Category: Biblical Church

My mom, at almost 92, still has a sharp mind. Her detailed recollection of childhood and life events is incredible. I recently asked her if she remembered doctors making house calls. She did, and then she began telling me some of the times doctors came to her home.

House calls for doctors are a thing of the past and so it seems the same can be said about pastors. Pastors have a tendency to isolate themselves from their sheep in order to preserve personal time and family time. It’s understandable, they are overwhelmed.

We all love the story of the Good Shepherd going after his lost sheep.

What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 

Luke 15:4-5 (NKJV)

Jesus got his feet dirty traveling around. He didn’t set up shop somewhere and expect people to visit him at his “church” once or twice a week. He became intimately involved in people’s lives. He was intensely relational, he went after lost sheep and he made house calls.

I remember a good friend I had at a large institutional church. When his daughter was born he asked me to be her godfather and I was happy to accept. As he rose in the ranks of hierarchy, he eventually became an assistant pastor. At that point the senior pastor advised him to change his phone number and not give it out to the laity. I had no way of communicating with him and that was the end of our relationship.

The church structure dictates that isolation for leadership is just the way it has to be, but it’s contrary to everything Jesus taught and modeled. My friend only lasted a few years after his appointment, he left the church completely disillusioned. I’m sure many of you would be able to share your own heartbreaking stories.

I like to ask people, who have spent years attending church, tithing and volunteering their time, if they’ve ever been invited to the Senior Pastor’s home just to hang out or even go out for coffee. I’m usually met with puzzled looks as if I asked them something inappropriate. I grew up in churches and have been on staff but I’ve never been invited to a pastors home, never ever. Doesn’t that seem strange? We pour our lives out for a church or ministry and develop only superficial relationships with the hierarchy.

The question is then, whose pattern should we be following? Whose pattern should our pastors be following? Jesus made house calls, he got involved in people’s lives, he went after wandering sheep – does your pastor follow Christ’s example? The model of institutional church is broken, the gap between clergy and laity doesn’t lend itself to forming meaningful relationships. There must be, and there is, a more excellent way and I encourage you to search for it.

Next month I will be traveling to the beautiful country of Tanzania.  This will be my second trip.  During my first trip I was accompanied by my friend Lee who had been there previously.  Traveling with someone who knows how to get around was a great anxiety reliever and made my time there enjoyable.  

I had that same sense when reading this book.  Wayne Jacobsen feels like a loving guide who’s been there before and is trying to help navigate our journey to find true church.  You can tell he has scars from past experiences but there’s no sense of bitterness in his words.  This is a great travel guide and I would highly recommend this book if you want to have a truly enjoyable time on your journey.  An excerpt follows.  You can find more information and free resources at www.lifestream.org.

Finding a traditional congregation isn’t any more difficult than finding a McDonald’s hamburger. They are everywhere and they are not subtle about it, with ever-taller steeples and bell towers that intrude into the cityscape. But what do you do if you no longer fit into those conformity-based structures? How do you find the church Jesus is building if there’s no sign on the door?

I never foresaw the day when I’d no longer be an active member of a local congregation and getting here hasn’t been easy. As much as I respect those who still find it an important part of their spiritual life, it is no longer an important part of mine. Both of the congregations I was part of in my adult years hit a glass ceiling where the institutional needs came in conflict with the life of Jesus I was seeking. I wasn’t ready to give up on the desire to participate in his church as a vibrant community of friends cooperating with God’s unfolding work in the world, and I discovered that I could have a more fruitful connection with people and share Jesus’ life more freely without all the accoutrements, political intrigue, and routine that our institutions force on fellowship.

Most people who leave end up doing what I did, looking for another group to fill the Sunday morning void and the friendships they lost by leaving. During the last couple of decades, many have found their way into home groups and other more informal gatherings. When they come together to give rise to a community of friends sharing the life of Jesus and his heart for those around them, they can be wonderful places for the church to find expression. A home or sharing a meal is the most natural environment for us to experience his family as we focus on him and his work in us, rather than the meeting.

Unfortunately, however, an entire industry has emerged in trying to make them just another system. Sometimes called house church, simple church, or organic church, books and articles tout them as the model most consistent with the first-century church. These groups meet weekly in a home often beginning with a meal and then sharing a similar ritual to many congregations with a mix of songs, Bible study, prayer, and planning activities. While such gatherings offer the potential for a deeper relational connection, however, it doesn’t always pan out that way.

I’ve been in home groups that had more hoops to jump through than many congregations. One even had rows of folding chairs with an aisle down the middle and a lectern and piano in front of a lighted cross on the wall. House church, indeed! While most aren’t like that, it did serve as a metaphor for the many house churches that use the same dynamics of conformity to control people. Control in a small group is even more destructive. Just because people gather in smaller groups and meet in homes doesn’t make them immune from the concerns expressed in the last chapter about more traditional congregations. House churches, too, can practice religious performance and miss out on life in Christ, be captive to insecure leaders, and copy a model instead of following the Master to end up just as much an expression of human effort.

