Scot McKnight of Jesus Creed posted an article from a suburban Chicago newspaper about house churches in the area. Read that article here. It's pretty intriguing and brings up a lot of questions that I've wrestled with over the last few months.
Where's the accountability? How do you inspire tithing and giving? What about worship gatherings? Serving the community? Do they easily become closed to others when the group grows close? How do they multiply?
Don't get me wrong. I see alot of good in house churches compared to institutionalized church. These are just questions. What we're trying to do will have some aspects of a house church. I'd love to discuss some of these issues, or other issues you have. And, maybe Trevor can add more to this conversation as well.
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There are so many things to be said from that article--here's a few
1. The article reflects that some house churches are comprised of disenfranchised former-institutional church goers. Their reason to have a house church is so that they can do whatever they want and sometimes (or often?) talk about what they didn't like about their past church experiences. Being a house church doesn't make you missional.
2. I found this quote from the pastor of Harvest Bible interesting, "There are some concerns in various places in the house church movement about its doctrine. It’s difficult when believers are inexperienced to ensure they’re following historical biblical Christianity. In a larger church with elders, they might be better able to deal with those issues.” I will probably write more about this later, but it betrays a desire for control that has become ingrained in the DNA of the American church.
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