House church practitioners often accuse the institutional church of equating the church with the buildings the church meets in. “The church isn’t a building,” they say, “The church is the people.” We are exhorted to stop going to church, and start being the church.
But it seems that house church people may be guilty of the same thing. After all, it’s right in the name: “house” church. What is a house if not a building?
I suppose this might be part of the reason so many new names are popping up to help us describe “church.” We have organic church, simple church, and missional communities, but even here, in most of the books and blogs I read about this, the emphasis always seems to be that the church is only functioning when the people gather in a certain place at a certain time, usually in a house on Sunday morning.
So, either house church proponents need to stop criticizing the institutional church as being so focused on buildings and services, or we need to ask ourselves the same hard questions that institutional churches ask. For example, we must all ask how we can help people see that church is not when and where we gather, but is a life of following Jesus into the world? How can we show people that we do not “go to church” but the church goes with us?
The main barrier to overcome in both institutional churches and house churches, is the continual emphasis on regular “church attendance. Whether you have a Senior Pastor or a group of elders, they are forever encouraging people to “attend church” more often, to “come back to church next week,” and to invite their friends and neighbors “to church.”
I am not saying that gathering together with other believers is not important. It is. It is vitally important. But somehow, we need to show the people that the church continues to exist and function in and through our lives even when we are not gathered. Again, as I mentioned above, we do not go to church; the church goes with us.
Over the next several weeks, I will write a lot more about this. But for now, do you have any ideas on how to help people see themselves as the church, rather than view the church as a place where they gather?
The Church is the actual body of Christ within the world we live. It is more than we could ever imagine. It is not a building, a place for gathering, a program, or even a youth group. It is the Holy Spirit working through His Bride to show the Allness of God.
There is no way for us to define what the Church is. God has already defined it. God has defined His Church through the revelation of His Son. He gave us His Word so we can see Christ. The Church is invisible, yet seen. It is much more than we can ever imagine or try to even re-create.
Thanks, Swanny
Swanny,
I think you’ll see in the coming weeks as I post more about this, that I agree with you on this. All I am doing here is raising the question.
just saw your other post… hope you kids feel better.
Cool. I look forward to what you have to say.
I just feel as I walk in my post-institutional wilderness that the Church always IS. Wherever we are and whatever we do, if we allow the Holy Spirit to lead, Christ will be seen heading up His Body!!
Encourage one another in good works… whoever wrote that in Hebrews it makes total sense to me now that I have stepped outside the man-made systems and rules.
Forget the focus of what we should be doing.. prayer, singing, or whatever has been ingrained in my head for years…and focus more on the action of us working together to show the Allness of Christ.
Yes, I think that wherever we go, the church goes with us. Like you say, the church is.
Jeremy, I think the idea you’re looking for will need to be centered on Jesus Himself. That is, all the wrong ways people have of thinking about church center on something other than Jesus (buildings, times, groups). The key distinction is that those things are are visible and tangible while Jesus is invisible. Therefore, the problem is one of faith because faith has to do with what is not visible or tangible. In other words, the crisis you are describing – and it is a crisis – is a crisis of faith. The solution is to live by faith. Strange as it may sound, the problem you are noticing is a failure to believe.
Absolutely right. I’m not sure if I thought of it quite that way before, but I agree. Thanks.
We will be the Church outside of the building when we take God outside of the building. When we walk through life with the a constant vision of the on high, Almighty, magnificent, splendid, and glorious God who has called us into the light we will not be able to stop the overflow. His unsearchable riches toward us in Christ are so great, so marvelous, so abundant we cannot contain Him. Yet all too often we lose sight of His greatness and we think we have to go searching for Him. He is not in the building or the house. His glory is displayed in all creation. More than that He is in you. Do we really get that? Holy God is in us!!!! In the face of this great truth my question is not how do I carry Him with me outside of the building but how do I get up off my face…
We say all of life is worship but it cannot be worship if we don”t recognize that we are perpetually before His throne. When we find ourselves there, before the throne, it will be impossible to contain the joy proceeding through our fear and trembling. Then and only then, will we be the Church wherever we are.
Bobby,
yes, it really does come down to a view of worship that pervades all of life, not just when we are gathered together with others.
I found you on Kathy E’s blog. My wife and I are out of the building. Part of the time we meet with a few Jesus followers on Sunday mornings, since that is an available time for some of us part of the time. We meet in coffee shops, parks, about half the time literally in the street, and occasionally in someone’s home.
