Quote:
Originally Posted by Owl
It's impossible to "do" church without money. It takes a lot of it.
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That’s not always true.
I know a man named Scott who was a pastor in Tennessee. He resigned his pastorate because he felt the politics and money machine was unbiblical. He then moved to Ohio and got a job. Scott and his wife opened their home for “house church”. It began as simple Bible studies. Today the group gathers and sings a few songs. Then Scott leads prayer and shares a passage from the Scripture and what the Lord has put on his heart about the passage. The meetings are interactive, which means those attending can share insights, additional passages, or experiences relating to the topic. Often a wide range of thoughts, insight, and experiences are shared. Members in attendance are also free to share passages laid on their hearts and what the Lord has been laying upon their hearts. Interaction is encouraged throughout. Those in attendance may share passages, insights, prophecies, visions, dreams, poems, articles; artwork, songs, or whatever they feel led to lead. Scott often corrects and clarifies with love when needed. Every Sunday they have a pot-luck style dinner that is rather large. In these meetings people often share how they’ve been blessed… they also share their defeats and their struggles with sin. Often confession flows as tears roll down the cheeks of a dear saint of God and you’re left thinking, “I never knew he struggled with something like this.” People are loved, sin is rebuked, and prayers are offered. It’s actually quite beautiful.
Scott has never taken up offerings accept when directly addressing a direct need among the members or a direct need of the ministry. For example, a woman named Janet shared that her car had broken down and she didn’t have money to fix it. Being a single mother she was worried as to how she was going to get to work. A member volunteered to take her to work until she had her car repaired. Scott called for an offering to help her pay for all the necessary repairs. It was beautiful. They have also volunteered to help an older woman down the street by maintaining her yard and the outside of her house.
Scott doesn’t receive a “salary” or take tithes. He has only asked for offerings to fund trips to conferences, charitable activities, outreach, or when he travels in relation to ministry.
Many house church elders don’t ask for tithes or financial support. They live off of their regular incomes from their jobs. Some ask that members “tithe” or give a set amount to a secondary checking account for “evangelism and mercy ministries”. Members are admonished that this is the “Lord’s money” and they are instructed to only draw from it to help individuals, friends, and family who find themselves in need as an outreach of compassion. This is called “giver to getter” benevolence.
Scott’s group has gotten too large for his home twice. Each time he trained and ordained a family to open their own homes for meetings. Each of these two groups has already appointed families to open their own homes. There are between 7 or 8 groups meeting now, each having between 12 and 18 adults attending.
Children are encouraged to participate in the adult meetings; which often brings a little laughter and sometimes sweet inspiration. They are also allowed to play upstairs or outside together periodically. Sometimes the children are asked to leave the room if a more mature subject is being discussed.
Scott’s group doesn’t always meet at their home. Sometimes they meet at a park, a coffee house, a restaurant, the Courthouse Square, and other public venues. When meeting publically they have a very simple Bible study for all to see and hear. Often those patrons who are listening will get drawn into the discussion. They often offer prayer to those willing to receive it. Often members take up an offering and pool their money together to go to festivals, carnivals, amusement parks, etc. as a group. While there, they are challenged to “witness” to the lost and help them discover that “hanging out” with Christians can be both fun and spiritually rewarding.
Scott is also a big advocate of street preaching and street evangelism. Watching him preach and personally evangelize downtown is very moving. When asked, he’ll tell you that his pulpit is found in his shoe leather, his steeples are the trees, and his “church” is a place he calls…“home”.
Scott hasn’t set foot in a traditional church in over 6 years (maybe 7 by now).
All of this is low cost. In fact, the entire movement is absolutely “free”. Members put the money forward for efforts they wish to participate in personally or to address immediate needs among themselves.
We’ve become accustomed to the “Sunday Production” of church. With the concert worship styles and professional orators that offer “Sermonized” messages. We’re used to sitting in pews, being spectators of the show. We’re used to the cost of the building, pastor’s salary, maintenance, additional building programs, utilities, supplies, equipment, and all that goes with these things ON TOP of benevolence. Often less than 20% is left for actual evangelism and mercy ministries. We have bought into the notion that “church” takes massive amounts of education, talent, and resources. Frankly, it’s much like opening a business. Church has become a business, and “ministry” a profession. Immense pressure is put on ministers to “deliver the goods” in their sermons. They have to be entertaining, attention keeping, relevant, humorous, and somehow get the Word of God into the congregation through these means. Also pressure is put on ministry to be “perfect”. They must always smile…even if they just had a very heated argument with their wives in the car where they threatened divorce. The way we traditionally do church is sometimes very harmful to ministers and their families. So in some ways… the traditional form hurts both the congregation who is lulled into being “spectator Christians” watching the “Sunday Show” and the ministry that is forced to continue the “performance”. Sometimes, it’s a very sad state of affairs.
The point is that “church” doesn’t have to take a lot of money. It can be simplified and restored to its Apostolic pattern. If one studies the first century church…they will discover that believers primarily gathered in smaller gatherings in homes. They functioned more like a “family” than a corporation. Elders were simply spiritual fathers who were mature in the Lord, not CEO’s. A study of
I Corinthians 14 will reveal that Paul actually put form and structure on these smaller meetings wherein all could prophesy. This pattern was seen emerging throughout church history with every great revival movement. Even the Methodists began meeting in smaller home based meetings and outdoors to find more freedom in Christ. On the American frontier families often gathered around the table on Sunday as “Paw” opened the Bible and taught them, allowing everyone to participate. The “preacher” was a circuit riding preacher who often didn’t make it to the frontier chapel but once every couple weeks or more.
What we believe to be “church” is a very expensive, pressure filled, complex innovation of a modernized culture that sees even spiritual life as being “incorporated”. The truth is, we can shed many of the unnecessary trappings of what we call “church” and be left with a spiritual “kingdom” that flows with the Spirit… not the cash flow.
May God richly bless you and yours,
Aquila
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