Posted on 06/27/2006 9:56:30 AM PDT by SirLinksalot
A major announcement about house churches
-------------------------------------------------------- Posted: June 27, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
The little guy is back. For the first time in 1,700 years, simple churches meeting in homes are once again a factor in human events.
In many countries, they're booming so strongly that critics and opponents can no longer brush them aside as a fringe movement. And as I documented repeatedly in "Megashift," home churches are producing millions of proactive Christians who now and then perform miracles (though the credit ultimately belongs to God, of course).
But this week, even I was shocked to discover how big our house church community in North America really is. Briefly stated, we're right about halfway between the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention (which is the second-largest denomination in the U.S.).
OK now, let's inhale. I'm stunned, too. This really is starting to alter the landscape for all of us.
Let me state up front: These are solid numbers. George Barna, the leading U.S. church pollster and perhaps the most widely quoted Christian leader in America, is the author of the figures below. They are based on a full-on, four-month scientific survey of 5,013 adults, including 663 blacks, 631 hispanics, 676 liberals and 1,608 conservatives.
Nobody argues with numbers from The Barna Group. They employ all the professional safeguards to ensure tight results – in this case, a sampling error of +/-1.8 percent. Here are the results stated in five ways:
In a typical week, 9 percent of U.S. adults attend a house church.
In absolute numbers, that 9 percent equals roughly 20 million people.
In a typical month, about 43 million U.S. adults attend a house church.
All told, 70 million U.S. adults have at least experimented with participation in a house church.
Focusing only on those who attend some kind of church (which I recall is about 43 percent of us), 74 percent of them attend only a traditional church, 19 percent attend both a traditional and a house church, and 5 percent are hard-core house church folks. The study counted only attendance at house churches, not small groups ("cells") that are part of a traditional church.
George Barna is the author of the new best seller, "Revolution," which talks a lot about the kind of person who is leaving the fold of the institutional church and joining things like house churches. Revolutionaries are highly dedicated to Christ and know the Bible better than most. Barna predicts that within 20 years, Revolutionaries will comprise 65-70 percent of U.S. Christianity, leaving in the traditional setting only 30-35 percent (primarily the white-haired crowd).
Please don't think of the house church as a new fad. For the first 300 years of Christianity, house churches were the norm. In fact, church buildings were quite rare until the fourth century, when the power-hungry Roman Emperor Constantine suddenly outlawed house church meetings, began erecting church buildings with Roman tax money, and issued a decree that all should join his Catholic Church. If you want to stick to a biblical model, the house church is your only choice.
In China, the world's largest church (120 million) is 90 percent based in homes. The cover story in this week's World magazine (June 24) is on how Christian business leaders in China are beginning to change the whole situation in that country. Yes, even while Christians in many provinces are hunted down and tortured, CEOs of corporations in areas with freedom are changing the way government looks at Christianity. That is major.
Bottom line: Worldwide, the original church is back, re-creating the biblical model: "Day after day, they met by common consent in the Temple Courts and broke bread from house to house." (Acts 2:46) God is again pouring out His power on plain folks, bringing a megashift – not in our doctrine, but in our entire lifestyle.
House churches in North America are no longer seen as being in conflict with the traditional church. In fact, much to our amazement, noted leaders like Rick Warren have recently come out strongly in favor of house churches. Saddleback Church is even sending out their own members as "missionaries" to start house church networks! And just last week, John Arnott of Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship asked me, as a house church spokesman, to speak at his big annual conference. Unheard of.
Of course, many Christians will prefer to stay in their traditional roles, and that's OK. But now there is a strong alternative for ambitious souls who are crying out to do more, to have more, to be more.
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James Rutz is chairman of Megashift Ministries and founder-chairman of Open Church Ministries. He is the author of "MEGASHIFT: Igniting Spiritual Power," and, most recently, "The Meaning of Life." If you'd rather order by phone, call WND's toll-free customer service line at 1-800-4WND-COM (1-800-496-3266).
That attitude is a slap in the face to the God who gave you a Church first, and entrusted them to pass along to others what was essential, knowing the Holy Spirit would protect and giude them. Only afterwards did He see fit to give us the New Testament.
>>We also have house churches which meet once a week in small groups to discuss the prior Sunday's sermon<<
That's not a house church. It's small group. It is just some of the members of a "normal" church getting together as a small group in someones home. House church means the meeting in your home IS the "church" one goes to.
I am definitely migrating in that direction.
At least you seem to believe in the authority that God gave to the Church to declare that certain writings are God's very own word. So, for at least 300+ years, men who were NOT the original Apostles, had the authority to definitively declare what was and was not the Word of God!
You apparently embrace tradition and do not embarce sola scriptura. The New Testament is the product of a Tradition that existed for 300+ years without that testament. The early church clearly existed without scirpture as its guide. Tradition was its guide. Men, passsing on tradition. Men, whose traditional teaching was eventually declared to be the word of God - the NT.
Its kind of like putting in a good widescreen TV with surround sound - good-bye to all that inconvenience of going to the movies at a theatre!
No parking problems, no need to follow someone else's arbitrary man-made rules, no need to be next to people we don't like or don't know, flexible schedule that fits in with NFL and NASCAR events, and no need to listen to those damn sermons that don't interest me.
I can see why its popular.
Why did those guys at Nicea have any authority to say what was God's Word and what was not?
So, consensus of believers is the way to determine what is authentic doctrine?
And if it was the way in 325, is it still the way?
If not, why not?
Since we have no consensus on abortion, then why is it not legit for people to consider abortion morally acceptable?
So, some guys - with the same authroity that you and I have - got together and said: "Hey folks, this stuff is not just good stuff, it is God's Own Word." And today we are bound to accept this decision by a bunch of Christians with no special authroity forever?
That makes no sense. You must have some other reason to think these ordinary men were able to make such a profound and definitive declaration that certain letters were God's Word, and other letters were not.
But why would you believe this "scripture" (Mark) since it was ordinary men with no special authority who determined that it was God's Word.
Why do you have to accept the NT as God's Word in order to be an authentic Chrsitian?
Ordinary men had a meeting and declared some writings to be God's Word. Why are you obligated to accept that to be true?
But why would you believe this "scripture" (Mark) since it was ordinary men with no special authority who determined that it was God's Word.
Why do you have to accept the NT as God's Word in order to be an authentic Chrsitian?
Ordinary men had a meeting and declared some writings to be God's Word. Why are you obligated to accept that to be true?
Semantics are your forte, RobRoy? In our Church we call these meetings House Church. What are you gonna do about it? :o)
A couple times a week? There things going on at our church every day of the week. Same was true of the church I attended prior to this one. Not saying there aren't some who are only used a couple times a week, but that's probably because the church is stagnant or dying. It just needs some new 'blood' to get it going again.
Biblically "church(gk)" does not mean building or organization(club).. The word church simply defines a gathering.. The real metaphor defining believers is "The Body of Christ".. not "church".. Not the body of christ that walked in Galilee but the Body of Christ that Jesus came to create, AND DID...
A church(gathering) can be in a home, park, or restaurant etc... i.e. "wherever 2 or 3 gather together in my name -Jesus".. like that..
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