House Church Involvement on the Rise

As you know we feel God is leading us to create a new wineskin for making disciples who make disciples. By doing church differently we do not mean we will are giving up on the traditional church as we know it. Since people appear to want a choice from the traditional church and since they aren leaving her we need to reach them and all the others who will never attend a "church". In any case we know that some people will always stay or go to the traditional church. Others will choose to be the Church and worship and serve in a new winskin. So we will do whatever it takes to reach people for Christ (in traditional and new wineskin settings and forms).

However, I do believe we have a golden opportunity for a huge harvest if we will think outside of the box and do ministry and disciple-making differently. I'm not sure how our forms and practices will look in the future but I believe and have been writing for months now that it will be different for sure. I believe the Church will be the body of Christ impacting her culture in transformational ways.

In a recent article George Barna confirms a growing movement sweeping America. I have known for some time that people are leaving or not attending the traditional church and are hungry for a new way to live out their faith and practice.

Barna writes, "Americans are increasingly designing their lifestyles in ways that meet their needs more efficiently. This is true even in the spiritual realm, as evidence by the rapid growth of participation in house churches across the nation. Whereas most people continue to think of "going to church" as attending a service at one of the many church buildings located throughout their community, a new study from the Barna Group shows that millions of adults are trying out new forms of spiritual community and worship, with many abandoning the traditional forms altogether." Read more at http:///www.barna.org

Every week I speak with leaders/pastors who are leaving the traditional church. Last night I spoke with another pastor who says he is done, even disillusioned. He said to me, "I'm finished with playing church and the games people play politically." In some traditional settings the church is clearly not the Church. People are hungering for authentic relationships and worship where people are real and living as true Christ followers.

For me, I'm leaning more toward the new model "whatever that is" for making disciples. Call it whatever you want - it is a model closely mirroring the New Testament Church in faith and practice. I guess you could say, I'm for trying something new and fresh instead of what I have experienced in the traditional model.

I must also say that I don't even like the term House Church because it subtly implies that the church is a place to attend instead of a people ministering throughout community. I am for meeting in homes, however. I'm not for repeating the mistakes of the past. I am for engaging our culture in a spiritually transformational way, and when people are transformed let them lead others in being transformed. If this can happen in a tradional church -I am all for her. If it can happen in a new wineskin -I am all her her too.