House Churches: What are your thoughts?

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by RachelRose

another post about house church. I am really interested in this but wonder who to trust.

Just do research on it. You want to look at "house church", "simple church", "microchurch", "organic church", these are all terms that often speak to the same church practice. You can look at YouTube, Google for information, and look for books on the topic. Here are a couple videos to get you started with regards to understanding house churching:

[Amanah]

when I did a search on Apostolic House Church, I got the following

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...tVatxVd4DpzRnL

[Aquila]

Here are some additional videos that might help you to understand the concept:

[Aquila]

Here's an interesting article from the Believer's Bible Commentary.

Interesting article:

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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 is 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 cathedrals and 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 saddled 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). They 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, corporation, 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 not 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 the only such unit to which He promised perpetuity was the church.


Believer’s Bible Commentary, Pgs. 1590-1591

[Aquila]

Most don't realize that Christians didn't build "church buildings" until roughly 300 years after Christ. For 300 years, Christians gathered in family-like small groups in homes, catacombs, barns, fields, etc., until Christianity because the state sanctioned religion of Rome. Then the Roman temples were converted over to "churches" and the Roman religious hierarchy was established.

[robogreg_2000]

I think this is a wonderful idea! A lot of people are becoming annoyed with organized religion.............I know I am!!!!!!!!!

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by robogreg_2000

I think this is a wonderful idea! A lot of people are becoming annoyed with organized religion.............I know I am!!!!!!!!!

I think more and more Christians are starting to realize that a church should be a spiritual family, not an incorporated business, religious seminar, concert, or light show.

[Amanah]

There are no Apostolic House Churches in my area, the only ones that I know of, that I would consider attending are In Ft Lauderdale, or Texas. Good luck finding one that isn't either charismatic or Hebrew roots.

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by Amanah

There are no Apostolic House Churches in my area, the only ones that I know of, that I would consider attending are In Ft Lauderdale, or Texas. Good luck finding one that isn't either charismatic or Hebrew roots.

In today's world, it would almost be better to gather the family into the living room for family Bible study and time of prayer every Sunday... than to get entangled in all these institutional churches who teach all manner of false doctrines and who just want your money. You could even invite friends and neighbors and perhaps lay the foundation for a house church in your home. In many cases it would be far better than what's out there.

[Amanah]

Originally Posted by Aquila

In today's world, it would almost be better to gather the family into the living room for family Bible study and time of prayer every Sunday... than to get entangled in all these institutional churches who teach all manner of false doctrines and who just want your money. You could even invite friends and neighbors and perhaps lay the foundation for a house church in your home. In many cases it would be far better than what's out there.

I don't agree, the UPC I attend is closer to truth than probably 99% of house churches.

Your exposition of doctrine proves my point.