Sometimes we read something from the Bible and talk about it. Sometimes we talk about where we saw God that week. Sometimes we pray together. Sometimes we pick up trash in the neighborhood and talk to the people in the streets. Sometimes we take food to the park, eat, ask people to join us, talk and whatever.
That’s Sunday, sometimes. But we are the church everyday. I am being the church when I listen to my neighbor, spend time with lonely people, sit with my friend who is hurting and weep with him, hire someone who is short on funds to help me, help my friend throw a birthday party for his boyfriend (yes, you read that correctly), pick up trash in my neighborhood, cry with the guys who treated me like crap for years when their homeboy gets killed, help the woman who really irritates me figure out how to use her computer for e-mail, take cookies to the neighbor who is really pissed at me because my friend woke them up at 7:15 after they had been out late partying, and generally try to love the people who cross my path, whoever they are.
Religion needs buildings. We don’t. I don’t see where Jesus told people to go to some building. The people are in the streets, at Costco, under the bridge, at the homeless shelter. A few weeks ago we saw on the news on Friday that Saturday and Sunday were expected to be terrible for the homeless here – freezing rain and not enough shelters. We spent Saturday and Sunday going through our stuff and gathered up two carloads of blankets, plastic sheeting, coats, sweaters, socks, shoes and other stuff and took it to them. We communicated “We’re here to share our stuff with you because we know you need it and we care about you.” We love these people and we think they know it.
We run into Jesus all the time – in the people we meet, including and especially those on the street. Some of them ask us “Why are you doing this?” Our answer – “To show the love of Jesus to the neighborhood.” Sometimes they say thanks. Sometimes they weep, and tell us they’ve never seen anything like this in all their lives, then tell us stuff about themselves. They almost always like Jesus. They usually don’t like Christians or religious people or churches.
We didn’t find Jesus in religion, church buildings, seminars and all that stuff. We didn’t find Jesus in a burned spot on a tortilla. But we find Jesus all the time in the people, with the people, on the street. That’s where we find Jesus walking. Jesus especially hangs out with the poor, the hurting, the marginalized, the lepers, the prostitutes, the strippers, the gays, the homeless, and the list goes on. Jesus left the building a long time ago (I’m not clear that Jesus was ever there, but I’m no authority on such things) and so have we.
Tomorrow morning (Sunday) we plan to spend time with a friend whose wife died a couple of weeks ago. He’s having a tough time. He asks question about God, heaven and that kind of stuff. Mostly he wants our presence. We’re the lame, weak and blind trying to trust God together even though we don’t understand some things. We walk together, hold each others hands and let each other know we care.
Religious people don’t understand what I just said. The people in the street do. Yes, we’re not religious, and extremely delusional.
Thanks for the great comment. Everything you said is so true, and is how we should live and act as the church. We are to people of grace, generosity, and kindness to everybody we run into.
Are you with the same community as Kathy in Denver? I might be coming out there in a month or two. Would love to meet up with some of you.
We’re not part of Kathy’s group. We live in San Diego. Where are you? Are you part of a group of Jesus followers? The info. may be on this site, but I didn’t run across it.
I identify as a Jesus follower and spiritual, and try to avoid the terms Christian and religious because they have come to mean so much that I’m not. When people ask me if I go to church, I answer that I try to follow Jesus and that I do know a few other people who follow Jesus, but I don’t identify with a lot of what the Christian religion has become. That always provokes a conversation. Most of our friends do not follow Jesus.
We live up in New York. We were part of a group, but had to move, and are now trying to get a new group started near where we live. It’s slow going, especially since we don’t know anybody around here.
I find this discussion very interesting because I have spent a number of years casually searching to understand how believers in the Bible live in light of The Anointed One of God(Christ)comming to earth. This study among other things addresses the institutional church, burocratic church, or what ever you want to call the formalized ritual that is called “church”. I don’t even know where to start in expressing my musings, but here are a few thoughts; In Acts we see how believers in Jesus naturally came together with the common bond of Salvation through Jesus. It wasn’t a “ok, here we are again in this building, while my favorite sport is playing on TV…I wonder what the score is….boy this is BORING” but rather it was a vibrant living in expectation of the imminant return of Christ. It was much like some of my sports minded friends who, could spend countless time relaying stories of a great moment in sport(theirs or as seen…) or statistics. It was something their minds gravitated toward, something their hearts desired, something that directed their priorities socially, physically, mentally, and any other kind of ally. So what are believers in Christ characterized by? What is the first thing on our minds? What roles off our lips? Who do we desire to be with and why? What is important in light of Jesus the Christ who is the only way of being saved from sin and it’s consiquence? Do we regularly SEEK fellowship(not only once a week) with other believers just because our common focus (Christ) is so important? Do we talk to those who do not believe in Jesus so that they might know Him because we realize that faith in Jesus’ finished work is the only way to be right before God and that this person will be in ETERNAL torment without faith in Jesus?
