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Author
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Topic: House or Home Churches
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wparr
Advanced Member
Member # 891
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posted
Thanks helpforhomeschoolers. ![[wave3]](graemlins/18.gif)
My wife and I like Chadron alot, it's pretty up there. (they have trees!) I work up that part of the state (Gordon) sometimes.
I like your posts. I bet your kids will run circles around public school "educated" children.
Posts: 1203 | From: Eagle Nest, NM | Registered: Jan 2003
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helpforhomeschoolers
Advanced Member
Member # 15
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posted
Hey Wparr we are neighbors! We live in a little town of 100 people, in SD, less than an hour from Chadron.
So, Howdy neighbor
Posts: 4684 | From: Southern Black Hills of South Dakota | Registered: Jun 2002
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wparr
Advanced Member
Member # 891
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posted
You have to be concerned about the beliefs and teachings of both home Churches, and formal Churches. There is alot of garbage coming from pulpits across this land.
Alot of great non-denominational churches started out as a home Church. Alot of Calvary Chapels got started by meeting in people's houses. Remember what the meaning of the word Church. Its the people that make up the Church, not the where.
I live in a small town in Nebraska (352 people) where the closest towns are 30 miles with populations of 2500 and 6000. I have not found any good Churches. Either their doctrine is off base, or they are asleep and apethetic. Several of us that are frustrated are going to start worshipping God in one persons house. We are going to worship thru song, prayer and Bible study.
In my prayers I asked God if this was His will or just our's. His answer was "Its always my will for people to worship Me"
Posts: 1203 | From: Eagle Nest, NM | Registered: Jan 2003
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TeachMe_Lord
Community Member
Member # 1581
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posted
I guess it depends on what they reach.
Watchman Fellowship, an Apologetic Ministry calls it: Local Church, The, Watchman Nee, Anaheim, CA: Controversial movement begun in China in the early 1920s by Ni To-sheng (Watchman Nee). Growth and controversy developed during the administration of their second leader, the late Witness Lee, who moved to America in 1962 founding Living Stream Ministry. Among issues drawing criticism from evangelical Christians is the Local Church's use of the term “mingling” to describe the relationship between God and believers (i.e., Christians become both divine and human like Jesus).
Some evangelicals have also charged that the church compromises the Trinity doctrine by confusing the Persons of the Holy Spirit and the Son in a way similar to modalism. The organization's exclusivity has also comme under fire. According to Lee, each city can and should have only one church. Denominationalism is seen as of the Devil. According to critics, the effect is that Lee-led local churches, usually called by the name of their cities (e.g., the Church in Anaheim or the Church in Chicago), become the only true expressions of the Body of Christ. Thus, according to former members, all other churches or denominations are seen as being outside the will of God or not true churches at all. The Local Church has also gained a reputation for threatening legal action to prevent unfavorable public evaluation of its movement. Even Christian critics have been targeted, adding to the evidence that they do not consider believers outside their movement to be true or obedient Christians (1 Corinthians 6:1–8).
http://www.watchman.org/cat95.htm#Local"
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Psalm 25
5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.
Posts: 8 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Miguel
Advanced Member
Member # 47
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posted
That is a good report..
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Romans 9:11-24
Our Eschatology may vary even our Ecclesiology may be disputed among us but our Soteriology most assume a singularity and exclusivity which in biblical term is known as Quote; "The Narrow Way" and Quote!
Posts: 2792 | From: Stockton,Ca | Registered: Jun 2002
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knowHim
Admin
Member # 8
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posted
Why Do People Home Church?
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by David M. Hebden
The reasons that people "home church" are as diverse as the people who make up the gatherings. This is not an exhaustive explanation and will no doubt evolve as time goes on. These thoughts originated from responses to this question on HCDL.
Some of us simply came to the conclusion that home church is the pattern as revealed in the scripture for the church to meet and were metaphorically dragged from the traditional "church" kicking and screaming by our conscience and understanding of the scripture.
We found that we could no longer support being part of an organizational structure that was not supported in the scriptures. For instance there is no biblical support for the one pastor/minister denominations that we see all around us where believers gather once or twice a week generally on a Sunday, face forward as in a cinema, and watch what amounts to a performance which they might be privileged to have a small part in. This just does not exist in the New Testament, where believers gathered in homes in smallish groups and shared their life and faith with one another face to face.
