I attended a House Church Conference this past weekend. It didn’t take me long to realize that “house churches” are not the answer to the current problems with Christianity in Western culture. But before my house church friends jump on me, let me say that mega churches are not the answer either. Nor are emerging churches, traditional churches, contemporary churches, family churches, bible churches, denominational churches, independent churches, or any other kind of label you might want to put in front of “churches.”<\/p>\n
Though Barna reports that the house church movement in Western Christianity is multiplying rapidly (somewhere between\u00a05-20 million people in the United States attend a house church), the statistics also show that the vast majority of these house church members\u00a0transferred from\u00a0an “institutional”\u00a0church to a house church. For the most part, they are not new believers.<\/p>\n
I do not call that success. I do not call that growth.<\/p>\n
Certainly, some of these transplanted Christians may find deeper intimacy and fellowship with God and with other believers in their new circle of friends, but unless they are also finding ways to love, serve, and become friends with people who are not Christians, all they have done is substituted one form of Christian consumerism for another.<\/p>\n
The bottom line is this: I don’t care what kind of church you attend, when you meet, how often you meet, what kind of songs you sing, how long your prayers are, what the building looks like, what kind of teaching there is, who teaches, or (to a certain extent) what your theological framework is. If you and your church are not loving, serving, spending time, and developing friendships with people who do not attend your church (and who may never come!), you are not acting as the Body of Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I attended a House Church Conference this past weekend. It didn’t take me long to realize that “house churches” are not the answer to the current problems with Christianity in Western culture. But before my house church friends jump on me, let me say that mega churches are not the answer either. Nor are emerging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[19,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"tag-discipleship","7":"tag-theology-church","8":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n