As you see it is not a form, not a place, not an action, but rather is is a mind focus stemming from believing in Jesus and knowing God.
Karl,
Great insights and questions, and I like where are going with this line of thought. Do you have a blog somewhere? Are there others with you who think the same way? What are you doing in your community to live out these convictions? I’m just curious because I am trying to move in these directions myself, and am always looking for others who are already doing it.
Jeremy,
I don’t have many who share the same thoughts, though my father and I have been challenging each other regularly as to what scripture says. This has been such an eye opener as we both have been challenged to reconsider what it means to be in the body of Christ, both locally and in the larger context. Right now we both attend a “burocratic” meeting(though different ones), and though I don’t agree with it(the whole burocratic machine) I believe that for only a few hours a week, it provides a great opportunity to meet with believers & unbelievers. Much like the early Christians still meeting at the temple, so I go to meet others who profess the name of Christ and desire to live my life according to scripture so that I might help model in some feeble way what Christ called the believers to do. This said, I have been working to promote further fellowship of believers through out the week as one centered around our common bond which is Jesus Christ. Presently we enjoy Christian fellowship with one family that has some of the same questions and hope to encourage more Christ centered believer fellowship with a growing number of believers in Christ so that we might actually be able to serve and be served as designed to the glory of God. We also(though not in exemplary fasion), desire to reach out to our unbelieving neighbors to present truth in word and action, remembering that God does the convicting.
Ultimately my focus needs to be to “know Christ and the power of His resurection and the fellowship of His suffering, being made conformable to His death.” Or as Paul says again “for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”. It’s all about His done, not about our doing!
That is a great way of looking at things, especially the parallel between going to church and the believers in Acts going to the temple.
You and your father are challenging each other? Are you agreeing or disagreeing?
We both agree and disagree depending at what state of understanding or realization we are at. Overall we are on the same page, but as we present a different understanding(though not a new understanding of scripture – just hidden in the presupositions built up over time), sometimes it takes a while to get through all those years of presupositions till we see what the other has been showing from scripture. Kind of like Iron sharpening Iron. One will explain what he has learned in scripture and the other might counter it with his understanding of scripture, we’ll go back and forth in discussion challenging and afirming, seeking to understand truth. As we presently work together in the same shop(self employed), you can see how hard it might be to get work done!
My desire is to live in such a way that God is glorified. This is not to say I live selflessly, because at any moment my eyes look away from Christ I rely on self, and in that, I put weight on a feeble member, myself. The age old problem of SELF often is manifest in a false identity such as; “we are children of Abraham”(therefore I am righteous), “I go to … “church””(somehow this “church” makes you something) or “all you say we will do”(the people of Israel saying they in themself can meet God’s standard), “I give to the church”(not personally meeting others needs), “I do this program or that program” (though you do not desire to glorify God but rather there is some intrinsic value in doing a program). As one friend in Idaho said “the institutional “church” is a way of passifying your mind so that you can go through life serving self and feel ok because you do “church” religiously every Sunday”.
Our focus needs to be Christ and His finished work; stemming from this we submit ourselves to His will and live to glorify Him moment by moment, day by day, till He returns to take us home. “To live is Christ, and to die is Gain”! Let us not be motivated and united by disalusionment but by a clear focus on Christ and His call for us to live set apart to Himself.
I hope some sense can be made of my disjunct ramblings.
guys,
I’m loving this conversation. I have dropped the first ball and have the second in my grasp. Now I’m hoping to find others who are living by and for Christ alone so that we can play with our balls together. Okay, that doesn’t sound right, but I think you get the point. 🙂
Ha ha ha! Scary…
Karl W, if I may say so, you are not far from the kingdom of God.
Truly, to live is Christ (Phil 1:21) and there is much that is worthless which has attached itself to our understanding of Him. We must separate Christ in our minds from all else (2 Corinthians 11:3; Jeremiah 15:19). And serve Him with a whole heart.
“O Lord, show a man what he may let go of in order that he may grasp the things that You are offering.”
Hi Mike
Your last statement reminds me of our one dog, who when tossed two balls would refuse to drop the first ball and therefore would endlessly chass the second without success. If she would have dropped the first ball, the second would be graspable. Just hold on while I drop the first ball, I’m tired of chasing the second one.