Not all of those who are lumped in with the "home church" label gather in a home. Some groups are a bit large for the average living room and so gather in a hall or some such. They don't call the building a church, however. Generally though we have in few if any paid "ministers" and no one person takes a central position in our meetings. All are free, and encouraged to take part in the proceedings. This leads to another reason some of us are in home churches.
Many of us over the years found that the established churches simply could not offer us real relationships and connectedness with other believers. (How can you fellowship with the back of someone's head whilst listening to someone up front conduct the service?) At best we found the relationships we were able to have (developed after the "service") to be superficial. We thirsted for more, but it was not to be found within the controlled structure of the "service." (Just who was being "served" by whom anyway?)
If we had something to share we were told to be quiet, and if we were actually permitted to share and it did not fit with the agenda of the minister or leaders we were in some cases simply ignored and in others all but destroyed by the attacks we endured in the name of "truth and unity" or whatever. All this because we simply wanted the opportunity to share with our brothers and sisters something of what the Lord was showing us or doing in our lives. We sadly, painfully left and have now found the delight of meeting face to face in homes or halls and sharing something of our lives and more especially His Life together.
Imagine our delight when we found that this was not only real but scriptural too. (We had been taught that the Sunday morning service was "church" and, that if we neglected this "gathering together" we were in dire spiritual trouble.) We found that gathering together a pile of building materials in one place does not make a building, rather they need to be fitted together and joined one to another. Even neat structured piles cannot be lived in, at best they offer temporary protection.
This leads us to another reason some of us gather in this way in homes. There is ample reason to do so basing our rationale on the scripture alone, for many this is sufficient reason alone and so it should be.
For myself and many others this is not the reason that we stay. It is not that we are not convinced that it is scriptural, of this we are in no doubt. It is the fellowship and life that keeps us. Nowhere else have we found the safety and simple freedom to share our lives in our Lord with others.
It is not always peaches and cream. Nothing ever is where sinful human beings are concerned. Indeed the organized traditional churches actually do a good job of protecting their adherents from one another simply because of the structure and the lack of opportunity for them to interrelate. This is not so in the home churches. We are eyeball to eyeball with one another. It can be very scary for the average person to find out that there is nowhere to hide. Yet we find out that while there is nowhere to hide, there is no need to do so because we are loved. Instead of defending ourselves from one another we learn to welcome each other into our hearts and in doing so become something more than a pile of building materials.
We do not lose our individuality but rather our love binds us together as we recognize it and accept one another as His gift to each other. We are given the divine privilege of loving and caring for one another. The barriers of pain and hurt take time to come down, but as they do, we find healing and strength in Him as He gives us to each other and in the midst of it all, Himself.
Here are a few Bible references to help along the way:
All of us minister, not just a particular person, and all are "priests": 1Cor. 14:26-33, 1Pe. 2.4-10, Rev. 1:6.
God has given multiple gifts and ministries: 1Cor. 12:7-31, Eph. 4:7-13.
We meet in homes, or wherever it's convenient: Col. 4:15, Rom. 16:3-5 and 1Co. 16:19 (same church), Philemon 2, Acts 2:46 (a convenient place that they could all get together until they were kicked out), Acts 4:31 (the place was just that, a place; the church was the people).
http://www.home-church.org/why-hc.html
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Plow on, plow on...
David Campbell
Posts: 426 | From: Charlestown, IN | Registered: Jun 2002
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njclary
unregistered
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posted
The home Church is wonderful but then, thein is the lack. Where is the outreach? If I am part of a small, close, home Church; as I witness to others, where do they go? If I invite them to my little home Church, then soon I no longer am a little Home Church, and then what do I do? Try to start a new little home Church, and what happens to to the new folks?
Catch22 as I see it.
My primary area is outreach, evangelization, witnessing. I try to bring others to Christ. I cannot do it in a little home Church. I see more, the cell groups of a larger congregation. These cell groups act as Home Churches but then you have the larger corporate Worship time and the bringing in of those who are new and there they can gain acceptance. Grow in the Lord in Fellowship.
That's the way I see it.