In hopes of creating an international movement a lot of time and money has been invested in refining the program, identifying spokespeople, and hosting conventions in hopes of spreading a house church model as an end-time hope to revitalize the church. As much as I have enjoyed and love the people I’ve met in that conversation, I’m afraid they are falling into the same traps that originally drove them to house church. I’ve watched these people compete for visibility and influence, push their pet programs and books, and try to build a leadership-dependent infrastructure.

The problem is not the venue; it is our preoccupation with anything other than him. Any time we try to replicate a human system, it will eventually lead people away from the new creation. Even things that start out with a lot of grace and freedom quickly become pressure-filled with obligations and expectations. Real relationships don’t need them, and utilizing them rarely fixes the problem. As with any other expression of the church, enjoy it as long as it expresses his kingdom and give it a wide berth when it no longer does.

“We’ve stopped going to church and are going to start something in our home this week. Can you give us any tips as to what we might do and what we might want to avoid?” I get that email almost every week. My counsel is always the same: Avoid starting something. Once you start some “thing” your focus will shift from connecting with people to ensuring that the “thing” goes well. Home groups, with a nucleus of people who are looking for something different, are easy to start but they are difficult to sustain when the focus is on a meeting. People will eventually grow bored with house meetings but they won’t grow bored with one another if friendship is engaged.

You will find the church easiest when you stop looking for an “it,” and simply love the people God has put around you. Start with growing friendships instead of trying to find a group to join. It was no accident that the church began at Pentecost without any strategy or preconceived notion of what it would look like. They weren’t told to start Sunday services or have midweek home groups. They simply did what their new experience with the Gospel and their engagement with his Spirit led them to do. 
Learn to follow him and then engage others around you with the reality of his kingdom and watch how that bears fruit.

Wayne Jacobsen, Finding Church

I recently came across this quote from T. Austin Sparks.

The truth is that subjection to Jesus Christ is not a miserable life as a vassal.  It is a life of triumph, a life of victory, a life of glory, a life of fullness. It is the blinding work of the enemy with men, to make them think that to belong to the Lord, to have the Lord in their lives, means they are going to lose all that is worth while, and be shut down, and then all the time be poor cringing creatures, hardly able to lift their heads up, going about as beggars. That is Satan’s lie.  The Old Testament brings it out here so clearly that, when all things were subject to, submitting themselves to, God’s appointed king, it was a time of fullness, such as the people had never known: and so it is when Jesus is Lord with us in heaven.

T. Austin Sparks, God’s Spiritual House

The Old Testament scripture he is referring to is found in 1 Chronicles 24. In this chapter, David is preparing to hand over the many resources he has collected to Solomon, so he can begin construction of the House of God.

Now David said, “Solomon my son is young and inexperienced, and the house to be built for the Lord must be exceedingly magnificent, famous and glorious throughout all countries. I will now make preparation for it.”

Behold, a son shall be born to you, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies all around. His name shall be Solomon, for I will give peace and quietness to Israel in his day.

I Chronicles 24:5, 9

As we examine our lives, are they full of victory, glory and fullness? If not, maybe there are a few things to consider. Have we been blinded by the enemy to believe that life truly devoted to Christ is slavery? In this case, we hold back from completely surrendering to our Lord. We want to keep various portions of our lives separated from Him. It’s hard to give up everything.

However, I think there is something more troubling. Consider our corporate church culture. We are taught that we need to help our church/pastor fulfill his vision for his house. We are given gifts and talents to help build up the ekklesia but instead we use them to build up a man’s vision of his church. You might think this is harsh but would you consider the fruit of the church today to be “exceedingly magnificent, famous and glorious throughout all countries.” Would you consider that the church is at rest with our enemies? It appears something is not working. Church based and founded on dynamic personalities will never achieve this. I know from personal experience.

So the question is, whose houses are we building? I truly believe, and have experienced, that when we submit ourselves to our King, not a dynamic leader, our lives and the life of the ekklesia will be exceedingly magnificent.

Does God need a house? He who made the heavens and the earth, does he dwell in temples made with hands? What crass ignorance this is! No house beneath the sky is more holy than the place where a Christian lives, and eats, and drinks, and sleeps, and praises the Lord in all that he does, and there is no worship more heavenly than that which is presented by holy families, devoted to the fear of the Lord.

Charles Spurgeon

As the church started in the home, it is going to come back to the home.

J. Vernon McGee

The church is never a place, but always a people; never a fold but always a flock; never a sacred building but always a believing assembly. The church is you who pray, not where you pray. A structure of brick or marble can no more be the church than your clothes of serge or satin can be you. There is in this world…no sanctuary of man but the soul.

John Havlick, Southern Baptist pastor

The expression ‘in church’ (en ekklesia)…refers to an assembly of believers. There is no suggestion of a special building. Indeed, the idea of a church as representing a building is totally alien to the NT.

Donald Guthrie

Even the meetings of the ‘whole church’ were small enough for a relatively intimate relationship to develop between the members.

Robert Banks, Fuller seminary professor speaking about the early church.

