On Church

I have been reading a lot lately on house churches. My family currently attends an excellent, God-honoring church in Dallas- Northwest Bible. The church is doing a lot of good in this city. The pastor- Neil Tomba- is a humble guy who seems to model the Christian life well.

But I have unrest in my soul because I only know a handful of people with any real depth although I have been involved in small groups there. My life doesn't intersect enough with the people that I see on Sundays or at Bible studies. I don't know if God's intention for church was to have us stare at the back of someone's head for 90 minutes on a weekend.

My journey into this house church issue started with reading a book by Randy Frazee called "Making Room for Life". Then a couple of books found me that really spurred thoughts- "Revolution" by George Barna and "Houses That Changed the World" by Wolfgang Simson.

Allan Karr who oversees a network of church planters at Golden Gate Seminary has said that, "75% of a traditional church's offering is consumed by staff and buildings. This leaves little to do actual good works. In contrast, house churches are often able to give up to 90% of their offerings towards works that help the poor, missions, etc... Traditional church is fine if you like buildings. But I think the reason house churches are becoming more popular is that their resources are going to something more meaningful."

One of the textbooks that I used in studying Greek was by David Alan Black. I did a search for some materials by him and found an interesting blog that he keeps. One of his articles was on the subject of house churches. He brings up some great observations about what church has evolved into:

• The Lord’s Supper has changed from a celebration to a ceremony.
• Worship has changed from participation to observation.
• Witness has changed from relationship to salesmanship.
• Leadership has changed from servanthood to professionalism.
• Mission has changed from being missionaries to supporting missionaries.
• Body life has changed from edification to entertainment.
• Buildings have changed from functional to sacred.
• Child care has changed from the hands of parents to the hands of strangers.

In March of 2006, Time magazine did a story about the house church movement: http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1167737,00.html

There are some other reasons that I believe house churches have appeal other than the obvious reason of being able to stretch resources much further:

1. It can unify believing neighbors and become an intriguing structure to non-believers who start to witness true community among Christians.
2. Offers disabled and elderly people in a neighborhood a more viable worship option than traditional church.
3. If done right, it can really facilitate deeper growth among members because it forces members to participate and not be just a spectator.

I don't know where this is going in my life. But it seems that materials keep popping up from nowhere that have my attention. The Holy Spirit may be leading me there.

For His Glory,

Ashley Hodge