perhaps the best way to provoke others to grow from where they are to where they can be is to continue to grow ourselves.  It is, after all, this maturing process that truly leads us to greater peace, joy, freedom, love, and fruitfulness.  Obviously, if we are demonstrating more and more of these qualities, others will want something more for themselves as well!

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We may never resolve the tension between doing what we are called to do and the necessity of being who we are meant to be.  We all know what we are called to do because our churches and culture have trained us to be effective do-ers.  Most of us have a fairly significant list of what we are to be doing:

• make disciples
• heal or comfort the sick
• feed the poor
• love our neighbor
• reach out to nonChristians with love and good news
• worship, pray, meet together, break bread…

The challenge is that, at the end of the day, we begin to be believe that it is activities that make us Christians.  This is why we are so quick to go about the business of building churches and church programs (even house churches with house church programs) rather than being about the business of just being–being with Christ–coming fully alive to who we are in him.

Let me just speak personally rather than preach platitudes.  It is difficult for me, always and ongoing, to keep my focus on being–on being his child, on being his beloved, on being his church, on being intimate with the Creator.  It is so much easier to get caught up in activities: set vision, motivate with good and godly strategies, move forward, do the work of ministry, care for people, etc, etc.

Wait a minute!  Care for people?  Focus on people?  Isn’t that the basics of being a Christian?  We have learned to stop focusing on programs, after all, and concern ourselves with people!  Isn’t that what we are supposed to be doing?

I suppose I am saying yes and no.  It is what I need and want to be doing.  But I must always ask myself where are these activities flowing from.  Am I full of Christ with a heart and life that is reating in him or am I full of activities because I am finding my identity and life in what i do?  Do my activities flow out of a genuine intimacy with my Father or are they a substitute for that intimacy?

I think this is an excellent reflection for those of us who feel we have stripped ourselves down by seeking simple church gatherings and a genuine lifestyle Christianity.  God will continue to strip us in every part of our life until we are naked before him, with a singular love, and a singular contentment to be just his.  Then… our activities will flow out from our deeper encounters with his heart and his ways.

On the other hand… isn’t there always an other hand?  Activities are part of our calling as well.  Sometimes we use the excuse of "becoming" to avoid the risk of stepping out into those things that we are made to do.  Ah well, let the dance continue!  This is, after all, the dance of the Christian truly seeking to live the lifestyle–24/7–with and for God.