I am facing a house church dilemma. Maybe some of you can help me.
I have visited some house churches that were …. well… not normal. They were kind of weird. Have you?
I don’t really know how to describe it, and I don’t want to sound harsh or condescending, but I felt quite uncomfortable at these meetings.
They seemed a bit… cultish.
My House Church Experience
I would have felt very uncomfortable inviting any of my non-Christian friends to such a meeting. Also, a few of the people were somewhat socially inept. I got the distinct feeling that the primary reason some of them were in a house church was because they would not be able to function properly with people in more traditional churches.
Has anyone else ever felt this way, or is it just me?
Am I being too judgmental? Am I the one that has the problem? Is this just my critical spirit getting in the way?
Are House Churches just Small “Regular” Churches?
Frankly, it seems that most house church groups were not even doing much of anything different from a traditional church, except on a much smaller scale. Five or ten people gather on Sunday mornings at about 10:00 am, sit in chairs, sing a few songs, spend some in prayer, and then have a Bible discussion, which more often than not, is dominated by one person.
This is really not that different from what takes place in any other church. It was just smaller.
Oh, and there was no paid pastor.
But really, is that what the house church movement is all about? I hope not.
There has got to be more to organic church, missional church, and house church than being a mini-church. I have some ideas on what church can look like, but I haven’t had the courage yet to try it. I think I’m going to give it a shot…
2013 Update: This post was originally written in 2011 on a different website. Since that time, I have embarked on my church “experiment” and have found more love, encouragement, fellowship, and relational warmth than almost any previous “church” experience. To keep updated on some of what I am thinking, doing, and experiencing in my “church” journey with Jesus, subscribe to my email newsletter, in which I send out personal updates and free eBooks.
Also, one book my wife and I read this past year which sounded eerily familiar to what we have personally experienced, was the fictional “novel” by Wayne Jacobsen and Dave Coleman, So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore. Wayne is coming out with a book soon called Finding Church, which I hope will be encouraging and helpful as well.
hey Jeremy. thanks for the shout-out on the book.
two things:
1) most house churches in my experience (23 years meeting outside the institutional church)are pretty lame. For that reason I’m not an advocate of “house church.” The organic expression of the church, which is the church we read about in the NT, is something quite different. Here’s a post explaining the difference: http://frankviola.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/house-church-vs-organic-church/
“Finding Organic Church” is not a stand alone book. It’s part 5 of a five-volume series on radical church restoration. “Finding Organic” is the one on church planting. If read without the other four volumes, it’s not going to make too much sense because the paradigm is so different from the traditional view.
You can check out the whole “ReChurch” series here: http://www.ReimaginingChurch.org
Nice blog you have here, bro.
blessings,
fv
Psalm 115:1
Frank,
Thanks for coming on over here and checking us out. I read your blog pretty much every day.
Anyway, I have read two of the other books in the series. So far, I have NOT read From Eternity to Here or The Untold Story.
I am so relieved to hear that not all “house churches” are like the ones I have experienced. I think i am going to try to start an organic church around here, and I hope your book will give me some good direction. I will be “blogging through the book” here over the next week or two as I read it. Thanks for writing!
Hey, bro, we’ve probably been to some of the same house churches.
Honestly, the house churches I have been to are not around where I live now. I am relatively new to the area, and the experience I mention in the post was from before I moved here.
I love all the challenges and themes expressed in Frank’s books. Those are great guidelines. My experience and study has taught me that the word “church” (i.e. ekklesia) in the New Testament has a pretty loose definition. It was a group of people “called out” in a local area to discuss something. That’s IT.
Years ago, I thought that there was one perfect church and that everyone had to conform to whatever standards upheld by that definition. Now, I’m beginning to realize that church can and must look differently, depending on the context.
I hope that helps and am encouraged by your search for more meaningful and authentic community with other Christ-followers.
I love your blog. Don’t you help Michael Hyatt with that twitter discussion? How did that come about?
You are right about ekklesia. It was even used occasionally to describe the citizens of Rome who never gathered all in one place.
I think the reason for starting a house church is a significant key as to what kind of gathering it becomes. If it is the start of a new church in the area that aims to grow and then move into a more traditional space like a hall, and it follows this plan, it may not be a bad thing. This particularly may be the case in a small town.
If the group of people pull away from a church and are hiding from main stream doctrine and plan to stay in their little huddle, it can quickly turn bad.
That is so true. The reason for starting is vitally important for what the fellowship ends up looking like.
House Church, Organic Church, Simple Church, Institutional Church, the Church is already built. It is a matter of abiding in Christ, living together with Him and with other believers in a world that desperately needs to see the oneness of the Believer and Christ.