God Bless
Joel
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KnowHim
Admin
Member # 1
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posted
quote:
Originally posted by TEXASGRANDMA:
Although, over the years I have enjoyied Bible Studies in people's homes. I prefer worshiping at a Church. There is just a special reverance in God's House. Also, David felt that God deserved a house for people to worshp in.
David felt that God deserved a house because in the Old Testament God dwelled in a temple, but when Jesus died on the cross God then dwelled in the people, that is why the temple veil was torn into.
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Posts: 3276 | From: Charlestown, IN | Registered: Jun 2002
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Gary
Advanced Member
Member # 523
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posted
A good friend of mine started a house church some ten years or so ago. They are still going strong, though they rarely get more that twenty people. It is a little church blessed by the true and accurate preaching of God's word every Sunday.
I seriously considered starting a house church for several years, but there were always roadblocks.
Then I learned of a church-plant that was starting in my city, and IMHO, it's a great way to go. We have a mother church in another city, who called our pastor. He is technically on their staff, and their payroll, but he pastors our church. With less than 30 people, we couldn't afford to support him, but our well-established mother church is supporting him and his family, including buying him a nice house, and renting a church building for us. Some day we will be able to support a pastor ourselves, we hope, and build ourselves a church building. But for the time being I thank God for our mother church. This also brings about a close family-like relationship between our two churches.
Gary
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"For the wages of sin is death,
but the free gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 6:23 NASB
Posts: 436 | From: Mankato, Minnesota | Registered: Oct 2002
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Miguel
Advanced Member
Member # 47
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posted
I am for home church, we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, yes there is some blessing in great gatherings but also there are great failures. As we continue to the end of time, home gatherings will become increasingly.
May the Lord bless you and guide you.
(1Pe 2:5) you also as living stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
(Eph 5:23) For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.
(Act 20:28) Therefore take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to feed the church of God which He has purchased with His own blood.
(Rom 7:4) So, my brothers, you also have become dead to the law by the body of Christ so that you should be married to Another, even to Him raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God.
(Eph 3:21) to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, forever. Amen.
(Act 5:14) and more believing ones were added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women;
(Act 11:24) For he was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and faith. And many people were added to the Lord.
(Rom 12:5) so we the many are one body in Christ, and each one members of one another.
(1Co 10:17) For we, the many, are one bread and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread.
(1Co 12:12) For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.
(Gal 3:28) There cannot be Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is no male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
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Romans 9:11-24
Our Eschatology may vary even our Ecclesiology may be disputed among us but our Soteriology most assume a singularity and exclusivity which in biblical term is known as Quote; "The Narrow Way" and Quote!
Posts: 2792 | From: Stockton,Ca | Registered: Jun 2002
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TEXASGRANDMA
Advanced Member
Member # 847
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posted
Although, over the years I have enjoyied Bible Studies in people's homes. I prefer worshiping at a Church. There is just a special reverance in God's House. Also, David felt that God deserved a house for people to worshp in.
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Luk 21:28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
http://www.indieheaven.com/artists/mm (son-in-law)http://www.myspace.com/mireles
Posts: 4985 | From: Washington State | Registered: Jan 2003
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KnowHim
Admin
Member # 1
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posted
Hello everyone,
I have been looking into Home Churches and it is very interesting to me. After reading some of the online books about it, it really looks to make sense. I just wanted to see what some of my online brothers and sisters in Christ think about it?
Thanks for any comments and God bless you,
David
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House or Home Churches non-denominational and an effort is made to accommodate Christians of many backgrounds. The house church movement is an attempt to get away from the institutional church, seeking instead to return to the small gatherings of peoples that constituted all of the churches of the New Testament era.
The emphasis at this site is not to criticize the institutional church, but rather to lift up its alternative. Many house churches start among people who first meet in an institutional setting, and regular attendance at a good institutional church is encouraged as a source of Christian teaching. But can one really worship at an institutional church? The fellowship pictured in Mt. 18:20 (the source of the house church doctrine of church) is "two or three gathered together." Even "church growth" expert Lyle Schaller says that the "glue" that is necessary to unite worshippers cannot be achieved as a church grows beyond a limit of about 40 people. Other experts point out that an assembly larger than a mere dozen people creates an environment in which some of the people often back away from full participation.
http://home.wnm.net/%7Ederekg/house_church/
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Posts: 3276 | From: Charlestown, IN | Registered: Jun 2002
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