…together with the church in their house…(1 Corinthians 16:19 – ESV)
Let’s get this out of the way right upfront: Not all house churches are bad. House churches can be found throughout the New Testament. House churches, done right, are biblical and fruitful. However, that being said, many, many, many are all bad.
Now we are absolutely not talking about a church plant that meets in a house, or all house churches in general, necessarily. If you by necessity must have house church, then well. But the idea of house church being the ideal is many times a front for the concept of “no one does it like us, or like they should”, a mentality of rebels, and a gathering of the ungrateful. Necessity isn’t because of rebellion, because of weirdness or because of a lack of accountability, or because of a church split. Necessity means there are no other good churches around. I didn’t say churches you liked, but biblical ones. Not how you define it, but how the Bible does. Do you know how the Bible defines a good church? If not, or if that seems too difficult for you, what makes you think you should be doing church at home?
What we are talking about are those that would start a house church because they just don’t like church, and they want to make it like they like it. They want to play at church without the real life responsibilities that go along with a real church. You know a little girl with a dollhouse is not a real responsibility. So too, many house churches are just plastic models made by people who cannot stand not being able to walk away when they are done playing with it.
You wouldn’t give your little girl a real baby to take care of would you? God does not want to give a bunch of little babies their own child. They can get a toy that cries and sucks a bottle and wets itself but it still won’t be the real thing, it won’t have a heart. Oh yes they could make a baby with a beating heart, but there would be no real blood flowing in its veins, and no brains in that head, and even if there were, it takes God Himself to breath Life into a soul, and into the soul of a church. When you are just playing house church you have a baby doll with an empty Head, no Lifeblood, and no soul.
Phil Johnson has this to say. (It is) “For those who want to play "church" but despise authority. The house church movement embraces an unbiblical egalitarianism that subverts the role Scripture assigns to elders and overseers of the flock of God (cf. Hebrews 13:7, 17). Quoting a Web site: "One of the main distinctions of house church vs. institutional church is the use of dialogue rather than lecture and sermon." Now there's an unbiblical recipe for shepherding the flock. But biblical shepherding is inherently out of sync with house-church populism. Predictably, this site is hostile to formal training and full-time pastors. The result is a theological home-brew that is both inconsistent and confusing.”
Most want to belong to a group while being apart from the “system” because of their belief that everything about it is corrupt or elitist. Ironically they often become as elitist as the group they left supposedly was. You can’t escape the human condition by retreating to a house church. Some have found that out and turned their house church into a closet church with only enough room for themselves. Head back to church and stop playing house.
4 comments:
This is not the whole of our thoughts on this issue. I direct you to the three pages, over 50 previous articles under the headings of "Why You HAVE To Go To Church" over in the sidebar...
I liked that.
Thanks...I figured this post would get a very vocal response, but not as yet...anyways, if we just switch churches anytime we have a "problem", then it will just happen again and again, because we become the arbiters of what church should be, and might become obsessively offended, looking for a reason to leave, and we will always find one, no matter where we go...
Then, seeing no good churches because of our own blindness, we drop church, perhaps we get guilty, and go to house church, or start "the church of the rebellion"...as I said in the post, we cannot escape the human condition by retreating to house church, and we cannot eliminate having to deal with people by eliminating the "problems" inherent in church life...as I said in another post, "we need the negativity"...
Your quote from Phil Johnson that house church is “For those who want to play "church" but despise authority,describes the type of hubris many authoritarian leaders have pertaining to why people prefer house churches to Institutional Religious Corporations, which is wrongfully being called the church. It all depends on whom Christ has given authority. Your assumption here is that Christ has given elders at 501C3 Institutional Religious Corporations authority and that elders at house churches are playing a game. By this statement I am being denied the liberty to find where Christ is working out his plan and kingdom, because it is relegated to a brick and mortar building with official voted in type church government and government supported tax exemption status with a charter, bylaws etc. My question is why the judgment is being made here that house churchers play church and hate authority? I find that in many "churches" the leadership is often anti-family, pro-birth control, pro-war, anti-pacifism and many of the "leadership's" beliefs run totally contrary to what I believe.
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