If we are trying to build something then we are missing the point. Christ has already built His Church and we are His Bride.
Fellowship is a matter of coming together to embrace our oneness in Christ and our connected new in Christ.
Songs, talking to and with Father, and sharing our individual journeys make it possible to join together in our corporate journey.
Church is not a matter of impressing each other but a matter of embracing one another. This is the most difficult thing we have been called to do for to accomplish this we must abide in Christ. We try to embrace through tasks, programs, mutual causes and religious experiences.
1 Cor 13:13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. We make it a point to stress faith, or hope. When we embrace Jesus with our Love only then will we be able to embrace what Jesus embraces.
Yes, come together, not to build the Church but to be the Church. What it will look like, entail, or sound like will be flux for we are an ever growing organism not a static organization. Every organism is organized but it does not organize to become an organism. It finds itself an organism and discovers it is organized and simply goes on living.
The key to the Church is Jesus not the Church.
Don’t feel slighted if you don’t get what I’m saying, I’ll have to read this several more times to figure out what I’ve just written and how it applies to my immediate world.
Terry,
You raise a point that has been gnawing at the back of my brain, but hadn’t clicked with me until I just read it in your comment. I am not fond of all these various titles for ways of “doing church.” House church, simple church, organic church, etc, etc. It’s hard to keep track of, confuses people (What kind of church are we again?), and just creates more ways of dividing us. Wow. How about you doing a blog post on this? It sounds like you’ve been doing some good thinking about it.
We tried two house churches and found people who would not feel at home in the institutional church. We thought one group was strange, and the other a clique.
The group of which we have been a part the past three years is not a house church. We meet in cafes, parks and in the street when we meet as a group. Most of us also spend time with people who have little interest in traditional churches. Some are Jesus followers, most are not. We’re way out of the box, which I’ll be describing in the posts I’ll be making to this blog, starting in a couple of days.
Church can look much different than the model most of us have seen. We do not need buildings, staff, programs and most of the things that accompany that model. We do need Jesus and a desire to follow Him and love people.
I am really looking forward to your series as it sounds like you are describing what I am dreaming of and trying to get started here. We are meeting with two other like-minded families next week to see if we are all thinking in the same direction.
To get a better perspective on Simple Church, I suggest you check out Felicity Dale’s Simply Church blog. She writes about simple churches that are missional, effective and generally not lame.
Yes, I read her blog. It is great!
I hear you…we’ve been able to steer clear of the “weird” as we network with others and wait for Him to build us together with “someone else” unti Christ is fully formed in us. I think it might help to remember there isn’t a “formula” where WE scavenge up the ingredients and put them together and we have an “organic” church. I’ve read all Frank’s books (wow…how one man can put into words what so many of us have felt and heard the Spirit preparing our hearts for over years and even decades–thank you Frank…we LOVE you, brother!) and also almost all the books by the Dales, Wolfgang Simson and Neil Cole… and those are just some of the “big names”. But I’m finding that “Jeremy Myers” is just as big a name in this family where the biggest name of all among the lesser brethren (Jesus being elder brother to us all) is probably the one none of us is listening for…and it’s the “least”. Because ekklesia IS “organic” and a living thing, we have to leave it to the Creator to breathe life while we partake. We can’t make it happen no matter how much we hunger for it, no matter how clear our “vision”. It takes time, it’s messy, it’s “alive” and it’s really beyond our control. But somewhere out there is the “least” person in this neighborhood of the Kingdom–someone entering the Kingdom like a child or a slave, with NO authority. And Father is going to bring that person into my life to lead me. It’s time we stop reading and writing and talking and go where He sends us…it’s the “little children” (the ones who don’t even think about having all the answers but who seek the Kingdom with all their hearts) we must emulate.
Leah,
Thank you for the very encouraging and insightful comment. I think you say something very important there about all of our places within the family of God.
Oh, and Jeremy…I don’t mean YOU should stop writing entirely…that wasn’t meant to be taken literally…I have something for you on that subject, but I’ll get it to you later.
Jeremy,
We to have found house churches to be sometimes strange . I must admit it is hard to know the right answer. I have read all the books ,blogs in search how to please Jesus as the “church should be”.I love the brothers and sisters who have put their hand to the plow and never looked back to give the vision of what Jesus bride should be .I stand in awe that any of us can be apart of serving Jesus .
I’m praying for the courage to be found faithful to build up Jesus Body .His precious bride I long to serve ! Then the questions come up in my mind will this be enough ?? Or an I striving for an unrealstic idea? Am I to judgemental ? I don’t know ? It seems like a mountain of doubt. Do I really trust God said loving him and people is simply enough for his church? Is this the vision God has always had close to his heart ? The cross said YES .For God so loved the world he gave his only son for us .
