House churches/Organic church, your opinion?

[Scott Hutchinson]

http://anorganicfaith.wordpress.com/...-christianity/

[Aquila]

God is always ahead of the enemy. If house churching is exploding as quickly as Barna and others are saying it is... I think the real question should be... Why is God essentially drawing believers away from institutionalized religion?

I believe something terrible might be on the horizon. It may be that when this comes upon us, the institutional churches will compromise or be scattered to the four winds. The house church will survive whatever this might be.

That's just MY personal observation and personal concern.

[trialedbyfire]

Originally Posted by Aquila

God is always ahead of the enemy. If house churching is exploding as quickly as Barna and others are saying it is... I think the real question should be... Why is God essentially drawing believers away from institutionalized religion?

I believe something terrible might be on the horizon. It may be that when this comes upon us, the institutional churches will compromise or be scattered to the four winds. The house church will survive whatever this might be.

That's just MY personal observation and personal concern.

It may be so. I also must question though whether or not this is ACTUALLY what God is doing. I don't believe God is drawing believers away from "institutionalized religion". There is one Lord, and one Faith, and one Baptism. I believe however some of the man made denominations and organizations are being rocked and shaken up. I'm guilty of denominationalism myself. I've often times been in fear that I may not be able to operate outside of the traditional organizational structure.

My whole Christian walk I've been in one of three organizations (PCAF, COOLJC, and now PAW) I know all the politics, the dirty gossip, the structure, the order, the pomp, the circumstance and sometimes I recognize that some of this stuff does hinder God because it exalts man, and God had beat my behind for getting wrapped up in it, because as soon as persecuation befalls the church, it's all over. Like you said alot of these organizations/denominations are compromising and falling away. True believers can't go with them. I'll go that far with you.

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by trialedbyfire

It may be so. I also must question though whether or not this is ACTUALLY what God is doing. I don't believe God is drawing believers away from "institutionalized religion". There is one Lord, and one Faith, and one Baptism. I believe however some of the man made denominations and organizations are being rocked and shaken up. I'm guilty of denominationalism myself. I've often times been in fear that I may not be able to operate outside of the traditional organizational structure.

My whole Christian walk I've been in one of three organizations (PCAF, COOLJC, and now PAW) I know all the politics, the dirty gossip, the structure, the order, the pomp, the circumstance and sometimes I recognize that some of this stuff does hinder God because it exalts man, and God had beat my behind for getting wrapped up in it, because as soon as persecuation befalls the church, it's all over. Like you said alot of these organizations/denominations are compromising and falling away. True believers can't go with them. I'll go that far with you.

[Aquila]

Oh yeah!!!

1 Cor. 16:19 ”The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Prisca greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.”

[Amanah]

you need to find a woman named Priscilla

[Aquila]

Jesus said:

Matthew 23:11
But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.

The Institutional Church Pastor:


The House Church Pastor:


lol

[trialedbyfire]

I'm not for it, I'm not against it. I've been to many home ministries. Many churches within the DC DEL MD Council of the PAW started in homes and nproggressed to church buildings. My problem is when people get dogmatic and claim that "the true" and "organic" form of worship occured in homes. Yes we know christians in the Apostolic era often held services in homes. Could this be because of persecution and the culture of the day? 100% absolutely. I worship in a building under a pastor. So do 900 other people at my church. I wouldn't try to fit them all in my pastor's house.

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by trialedbyfire

I'm not for it, I'm not against it. I've been to many home ministries. Many churches within the DC DEL MD Council of the PAW started in homes and nproggressed to church buildings. My problem is when people get dogmatic and claim that "the true" and "organic" form of worship occured in homes. Yes we know christians in the Apostolic era often held services in homes. Could this be because of persecution and the culture of the day? 100% absolutely. I worship in a building under a pastor. So do 900 other people at my church. I wouldn't try to fit them all in my pastor's house.

