Our conversation about small groups vs house church was provoked by some excellent questions by Marty Reiswig (Denver): "...how is leading a small group different from leading a house church? What kind of transition coaching will we need to provide? What training is needed?"One major difference we have identified so far is that house church is fully church. Not just one program of a larger church. Something to go along with men's groups, women's groups, choir, missions committees, etc. Because a house church is a "real" church, it follows that the sacraments (or ordinances) take place there - the Lord's Supper, baptism, etc. The "priesthood of all believers" can blossom in this context.
I want to introduce another distinction between typical small group thinking and what house church is supposed to be. (Obviously, we are generalizing here because some small groups within traditional churches are much more vibrant and transformational than some house churches.)
Small groups are often seen as a program. A meeting that occurs one a week. And, so, to respond to Marty's question, we teach people how to "lead the meeting". (How to construct the "program", how to welcome visitors, how to lead the Bible study, what to do if someone talks too much, etc.)
House church, on the other hand, in Scripture, is seen as family. Here's a simple equation that explains a great deal. Church = family. This is a major paradigm shift from traditional thinking about small groups.
Your thoughts about passages of Scripture that bear on this? And, if it is true that "church = family", what are the implications for leadership? For training?
John
John, this is such a great question! Thanks for raising it. Here's my contribution, as more comments come in I'm confident a much fuller view of church will appear.
ReplyDeleteI think we have to go right the way back to the first three chapters of Genesis. We were made to live in the garden Yahweh built for us, to rule the world on his behalf, and also to walk with him and with one another in the garden. We were made to be unashamed in his presence, obedient, unaware of good and evil, and free from struggling (Hebrew uses the same word for the 'toil' of the man amongst thorns after the fall, and the 'pain' of the woman in childbirth. I think the basic sense is 'struggle'.)
This was family - the Father and the people he had made living in constant companionship in the garden he had made.
This family life is restored in Christ, we call it church (the gathered ones). We are gathered into him and we have the right and the duty to live as he intended at the beginning. He has called us back into the family garden!
So read Genesis 1-3 with the church in mind.
We were made to live in the garden/church Yahweh made, to rule the world on his behalf, and also to walk with him and with one another in the garden/church. We were made to be unashamed in his presence, obedient, unaware of good and evil, and free from struggling.
This is family - the Father and the people he has re-made living in constant companionship in the garden/church he has provided.
And we are not meant to struggle to sow the seed, reap the harvest and birth new life. Work yes, struggle no. Why has mission so often been a hard struggle? Because it's been birthed in knowledge and technique rather than simply in trust and wisdom. We still want to eat that forbidden fruit, don't we? Sin is to eat it, wisdom is to avoid it.
In writing this I am revealing the nakedness of my thoughts without shame, you are all family. Please pick out what is good and leave what is not. Take what is spiritual truth, leave what is worldly and forbidden.
The harvest is waiting, don't think about it, just do it! Let's bring them into the garden, there's plenty of room :-)
CHRIS!!!
ReplyDeleteI love this! You VERY eloquently and quickly shared the FULLNESS of the Gospel (at least in my personal opinion). I especially love the part at the end about how we're not supposed to STRUGGLE on mission with God... It's so true... I've always felt that the Lord wants to deliver the ripe fruit into our hands if we would just wait on Him and be in His timing (gravity does it's work and we just catch it as it falls).
Most of the time it's been workers building fancy contraptions to force the fruit to grow, immediately pick it and then truck it off to a cannery to be processed quickly with all the other unripe fruit...
If we would just seek Him... watch, listen, and then spring into action when He says to -- I think we'd see a harvest reaped like we never thought possible...
Anyway - to tie that in with the blog post...
I think "Small Groups" as programs have become just another attempt to mechanically harvest...
I heard a guy (Aaron Snow - he was in the Student CPx video) say just the other day - that if our focus is ANYTHING OTHER THAN MAKING DISCIPLES (ie. church planting, starting this or that) that we're STILL missing the point. We're called to MAKE DISCIPLES and whatever flows out of that needs to be a natural expression.
We were NOT called to plant simple churches in hopes of making disciples... but to do it the other way around.
Something to chew on...
One of the core elements of family is that it is completely designed to reproduce. Not for the sake of numbers, not for mission reports - but a family reproduces out of love. A church as family (not a small group program) feels compelled to pass along the love they have in their DNA. Do you and your group have the same "sex drive" to reproduce that a family has?
ReplyDeleteThat's one way to determine whether you are in a church family, or just a small group (whether you call it a house church or not).
I'm imagining the day when we have the opposite problem we have today in churches -- too MANY church plants! Instead of workshops on church planting and discipleship, may we one day be holding conferences on church planting ABSTINENCE! May we be passing out church planting contraceptives - simply because our love in Christ is so real and central to our experience of church family...
Along the comments above, I also think that such an approach has quite practical applications. It means that the person that facilitates a gathering is less in the position of the boss ("priest" as traditional church understands it), and more in the position of the father (spiritual father, if you will). Other known terms are mentor, spiritual coach, etc.
ReplyDeleteIt also means that it is a less demonstrable position. If Jesus should be the person around whom a family centers, than the role of the father in a family is to facilitate this centering on Jesus. It means that gatherings are less about human leader and more about the triune God. Thus, a spiritual father stays in a background always there to direct others to Jesus and, yet, allow enough space and time for their full maturing into Jesus Christ.
This blog post from Katie Driver excites me a lot. It might seem off topic for John's question about church = family, but the guy behind the big desk is a great example of the NOT family approach. Did he behave like a Dad or older brother? No!
ReplyDeleteBut it really wasn't his fault, was it? He was doing his best, doing what he'd been trained to do. It's up to us, as members of the family, to train one another to be filled with the life that is in Christ, not the death that pervades the world and its ways.
Yahshua said, 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life'. He did what he saw the Father do and said what he heard the Father say. We just need to walk his way, believe his truth, and live his life. Love the Father and love the Son. Follow them. That is family living!
Great comments from everyone here. I'm loving it :-)
And here's something simple that says a lot (and draws from on Biblical passages as originally requested by John).
ReplyDeleteAt that time Jesus said, 'I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.' (Matt 11:25)
And he said: 'I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.' (Matt 18:3)
Whatever else we may be, we must first come (I would say always come) in the same way that little children would come.
How does a little child come? Innocently, in the most simple and straightforward way, saying what they mean, asking in hope and expectation, trusting, dependent, transparently. Can you add to this list? What does it mean to come 'like a little child'?