The early church was able to defy the decadent values of Roman civilization precisely because it experienced the reality of Christian fellowship in a mighty way… Christian fellowship meant unconditional availability to and unlimited liability for the other sisters and brothers – emotionally, financially and spiritually. When one member suffered, they all suffered. When one rejoiced, they all rejoiced. When a person or church experienced economic trouble, the others shared without reservation. And when a brother or sister fell into sin, the others gently restored the straying person. The sisters and brothers were available to each other, liable for each other and accountable to each other. The early church, of course, did not always fully live out the New Testament version of the body of Christ. There were tragic lapses. But the network of tiny house churches scattered throughout the Roman Empire did experience their oneness to Christ so vividly that they were able to defy and eventually conquer a powerful, pagan civilization. The overwhelming majority of churches today, however, do not provide the context in which brothers and sisters can encourage, admonish and disciple each other. We desperately need new settings and structures for watching over one another in love.

Ronald Sider, seminary professor

For two or three centuries, Christians met in private houses…There seems little doubt that these informal gatherings of small groups of believers had great influence in preserving the simplicity and purity of early Christianity.

W.H. Griffith Thomas, co-founder of the Dallas Theological Seminary

For the first two centuries, the church met in small groups in the homes of its members, apart from special gatherings in public lecture halls or market places, where people could come together in much larger numbers. Significantly, these two centuries mark the most powerful and vigorous advance of the church, which perhaps has never been equaled.

David Watson, Anglican priest and evangelist

Since in the first and second centuries church buildings in the sense in which we think of them today were not yet in existence, families would hold services in their own homes.

William Hendricksen, Reformed scholar

The New Testament Church began as a small group house church, and it remained so until the middle or end of the third century. There is no evidence of larger places of meeting before 300. There is no literary evidence nor archaeological indication that any such home was converted into an extant church building. Nor is there any extant church that certainly was built prior to Constantine.

Graydon Snyder, Chicago Theological Seminary

Those…desirous of being Christians in earnest…should…assemble by themselves in some house…those whose conduct was not such as befits Christians could be recognized, reproved…or excommunicated… Here we could have baptism and the sacrament…and direct everything towards the Word and prayer and love…

Martin Luther

It strikes me that there would be a great deal of good done if persons who have large rooms in their houses would endeavor to get together little congregations… Where there is a Church in the house, every member strives to increase the other’s comfort, all seek to promote each other’s holiness, each one endeavors to discharge his duty according to the position in which he placed in that church.

Charles Spurgeon

 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”

And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:38-42

If you’ve been a Christ follower for any length of time, I’m sure you’ve heard this portion of scripture expounded on and preached on. I’m not here to do that. I find it fascinating that an interaction in a home between two sisters and Jesus has been forever immortalized in scripture.

Mary was at Jesus’ feet hearing “His word”. Luke never mentions what Jesus was talking about but instead records the words of a disgruntled woman accusing Jesus of not caring about her plight. Surprisingly, Martha never interacts with Mary directly, instead she wants Jesus to correct Mary’s behavior. There is no indication if the situation ever comes to any resolution. Did Mary, after hearing the discussion, get up and help? Did Martha put away her things, stop working and listen? I guess we will never know.

Jesus was in a home, doing life with people. If you’re doing House Church you know people have all sorts of theology and beliefs and sometimes those beliefs must be lovingly challenged. What better environment to discuss disagreements or misunderstandings than among a group of spiritual family members.

If scripture was still being written today maybe some of your House Church conversations and disagreements would be immortalized too.

NPR recently posted an article entitled “Megachurches are getting even bigger as churches close across the country.” The article highlights Liquid Church located in Parsippany, N.J. which is growing at a rapid pace.

For the last several years, Liquid Church has been one of the fastest-growing churches in the nation, and a big part of its success has come through assimilating smaller, more traditional congregations. Four of its seven campuses – all in New Jersey – have come through these mergers.

NPR article by Scott Neuman

An unfortunate truth mentioned in the article is that the average Christian congregation has about 65 members and a third of them are over 65 years old. With smaller and declining congregation, these churches are ripe to become satellites for the megachurches of the world.

If you facilitate House Church, you sometimes fight against the mindset that bigger is better. Early on, doing House Church, I had a friend that was attending our group and also attending a traditional church. During one of our meetings he began to complain about the traditional church he was attending. He had written a song and wanted to perform it at his church but the music director said no. My friend was very upset at the rejection he received. He was on the worship team and had been attending for years, but the answer was still no.

Naturally, I suggested that he share his worship song with us. He never did. The mindset that there is more worth performing in front of a large gathering than in front of 8 or 9 people is troubling. The lines between performance and ministry get blurred. Does Jesus loves us more if we minister or perform in front of large crowds? Are large crowds a sign of success and health?

In John 6, Jesus talks about eating His body and drinking His blood. This didn’t go over well with many of His disciples.

From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

John 6:66-69

It’s fascinating that Jesus decided to do life with a small group of people; take some time and meditate on that. Why did He chose to do this? What was His motivation? Perhaps there is some merit in His example. For me, I’m content with doing life with a small group of people; maybe you too should give it a try.