I was at a Christian Bookstore today and saw the guy behind the counter had a copy of George Barna’s book Revolution. I got to see George Barna in Orlando earlier this year and he talked about the research he had done for the this book and explained his findings. I really interesting on a lot of levels but there is a part of me that that still thinks Barna is being a little one sided with all this.
But is was really cool to hear this guy tell me about the joy he had found in being the church again. How people we coming to know God through what they were doing in their neighborhood and how they were gearing up to reproduce another house church. How they had stripped away all the institution that has become structure that holds up most churches and gotten back to the basics: loving God and loving and serving people.
I know that the house church or simple church appeals to a lot of people who know there is more to being the church or were burned by the church but there can be a great distinction between those two groups. One group is leaving for all the right reasons structure has taken place of the mission of the church, politics rule how things get accomplished and how unbiblical churches can be sometimes. This group leaves the church starts a house church and becomes the community of faith, hope and love to their communities, neighbors and neighborhoods, friends and family. The other group leaves the church jaded against all the things wrong in the church they left swearing to never be like those people. But they close themselves of from the world they have been commissioned to save and become as inward focused as the people they swore never to become. They trust no church group with their money so they don’t give, they become very judgmental and just as unbiblical as the church they left.
I have not given up on the church. I believe God planned for believers to meet together, worship together, partake of the Lord’s Supper together and serve together. I think it is flawed in it current state. It is being dragged down by lack of Godly leadership and people who refuse to become Biblical followers of Christ who want t country club that makes them feel good and they can brag to their friends they belong to.
What are your thoughts on house churches and the “institutional” church (as they like to call it)? Or about the current state of the church vs. the biblical painting we have of Christ’s church?
[tags]house church, simple church, institutional church, George Barna, Revolution[/tags]
