Quote:
Originally Posted by Apocrypha
I wanted to thank Aquila for pointing out many of the strengths of the modern House Church movement to me. I always saw them as a fringe group who hated real churches.. but after reading the new Barna books with huge statistics on North American house church attendance and seeing some of the amazing new work the Southern Baptists are doing planting metro house church networks in North America my eyes are open to whats going on under the radar.
I am still reading a pile of books I have ordered from the various sites and digesting how it affects my understanding of how to do and order a new church plant... but either way its great stuff with the ability to affect many people in a positive way.
Just wanted to say thanks in a public forum since he got me started on the interesting new(old/ancient) thing here on AFF.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/...ing/25.12.html (interesting Christianity Today article on the subject) |
"While 20-somethings pull out of traditional churches, more people are leaving organized churches altogether, according to revolutionary pollster George Barna. Your new competitor is not the church down the street, but the house next door. Here is how Barna sizes up the House Church experience:
Average size of gathering: 20 people (including 7 children in gatherings with kids)
Gatherings including kids: 64%
Of those, kids meeting with adults for whole session: 41%
House churches meeting weekly: 80%
Average length of service: 2 hours
Include formal teaching: 76%
Eat as well as meet: 85%
Satisfaction with spiritual depth of the experience: 59%
Satisfaction with personal connectedness: 66%
Attenders who have met with their house church one year or less: 75%
—with info from Barna.org"
59% satisfied with spiritual depth seems kind of low...?
Is that number supposed to be lower in an "orgianized church building" when compared to home churches?
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