I believe that the "house church" in the NT was by design. If done RIGHT, with a priesthood of believers, it works wonderfully. All too often people form "home fellowship groups" and make them just small scale models of the traditional church. It doesn't work that way. For example, many startups that I've seen have "members". That won't fly. This is because a true house church is simply the house of a called elder, or one gifted with helps, opened for fellowship and study to all "Christian believers" in a given neighborhood or locality. It's a way station on the way to the arms of Christ, not an end in and of itself. It's a lifestyle, not a model. When embraced wholly for what it is... house churching works. In fact... the vast majority of Christian believers on the planet house church. As for the first century, persecution wasn't empire wide. In addition, it was sporadic. It appears that the early church didn't house church out of necessity, but rather simply because of function. Review I Corinthians 14. A larger traditional church cannot fulfill the "commandments of the Lord" in that chapter without reinterpreting the chapter to fit the traditional model of church.

Please review the post at this link: http://apostolicfriendsforum.com/sho...0&postcount=19

Here's an interesting article I had read. I wanted to share it here and see if anyone would like to share their thoughts on it. It really convicted me when I first began studying the house church.

================================================== ==

THE HOUSE CHURCH
AND PARACHURCH
ORGANIZATIONS

Since the first use of the word church (Gk. ekklesia) in Acts is found here (2:47), we pause to consider the centrality of the church in the thinking of the early Christians.

The church in the Book of Acts and in the rest of the NT was what is often called a house church. The early Christians met in houses rather than in special ecclesiastical buildings. It has been said that religion was loosed from specially sacred places and centered in that universal place of living, the home. Unger says that homes continued to serve as places of Christian assembly for two centuries.

It might be easy for us to think that the use of private homes was forced by economic necessity rather than being the result of spiritual considerations. We have become so accustomed to church buildings and chapels that we think they are God’s ideal.

However, there I strong reason to believe that the first century believers might have been wiser than we are.

First, it is inconsistent with the Christian faith and its emphasis on love to spend thousands of dollars on luxurious buildings when there is such appalling needed throughout the world. In that connection, E. Stanley Jones wrote:

I looked on the Bambino, the child Christ in the Cathedral at Rome, laden with expensive jewels, and then walked out and looked upon the countenances of hungry children and wondered whether Christ, in view of this hunger, was enjoying His jewels, and the thought persisted that if He was, then I could no longer enjoy the thought of Christ. That bejeweled Bambino and the hungry children are a symbol of what we have done in putting around Christ the expensive livery of stately cathedral sand churches while leaving untouched the fundamental wrongs in human society whereby Christ is left hungry in the unemployed and the disposed.

Not only is it inhumane; it is also uneconomical to spend money on expensive buildings that are used for no more than three, four, or five hours during the week. How have we ever allowed ourselves to drift into this unthinking dream world where we are willing to spend so much in order to get so little usage in return?

Our modern building programs have been one of the biggest hindrances to the expansion of the church. Heavy payments on principle and interest cause church leaders to resist any efforts to hive off and form new churches. Any loss of members would jeopardize the income needed to pay for the building and its upkeep. An unborn generation is addled with debt, and any hope of church reproduction is stifled.

It is often argued that we must have impressive buildings in order to attract the unchurched to our services. Aside from being a carnal way of thinking, this completely overlooks the NT pattern. The meetings of the early church were largely for believers. The Christians assembled for the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42). The did not do their evangelizing by inviting people to meetings on Sunday but by witnessing to those with whom they came in contact throughout the week. When people did get converted, they were then brought into the fellowship and warmth of the house church to be fed and encouraged.

It is sometimes difficult to get people to attend services in dignified church buildings. There is a strong reaction against formalism. Also there is a fear of being solicited for funds. “All the church wants is your money,” is a common complaint. Yet many of these same people are willing to attend a conversational Bible class in a home. There they do not have to be style-conscious, and they enjoy the informal, unprofessional atmosphere.

Actually the house church is ideal for every culture and every country. And probably if we could look over the entire world, we would see more churches meeting in homes than in any other way.

