House Church - The New Testament Model?

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Alot of what I'm reading at house church advocate sites make a big deal about how the 1st century church did it. I haven't seen a discussion on whether this is descriptive or prescriptive. I think its descriptive. I think there are abundant reasons to consider Simple Churches but Biblical command isn't one of them.

Comments

Anonymous said…
We had a house church but had no visibility in a non-churched country (France). House gets too small...go to two houses? (requires twice the leadership)...or rent a slightly visible store space so that the outside community can even see that this kind of thing (evangelical, Bible-based church) exists. You Yankee gringos from American can argue all you want about ecclesiology, and you have the luxury to say "house churches are best!" ...BECAUSE the whole nation can see evangelical churches on every corner! But for those of us who live where there is a church every 45 mins (or one hour) down the road, we do not have the luxury of "hiding" our churches in a house.
Yeah, yeah, some people prefer the close community of house churches in the US, and OF COURSE it is necessary in other countries (China, Morocco, etc). Other people say, "We are all gonna be persecuted one day so we better get used to meeting in houses." Huh? Hunker down before we have to? Or get the big sign out there "Jesus Saves, find out more here" while we can. As a former house-churcher (So Cal 1979-1981, where the movement started), I say if you have to (China)okay, if you want to (USA, churches everywhere, but "we like crumbcake and coffee on the sofa on Sunday morning")okay also...but DO NOT say that the NT prescribes meeting in houses.
Case in point: Algeria (North Africa), Muslim Arab country. House churches amongst the Berbers...but the govt said "don't hide, we know you are out there and growing like a weed." So they didn't hide...they rented buildings and came up from the underground.....growing even faster now.
Praise the Lord.
8sofar
November 28, 2005
Anonymous said…
We had a house church but had no visibility in a non-churched country (France). House gets too small...go to two houses? (requires twice the leadership)...or rent a slightly visible store space so that the outside community can even see that this kind of thing (evangelical, Bible-based church) exists. You Yankee gringos from American can argue all you want about ecclesiology, and you have the luxury to say "house churches are best!" ...BECAUSE the whole nation can see evangelical churches on every corner! But for those of us who live where there is a church every 45 mins (or one hour) down the road, we do not have the luxury of "hiding" our churches in a house.
Yeah, yeah, some people prefer the close community of house churches in the US, and OF COURSE it is necessary in other countries (China, Morocco, etc). Other people say, "We are all gonna be persecuted one day so we better get used to meeting in houses." Huh? Hunker down before we have to? Or get the big sign out there "Jesus Saves, find out more here" while we can. As a former house-churcher (So Cal 1979-1981, where the movement started), I say if you have to (China)okay, if you want to (USA, churches everywhere, but "we like crumbcake and coffee on the sofa on Sunday morning")okay also...but DO NOT say that the NT prescribes meeting in houses.
Case in point: Algeria (North Africa), Muslim Arab country. House churches amongst the Berbers...but the govt said "don't hide, we know you are out there and growing like a weed." So they didn't hide...they rented buildings and came up from the underground.....growing even faster now.
Praise the Lord.
8sofar

11/28/2005 4:59 AM
November 28, 2005
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