Great insights and questions, Marleett. I certainly don’t have all the answers either. I, like you, am simply trying to follow Jesus the best way I know how. I make mistakes along the way, but thankfully, He is patient and kind. I think a big part of being the church in the world is simply enjoying the journey with Jesus.
Church is when disciples of Jesus come together to encourage one another to follow Him. Disciples of Jesus want to follow Him and will take help wherever they can get it. Where we meet is of little importance. I want Christian fellowship. I don’t believe in part time believers. We are all called to full time all in ministry. We are a royal priesthood. Elders are mature followers who desire to help equip the younger. The younger should mature into an elder. We are all to obey everything Jesus taught His disciples to obey and that includes teaching others. Unless we fail to mature and grow in faithfulness which makes God a liar. He promises to grow us up. He assumes the resposibility when we give up our own efforts and trust Him to transform us by His Holy Spirit. Surrender equals new birth.
yes, we are all ministers, and those who are more mature than us in the faith can encourage and help us as we seek to follow Jesus every day.
I think house churches suffer from the same thing building churches suffer from. Love of the world.
Great, great point. As Paul says, what good is it all if we have not love?
Because we are all familiar, and dare I say, comfortable, with today’s corporate church model, we naturally compare (judge) all other modes of worship against that corporate model. We assign these other modes of worship as substitutes to the norm, simply because of our natural expectations and level of comfort and familiarity with the “old” way. We must step out of the norm, or rather, simply try to relegate it to what it is – just another mode of worship. We have a strong relationship with the corporate model that will take time to get over. And therein lies most of the problem. Like dealing with a new boyfriend/girlfriend, we tend to compare them with the one we just left. And many an argument in a new relationship begins with – “Well, I’m not them (old boyfriend/girlfriend). We tend to over think this whole church thing. It’s just a gathering of fellow believers. Maybe regular, maybe not so much. It’s not the model that’s the central focus – it’s God the Father and our savior Jesus Christ. Worship from the deepest part of your soul. Church is what you bring, not the destination or model of some sort of “service” concocted by the organization police. Meet in a home, a park, a yard, the woods or the beach. It doesn’t really matter. If you feel weird or uncomfortable, that’s on you. Think about it, if God is among us, where two or three gather, why would we ever feel uncomfortable or weird? Do you think God does? What matters is that we meet and encourage one another and minister to each others needs. Don’t make such a big deal of it – then go home and BE the church!
That is interesting, isn’t it! I never realized how we judge and compare everything off the corporate model!
Wow.
We tell people to compare themselves only to Jesus and to follow only Him in their lives, but when it comes to church, we compare ourselves to the institutional religion of Christianity, rather than to Christ!
How about you just invite folks to do something else? Maybe to play a fun group game, or work together gardening or cooking a meal for the group. Or all that. Just tell them that, at some point or other, they should be ready to offer a reading, or prayer, or lead silent prayer for 5 minutes, or edify the saints in 250 words or less. Something like that. No pressure — prepare something they may feel like sharing, but let them know they are not compelled to share (except, maybe, by good-natured peer pressure). During the course of the day, spread out the ‘sharing sessions’. If anyone has anything spontaneous, have out with it. Maybe set some guidelines about number of times or overall time used by a person, strictly to keep the day flowing and dominated by no particular speaker/teacher/dreamer/intercessory-prayer. Don’t forget to express gratefulness and thanks liberally, to Father and to one another. And don’t do it more than quarterly. Allow the joy of preparing to see and share and be with one another to build — don’t let it be overcome by the cares of the world, don’t let this time become a burden.
Yes! I like that idea. No pressure. Simple. Natural. Real.
It builds relationships, and anybody can do it. There doesn’t have to be any rules or “order of service.” Just friends hanging out talking about whatever, and discussion of Jesus naturally enters the conversation.
Thanks for GIVING me the idea, Jeremy!
Why did you insert a photo of the Crooked House which is located in Gdańsk in Poland? It has nothing in common with your “weird churches”. I doubt you visited any because if you did you would rather have inserted a photo of the one you have indeed seen.
The word “church” keeps popping up and the word isn’t even in the bible. It is a deliberate miss translation of the word Ecclesia, meaning a called out assembly, congregation or community. So all you good “church” people are defending something that isn’t Christ’s plan to start with. Believers gathered together in their home until around 300 AD. then it went downhill from there. My Bible says where 2 or 3 gather in my name…..