Use of House Churches to Extend Sanctuary-Style Churches

- June 08, 2006

A hybrid proposal worth consideration. instead of institutional churches
planting the same, why not empower small groups to be simple
churches? The man is humble and the whole article is worth your time
yet this is good attention grabber...

Though I would love to promote the initiation of as many house
churches from scratch as possible, I know that most church leaders
inherited existing churches with buildings to maintain and a
traditional institutionalism of some sort in place. These may function
with varying levels of effectiveness. Some of your churches, no doubt,
are model examples of what church life should be in many respects.
Should you even entertain the possibility of using the house church
model to extend your work? I want to suggest that this should be
considered for the following scenarios:
* When the church is growing, the meeting space is limited, and
you do not wish to invest more money in buildings.
* When a pocket of members live in a town or neighborhood some
distance from the church building.
* When there is an unresolved disunity in the church related to
either doctrine or philosophy, and a "planned division" is an
appropriate consideration to bring to the people. (It goes without
saying that there are many steps prior to division, and that there are
other reasons churches divide that are not reasonable or acceptable.)
* When the church has an abundance of leaders or potential leaders
(such as seminary or Bible School students, or well discipled leaders)
who need to be used.
* When an established church wishes to penetrate the various
sections of the city, or neighboring towns, in response to a work of
the Holy Spirit among you.