For 20 years, the house church movement has held my heart. In 1991 or so, while sitting in a class at the bible college I was attending, the leading official in our denomination came and sat in. It was a treat. He was a humble, gentle man who never seemed to take himself too seriously or exalt himself in any way I ever knew. He had a real servant's heart and a love for Jesus and esteemed the Word of God rightly.
We were given a chance for Q & A. I asked him, "What do you think of house churches and do you think they are part of our [denominational] future?" He looked at me with irritation. And, he said that house churches will not take the place of organized churches and that they had no leadership. He spent about one minute dismissing the idea and moved on.
I felt two things. First, I felt a little stupid for having asked. It embarrassed me. Second, I thought about it and quickly decided that he did not know what he was talking about. But I stayed shushed about it and largely kept my thoughts to myself. For decades.
Over the years and for diverse reasons, the idea has hovered in me like a buzzard over a pasture. I spot it, I know it is there, I will even watch it circle because it holds some awe in my mind, but at the end of it, I have dismissed it as just a buzzard on scent.
I have had good warrant for that. After all, my own motives are suspect. I know because I know me. I know my heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. But, the thought has never left.
Now, after all those years, it is almost as if a mushroom of popularity has popped up in the night. Lots of folks are talking about house churches. Not cell groups and such, but house churches. It ran right by my notice and jumped up over to my right side so to speak as I am walking with The Lord in our denominational church of whom we are part.
There is a difference this time. My wife of 25 years is now saying these things. We pray separately and the same thoughts happen to us individually so that when we talk and pray, etc., we are speaking alike. Spontaneously. That has never really been the case in terms of this particular idea. Just this morning, she said, "I don't know. Maybe all of this is just your influence on me. Maybe you have gotten into my head."
I laughed. "No. You are coming up with this on your own because even you are saying things I have not said even though I thought them." The Lord is speaking to us.
We lead a discipleship ministry at our local church. We are classic Wesleyan holiness Pentecostal believers. And, we see an absolute desert of New Testament living in our church. We do little or nothing to focus on winning lost people and maturing them in Christ.
At the same time, as we painfully pray about these things, God is bringing my wife to urgently read writings that.....by my estimation are way over due but are just now coming into vogue in some circles.....confirm and encourage these longings within. We have already read and been influenced by men like Francis Chan, David Platt, Greear, and others. Now, my wife is reading Driscoll's "Call to Resurgence". I have not yet read it and don't know that I will because, frankly, I doubt he is saying anything that is not already in mind and heart. But, over and above that, God is using Sermon Index in our lives.
I listen to deeply churched men like David Wilkerson. Carter Conlon, Jim Cymbala, and A.W. TOZER and Paul Washer and many more. My wife has some she listens to. I read these boards. I downloaded the GF book and read some of it (no critical speech meant, but it is a bit longish and dwells too much in places). I watched the conference,in August. I followed that with watching videos and teaching by Bro. Balcombe. My wife and I watched and even showed his talk from Saturday at our local church discipleship ministry meeting.
We are more and more convinced that the power of the gospel of Jesus is being made subservient to so many other concerns in regular church. We are not, though, convinced that we ought to pull out and start a house church. We love our church, but we are also convinced that many or most in it may not even truly be saved in spite of their testimony. And, it looks to us as if no one knows this. The pastor, bless his heart, is consistently preaching his guts out on this very topic about living out what the Bible says. But, he is also making a very decent living for his family as a pastor. It is a tough spot to be in to preach up to the line of making folks mad enough to close their wallets or walk away when your own food supply is tied to keeping them in and keeping them paying. I do not envy him. I feel for him. But, moreover, we love these people. And, so we think maybe we can extend the local church with a house church meeting that may possibly grow converts. Because, try as we might to make the come and see model work, come and see really means come and watch and sit. That is not the way of these last days. And, we are sick and disgusted with our own selves for want of doing something. But, we also await The Lord.
Hat is why I posted the other day about the dearth of videos of legit house church meetings as opposed to everyone's "expert opinion" videos on the why and how-to of house churches. We know why. We don't need to be told why more and more. We need some guidance on the what and how by example and not by lecture. If the only good of this movement in America is to give a place for some folks to make social media footprints and post up videos of themselves, we don't need that, either.
So, I repeat my call for help.
