{"id":389,"date":"2013-03-24T17:18:58","date_gmt":"2013-03-24T17:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ntmu.net\/?p=389"},"modified":"2013-05-17T14:28:19","modified_gmt":"2013-05-17T14:28:19","slug":"home-churching-or-him-churching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ntmu.net\/?p=389","title":{"rendered":"Home Churching or HIM Churching?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"homech\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For better or for worse, among western Christians something is afoot.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The last few decades have seen a clear movement out of the conventional church buildings, and into Christians\u2019 homes, originating what is usually called the \u201cHome Church Movement\u201d. And since \u201cHome Schooling\u201d is now an accepted term or designation for teaching your children at home, \u2018doing church\u2019 at home (instead of in the conventional church building) was bound to become \u201cHome Churching\u201d. It is not difficult to find much that is positive in Home Churching. Apart from the many who leave the \u201cInstitutionalized Church\u201d for all the wrong reasons and start home churches, or join home churches for all the wrong reasons, no one can ignore the numbers of those who have left the IC for valid and spiritual reasons in order to return to the simplicity found in the New Testament. They are folks who are longing and searching for spiritual reality, for true fellowship, for growing in the Lord\u2019s Word and in his work, together with brothers and sisters in Christ. They may not be the type of people that make big waves. Their private struggles and sufferings have often been immense, but the grace of God took them through. But for that grace, they might have despaired …<\/p>\n

Pastors, ministers and vicars are frequently taken aback by the fact that those forsaking them in this modern day\u2019s silent \u201cexodus\u201d are very often precisely the men and women that came across as \u201cpillars\u201d among the rest.<\/p>\n

A high percentage leave because for years their needs just haven\u2019t been met, nor those of the family. The feeling of being obliged to keep up appearances of spirituality, while having to toe a denominational line which looks more and more artificial and less and less scriptural, just becomes too much of a burden. Especially since, more often than not, any thought of the \u2018priesthood of all believers\u2019 is relegated to the \u201ccloset of theological questions-without-answers\u201d. Many get the sensation of being stifled, if not strangled. Eventually, the sense of personal hypocrisy just becomes unbearable.<\/p>\n

For centuries there have been these two options: either you stick it out \u201ctill death do us part\u201d, or you leave – period! This second option used to be remote, it meant a desperate jump \u2018from the frying pan into the fire\u2019. In many cases it meant persecution, prison or death. No safety net then and, in so many cases, no loving home group to welcome you.<\/p>\n

Leaving the IC now doesn\u2019t apportion as much stigma, but individuals, married couples, whole families may still have to go through a most upsetting and wrenching experience. Some make an honest effort to talk things through with the pastor and the elders before the final decision is taken, others may have lost faith in the \u201csystem\u201d to such a degree, they cannot bring themselves to do even that.<\/p>\n

Pastor and congregation, also shaken by the event, may, in the worst case, see the deserter as a kind of Judas. They may call him names like \u201cfundamentalist\u201d or \u201cbackslider\u201d and say he has a \u201cholier-than-thou\u201d attitude, or a \u201csectarian\u201d spirit. Fortunately others have found different ways to react. Pastor and congregation may come to the conclusion that in their ranks there is a true lack of community, intimacy, identity and involvement. The pastor may be humbled to the point of admitting that he, as the \u201cprofessional\u201d, has been exercising lots of authority and prerogatives and spiritual gifts, all the time depriving his \u201clay\u201d people of what the Bible shows to be a universal priesthood, i.e. of all believers. It is a new and exciting insight, which has made many churches turn to the \u201ccell church\u201d model. On Sundays all of them may still congregate in the usual church building, but during the week lots of small \u201ccells\u201d now gather in a number of homes for prayer and worship, fellowship and Bible study. Among many it is also proving to be an effective way of \u201croping in\u201d outsiders, who may consequently surrender to Christ. There are special training courses for those who play a leading role. The experience has been positive for multitudes of Christians. It is dawning on them that there is infinitely more to the Christian experience than the pulpit-pew relationship. But while some would say this is THE way to make a church a New Testament church, others realize that it is no more than a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n

And so what about the home-churchers, the ones who left the IC precisely in order to continue meeting in homes? They find their inspiration in passages like the one at the end of Romans. And there are those who are doing well! The movement is quite widespread now in the USA and growing in other places. If this is good news to all those who pray for a return to NT principles and practice, what when you hear about the rest of the world? Many parts of Asia, especially China, are the hot spots of home churching. Consider the following, recently reported by ReligionToday.com:<\/p>\n

Indigenous evangelists are carrying the gospel throughout Vietnam. Government crackdowns on house churches are not stopping the preachers from ministering at more than 300 sites in 27 provinces throughout the country. A village chief and witch doctor have become Christians and are training to become church planters. When meeting places are raided by police they just move to another location.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s house churches are growing so fast that some Christians haven\u2019t had time to grow up. Explosive growth of the movement is outpacing the spiritual development of its members. Chinese Christians need teachers. There are an estimated 70 million house-church members in China. Evangelistic zeal of its members spread the underground movement like wildfire in the past 20 years. Itinerant preachers hold meetings in forests, on mountain tops, and other out-of-the-way places. New Christians begin evangelizing almost immediately, and about 25,000 a day are added to the church.<\/p>\n

