Reason #3 We Started A House Church
[This is part of an ongoing, irregularly published series on the reasons we started a house church. Reasons #1 and #2 will be listed at the bottom of the post.]
Since our first house church began, there have been a number of musicians who have been a part of our spiritual family. When we first went on this journey, my wife had been playing guitar for a six or seven years and had led worship in different venues. Others who had joined us either played instruments or sang, so its fair to say we were a musical bunch.
Over the years the role music has played has shifted and changed. There was a year or two where we played very little music because we were relying on music hold the meeting together and as we realized that we tried not to start every meeting with music. Then there have been worship gatherings where the Holy Spirit has moved powerfully during a time of music and we were all better for it.
The New Testament talks about singing in a gathering surprisingly little. Paul says in Ephesians, “Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts,” (Ephesians 5:18-19). He says in Colossians 3:16, “Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.” These two verses sum up what the New Testament says about singing when the church gathers together.
How does this relate to why we do house church?
What Paul is talking about here is a kind of singing that would take place between members of the church and the psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs were a method of Spirit-inspired encouragement for either the entire group or specific individuals. There is an emphasis in the verses on encouragement and the spontaneity of the Spirit. In the church over the years this has “evolved” into musical arrangements, choirs, and worship teams, but the New Testament has in view an activity the whole church can participate in.
Yesterday as our house church met, this began to happen. We had sung a few worship songs together that we knew, but at the end of the final song, there was a significant time of spontaneous singing between several of the members our church that wouldn’t be able to happen in a environment with microphones. One of the sisters began to sing about Jesus as the treasure in the field that we seek and as she sang, the Lord convicted my heart about areas of my heart where Jesus isn’t my treasure. I was built up and challenged because of the spiritual song of another member of our body.
It’s not that this kind of activity can’t happen in larger churches. It’s just that the larger the group you have, the harder it becomes for this to be a ministry of an entire body and not just the ministry of a select few. This kind of thing can happen in small groups as well, but many small groups don’t see worship as their focus. House churches have the time, the focus, and the right size of group for brothers and sisters to sing to each other and encourage each other as an outflow of being filled by the Holy Spirit.
It’s yet another reason we planted a house church.
Photo Credit: Toddler Tunes by Elizabeth Pfaff
Hope for Churches Facing Closing
I’ve sat across the table and listened to the stories of discouraged pastors describe in great detail where the ministry took a wrong turn. Often it wasn’t from an evil decision or a judgment from God. People stopped coming. The recession happened and people stopped giving. The church plant didn’t work out like they thought. In all of these cases, the result was the same: We’re shutting the church down.
My heart breaks every time this happens. Sometimes there are good, godly men and women doing their best in whatever capacity the Lord has called them to serve the church and circumstances cause there not to be enough money. Sometimes other resources are the issue, like a lack of volunteers. Regardless, the point is that churches with true believers and well meaning hearts close down all the time. Current statistics estimate roughly 3,700 churches close their doors every year.
But there is good news! First, because of the Gospel of Jesus, no matter what capacity you served your church in the past, you are not a failure. God loved you regardless of the outcome of your work for Him. His death and resurrection means that the work that you carried on for Him was not in vain. Paul, after spending an entire chapter in 1 Corinthians on the subject of the resurrection says this: “So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless,” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
But there’s even more good news: Just because the money and the volunteers and the resources dried up, doesn’t mean your church needs to close. It might mean the church needs to change. The fact of the matter is the Kingdom of God doesn’t run on money, so even though resources are tight, the ministry can continue. Just because the resources have disappeared doesn’t mean the relationships and family of an existing church need to end.
How does this happen? For a church that wants to continue on but doesn’t have enough money to pay for a building or staff or the have the resources to support such things, house churches are a viable option. The existing church would transition to a church or a network of related churches that meet in the homes of its members and continue the work of sharing the gospel, building up the church, and making disciples.
This would mean a lot of changes for a church that was used to meeting as a traditional church on Sunday morning. It will most likely mean the pastor would forsake a salary (if he or she hadn’t already), it will mean that the format of the meetings you’ve become accustomed will change, and the ministry of the church will have be taken up by whatever members of the church remain, not just the pastor. Also, not everyone will want to make this jump, so be prepared for some who would be okay in any other traditional context to not make this jump with you. For those who feel God isn’t done with the church yet, but don’t see a way forward, it’s a viable alternative.
If you’re facing this moment in the life of your church, feel free to contact me at PursuingGlory at gmail dot com or check out my resource page featuring the best books on house churches.
More than that, don’t give up hope in God, the gospel, or the family of God. God loves you. You and your church haven’t failed. He has a plan that continues regardless of the cash flow. God, who raises the dead, can take what seems like has died and transform it into something new.
Photo Credit: Closed by Exarchlzain
David, Absalom, and the Love of the Father
It’s a tragedy that’s been around for thousands of years. But every once-in-awhile God lets you see old truth through new eyes.
In short, the story goes like this: David had sinned by dealing deceitfully with Uriah the Hittite and sleeping with his wife, Bathsheba. The judgment, according to Nathan the prophet, was a sword of violence being unleashed in David’s family. This prediction begins to come true when Ammon (David’s oldest son) is killed by Abasalom (David’s third oldest son). Abasalom is banished from Israel, then restored, and once restored he begins to quietly launch a revolution to take the kingdom from David.
When the revolution happens, David is banished from his own kingdom. He takes a remnant with him and begins a war with Absalom that culminates in a final battle. It’s during this final battle that David forces his commanders to swear that if they capture Absalom they will not kill him. All of the commanders take the oath, but Joab, one of David’s most trusted commanders finds Joab hung by his hair in a tree and kills Absalom anyways.
And it’s here that our story really begins–David does what any good father would do–he weeps for his son. We see David’s heart on full display as he cries out “How I wish I had died instead of you!” Now, Joab tries to be the sensible one in all of this. He reminds David that Absalom was his enemy and that many men fought (and died) in order to restore his rule, but that matters little to David. He eventually did pull himself together and honor his army, but we see his true heart on display in his lament.
This is where God began speaking to me. I was reading this story to my sons and my daughters and I could so identify with wanting to take their place even though one of them had tried to lead a rebellion against me. “No parent should have to bury their child,” says Theoden in the Two Towers and it’s this kind of love, however misguided it may seem to others, that fills parents when they think about the demise of their children, even ones who are their enemies. As parents, it’s only right to want to die, believing our children have a better future ahead. It’s what makes us parents.
As I read the story, I began again to see the heart of God–A father who loved his children so much, that even though they participated in a horrible rebellion to overthrow His Kingdom and replace it with their own, would rather die in the place of His children than see them perish. If we feel this way…if us natural human parents feel this way towards our children…if David feels this way towards his son who sought to overthrow him, then how much more must our heavenly Father feel towards us?
Photo Credit: Absalom, Absalom! by John Lodder
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 