In contrast to today’s imposing cathedrals, churches, and chapels – as well as a whole host of highly organized denominations, the apostles in the Book of Acts made no attempt to form an organization of any kind for carrying on the work of the Lord. The local church was God’s unit on earth for propagating the faith and the disciples were content to work within that context.

In recent years there has been an organizational explosion in Christendom of such proportions as to make one dizzy. Every time a believer gets a new idea for advancing the cause of Christ, he forms a new mission board, corporations, or institution!

One result is that capable teachers and preachers have been called away from their primary ministries in order to become administrators. If all mission board administrators were serving on the mission field, it would greatly reduce the need for personnel there.

Another result of the proliferation of organizations is that vast sums of money are needed for overhead, and thus diverted from direct gospel outreach. The greater part of every dollar given to many Christian organizations is devoted to the expense of maintaining the organization rather than the primary purpose for which it was founded.

Organizations often hinder the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Jesus told His disciples to teach all the things He had commanded. Many who work for Christian organizations find they are not permitted to teach all the truth of God. They must no teach certain controversial matters for fear they will alienate the constituency to whom they look for financial support.

The multiplication of Christian institutions has too often resulted in factions, jealousy, and rivalry that have done great harm to the testimony of Christ.

Consider the overlapping multiplicity of Christian organizations at work, at home, and abroad. Each competes for limited personnel and for shrinking financial resources. And consider how many of these organizations really owe their origin to purely human rivalry, though public statements usually refer to God’s will (Daily Notes of the Scripture Union).

And it is often true that organizations have a way of perpetuating themselves long after they have outlived their usefulness. The wheels grind on heavily even though the vision of the founders has been lost, and the glory of the once dynamic movement has departed. It was spiritual wisdom, not primitive naiveté, that saved the early Christians from setting up human organizations to carry on the work of the Lord. G. H. Lang writes:

An acute writer, contrasting the apostolic work with the more usual modern missionary methods, has said that “we found missions, the apostles founded churches.” The distinction is sound and pregnant. The apostles founded churches, and the founded nothing else, because for the ends in view nothing else was required or could have been so suitable. In each place where they labored they formed the converts into a local assembly, with elders – always elders, never an elder (Acts 14:23; 15:6, 23; 20:17; Phil. 1:1) – to guide, to rule, to shepherd, men qualified by the Lord and recognized by the saints (I Cor. 16:15; I Thess. 5:12, 13; I Tim. 5:17-19); and with deacons, appointed by the assembly (Acts 6:1-6; Phil 1:1) – in this contrasted with the elders – to attend to the few but very important temporal affairs, and in particular to the distribution of the funds of the assembly….All they (the apostles) did in the way of organizing was to form the disciples gathered into other such assemblies. No other organization than the local assembly appears in the New Testament, nor do we find even the germ of anything further.

To the early Christians and their apostolic leadership, the congregation was the divinely ordained unit on earth through which God chose to work, and they only such unit to which He promised perpetuity was the church.


Believer’s Bible Commentary, Pgs. 1590-1591

[ThePastorsCoach]

Uhhhh...Do you mean the Church of God is NOT the Church of God and the Assembly of God is NOT the Assembly of God and the Church of Jesus Christ is not really (according to our brilliant Houser's) the Church of Jesus Christ and the "churches" are emptying out and going to peoples houses to sing Kumbya, drink coffee and have Yankee Casseroles and Goulash? WOW!
Amazing that we are having to add 2000 more seats to our already 3800 seat auditorium that we pack out every Sunday with two (9AM & 11AM) services & Wednesdays and any other special services we have are packed to the walls in a little town in North GA - Gainesville.
But - I guess in Montana and Utah - people are running to the Houser's. Interesting! Maybe Barna needs to take a look in Gainesville, GA & Orange County, CA, Houston & Dallas and I could give you at least 20 churches near me in Metro ATL that have over 2000 each service and some have over 10,000 and over 20,000 every Sunday!
Poor deceived "Church" people!
And would somebody tell that Bishop Jakes with over 30,000 each Sunday and that Joel Osteen with over 45,000 that their numbers MUST be wrong because everybody's going to the HOUSER'S!