Asian house church Christians pay a price too. Only just recently over 60 leaders in one Chinese province were arrested. When tried, they could be sentenced to long prison terms. We may stand in awe at what God is doing, but let us not forget to hold up these dear ones in prayer.<\/p>\n

If, with the glaring lack of sound Bible teaching, heresy in doctrine and practice are sadly common in Chinese home churches, what about the dangers home churches face in the west? Consider these criticisms:<\/p>\n

It has been said that home-churches can be<\/p>\n

* \u201cA pooling of ignorance.\u201d<\/p>\n

* \u201cAn amateur talent show on Sundays in a home.\u201d<\/p>\n

It could be that in spite of those who are gathering for the right reasons, a vocal minority (or even a majority) display one main \u201cgift\u201d:<\/p>\n

* bashing the IC. There are not a few groups where this is simply the main \u201cunifying\u201d factor: criticism of the IC.<\/p>\n

* Denominational baggage, supposedly left behind, usually finds a way of becoming weighty again in the minds of the \u2018brethren\u2019 and a ready<\/p>\n

* root of bitterness.<\/p>\n

Many who were in the home based \u201cshepherding movement\u201d of the seventies look back with almost nightmarish memories of all the things that went terribly wrong:<\/p>\n

* heresy and hypocrisy taking pride of place.<\/p>\n

No wonder that many a so-called \u2018home church\u2019, started in great hopes, perhaps with great fanfare, gets bogged down before very long, or it blows up or it simply disappears from the scene.<\/p>\n

Is there a sure way to avoid barrenness, heresy and all those other things? There is one and it is the only one. Matthew 18:20 gives us the master key:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is our Lord himself, speaking about the local church. It is important to note that in spite of what you\u2019d conclude from all the modern hype and sloganeering, He does not say that the local church necessarily must be a home church. What, however, is absolutely indispensable for this group of believers, be they few or be they many: if they want to be a true church, i.e. a New Testament church, they must congregate around Christ, i.e. they must be Christ-centered; not self centered, denomination centered, pastor centered, charisma centered …, no, not even home centered.<\/p>\n

The NT church in Laodicea had stopped to be NT, i.e. they had allowed all kinds of things to come in that had nothing to do with the simple pattern laid down by the Lord. But what was the real trouble, the basic trouble? After only a few decades, these first century redeemed in Laodicea had stopped to be Christ-centered. Rev. 3 shows us the devastating results: Jesus Christ, far from being \u201cin the midst\u201d, was outside the door (Rev. 3:20). In his estimation they had become spiritual beggars: \u201cwretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.\u201d There is no indication they had stopped being a home church, but they certainly were not a HIM church.<\/p>\n

This last one of our Lord\u2019s epistles, as much a marvelous gem as the other six, also shows us HIS way to restoration. It is not \u201crevival meetings\u201d, \u201creorganization\u201d of some sort, \u201chands-on leadership\u201d, deeper Bible teaching, greater involvement of more members, etc., etc. We are not saying these are not good things. What we are saying is that the human \u201cflesh\u201d is quite capable of many \u2018good things\u2019, yet without the Lord being in them at all.<\/p>\n

Restoration has to do with the believer\u2019s individual response to his knocking. The One who stands at the door does not just want that door opened to him, and He does not merely want to come in, or even just sit at that \u201ctable\u201d. Once He sits at the believer\u2019s table, that guest will turn into the host, the one who presides. Says He:\u201c.. I will sup with him and he with ME!\u201d Now will that believer let Him …? That is the question …: to let him or not to let him! The willingness of the church\u2019s Head cannot be in doubt, but what about the member\u2019s willingness?<\/p>\n

It all has to do directly with the Message of the Cross. In Jesus\u2019 own words: \u201cIf anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me\u201d (Luke 9:23). To pretend to \u201csup\u201d with the Lord, i.e. giving him first place in one\u2019s life, and to pretend to give him center place in the Christian meetings, is just that: empty pretense. It is utter foolishness. It leads to disaster. Only the sincere and humble acceptance of the Message of the Cross leads to the true experience of personal fellowship with Him. It is the one ingredient for \u201cHIM churching\u201d that is indispensable. Nothing else will do. If you have a thousand good ingredients to start a home church, but this one is missing, you have nothing at all and it is better to not even start.<\/p>\n

In very many cases homes may still be the best places to gather around Him, in all simplicity. And, of course, for most meetings that also means around an open Bible. His grace is still absolutely available and sufficient. It is there to break down all this silly \u2018pretense\u2019 in us, so that his cross-life, which is his resurrection-life, may be wonderfully experienced, making \u201cHIM churching\u201d one of the most precious components of our daily lives. More importantly: it is what HE is longing for! To see how great is his pleasure when He sees it, you only need to look at Psalm 133.<\/p>\n

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