A perfect church for me would be a church in the small, rural community in which I live. It would be smaller groups of people going into the community with The Gospel, converting sinners, and disciplining them to form more groups of believers who would then do the same. The Body of Christ would grow exponentially.
The agenda of this church would be to AFFECT CHANGE LOCALLY, NATIONALLY, and GLOBALLY through getting people born again and discipleship. What kind of change? To raise up believers whose character mirrors the character and commitment of those who founded our great nation and those who are spoken of in Hebrews 11. That means if we were worth our salt, we would have FRUIT. The fruit of people living Godly lives and not giving one thought as to whether they were “relevant”, accepted by the world, or progressive.
I’m talking about the things we do actually mattering, actually changing the news headlines in the nation-where children aren’t abused, tortured, or murdered, where perversion isn’t exalted, where there are families intact and living SOBERLY in the fear of the Lord.
This church would have no huge building to support financially. Instead, money would be put to spreading the gospel. Small meetings could be done in homes, larger meetings could be held in modest structures.
And my children could discover how beautiful it is to hear God’s people sing, pray, and worship the Lord together, instead of some polished, professional stage show. They could learn the lessons of selflessness and sacrifice, thinking beyond where they live in the here and now, and being salt and light in a dark, perverse world. I would like them to know that when tragedies or crises come to our family, we have a local group of believers who will help us and love us.
The most important things for them to learn are not:
“POSITIONED FOR GREATNESS”,
“YOUR BEST LIFE NOW”, or
“GOD WANTS TO GIVE YOU THINGS”
(I shudder to think where our nation would be if our founders held any of those ideas dear.)
-MW
The agenda of this church would be to AFFECT CHANGE LOCALLY, NATIONALLY, and GLOBALLY through getting people born again and discipleship. What kind of change? To raise up believers whose character mirrors the character and commitment of those who founded our great nation and those who are spoken of in Hebrews 11. That means if we were worth our salt, we would have FRUIT. The fruit of people living Godly lives and not giving one thought as to whether they were “relevant”, accepted by the world, or progressive.
I’m talking about the things we do actually mattering, actually changing the news headlines in the nation-where children aren’t abused, tortured, or murdered, where perversion isn’t exalted, where there are families intact and living SOBERLY in the fear of the Lord.
This church would have no huge building to support financially. Instead, money would be put to spreading the gospel. Small meetings could be done in homes, larger meetings could be held in modest structures.
And my children could discover how beautiful it is to hear God’s people sing, pray, and worship the Lord together, instead of some polished, professional stage show. They could learn the lessons of selflessness and sacrifice, thinking beyond where they live in the here and now, and being salt and light in a dark, perverse world. I would like them to know that when tragedies or crises come to our family, we have a local group of believers who will help us and love us.
The most important things for them to learn are not:
“POSITIONED FOR GREATNESS”,
“YOUR BEST LIFE NOW”, or
“GOD WANTS TO GIVE YOU THINGS”
(I shudder to think where our nation would be if our founders held any of those ideas dear.)
-MW
AMEN X 100!!!!!!!!!!! Hey I am preaching at County Line Baptist in Trafford the Sunday after Easter......come on out!
ReplyDeleteA good book to read along these lines. "Pagan Christianity" by George Barna and Frank Viola.
ReplyDeleteActually, I read it online while I did a lot of research on the house church movement last year. I have enough conflicting opinions about it to warrant a blog post on the topic. Maybe I can do a post on this and everyone can contribute to the discussion and comment.
ReplyDeleteThe Show That Never Ends. A little ELP? Conflicting opinions on the book or the house church movement?
ReplyDeleteYes on the ELP reference (or ELP on the Yes reference?). I didn’t think I could call the post “Tarkus.” Yeah, I’m a little conflicted on the house church thing. Outside the U.S. and most especially in lands where persecution is the norm, the house church is the only way. But here at home…that’s where I have a problem.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I am sure that many of us recognize that Evangelical Christianity has become very faddish. When we were Charismatics, we were all looking looking for the next big revival or the next direction God was going to be supposedly taking the church (anybody remember the “Third Wave” that was supposed to be coming some years ago?). It was a spiritualized version of looking for the “Next Big Thing.” The numerous books out on house churches gives me the nagging feeling that a certain amount of the discussion is the search for the next big thing in Christianity. I don’t think people really intend for it to come off this way, but the house churches sometimes sound like the answer to all the problems we have in the American church. With that being said, I don’t understand how worshipping in houses rather than church buildings will stop moral decay, which is what I feel is our big problem in Christianity is. After my WOF experience and subsequent misadventures, I am convinced that professing Christian’s are living unholy lives. I am not expecting perfection by any means but geez, I hear so much trash going on these days from Christians. I do think the house church is a legitimate thing. I think it also is a sign that everybody knows there’s something wrong with the church and nobody knows what to do about it. I could go to a house church myself if I knew enough about the participants to establish some trust.
But if all we do is move our lousy (or flaky) behavior out of church buildings into home meetings then it’s a joke.
Does that make any sense? This is one of those subjects where I think I’m more in the minority than usual with my take on it.