House Churches - The New Reformation

If you were asked to name the top three church groups in the U.S., most of you could probably guess the first two. They are Roman Catholic and Southern Baptist, no surprise there. But number three is the surprise - its the "house church." According to some statistics, 7% of Americans are in a house church. George Barna, the Christian researcher views the growth of the house church as a leading trend within the American evangelical world. This week Brit Hume, who was in the news for his statement about Tiger Woods needing to turn to Christ, mentioned that he is part of a house church. Time, Newsweek, and Christianity Today all made reference to the growth of this movement over the past week.

Though some may prefer the term "organic church" or "simple church," all of these labels (and a number of others) are a way of identifying Christians who gather together for worship outside of the traditional church building, often meeting in homes, following the pattern of the New Testament church. What distinguishes these groups from "cell groups" or "home groups" which are affiliated with a traditional church, is that these groups have no such affiliation and are self-governing. I lead one such group in the Kansas City area. We meet in homes (though we have met in other facilities), not as a prelude to eventually moving into a building of our own, but because we believe that this is the Biblical model.

Ern Baxter, almost twenty years ago, referred to the house church "movement" as the "New Reformation." The Protestant Reformation primarily addressed soteriology (the doctrine of salvation), the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement, which began in the 20th century and has changed the shape of Christianity in most of the world, addressed pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit), while this "New Reformation" addresses ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church). I could frame it this way and say that it addresses the nature of the "wineskins" (Matt. 9:17).

Now allow me to make it clear, lest I incur the wrath of many of my friends, that I am not at war with the more traditional church institutions. I am involved with an Evangelical Free Church in our community, and I am not leading a revolution against non-house churches. I am merely expressing my own convictions concerning what I believe is the New Testament pattern that Christ is restoring to the Church. In addition, I understand the various concerns that some leaders have about house churches and I believe that some of these concerns are legitimate. Nevertheless, my counsel (for whatever it is worth), would be to follow the advice of Gamaliel to the council concerning the sect of Jews following Jesus, "If this plan or action is of men, it will be overthrown; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found fighting against God."

I'm sure I'll be writing more about this in the future, but that's enough for now. Your comments are welcome.