By Paul H. Byerly
I’ve been a “house church guy” for more than a decade. I’ve attended them, read about them, planted them, and helped to organise conferences about them. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many of the “names” in the American house church world, and have been blessed to learn from some of the best. So, why is it that I can now be found in a brick and mortar church each Sunday morning?
It’s not that I’ve given up on house church – still do that Sunday afternoon – and it’s not that I was looking – I was not. The truth is I was drawn to this church for the same reason I was drawn to house church in the first place – community.
I have chased community for the last three decades. I am convinced that community is the natural result of being an active part of the Kingdom of God; when we fall in love with Him, we should fall in love with His people. In traditional churches I could not find the depth of community I craved. I longed for house church before I knew it existed, and my bride and I “invented” the idea of house-based meetings before we learned others were already doing it. In simple church, we found a level of community we had never known. We loved it, and we were hooked.
Eleven years, three states, and half a dozen house church groups later, we still loved it. Then God blindsided us with The Vine Community – a “traditional church” that’s not so traditional. The Vine seems to me to be more simple church than institutional church. This is a church where the pastor and leaders not only talk about equipping the saints, but go out of their way to do it. Here is a church that sees the “life groups” as more important than what happens on Sunday morning, and encourages real discussions, true seeking, asking difficult questions, and group discovery based on what they find in the Word of God. The Vine has more than a few members who became followers of Jesus recently, and adults under 35 outnumber those over 35. This is a church where a 17-year-old member of the music team is told, a minute before it’s to happen, that “you are opening the service in prayer this morning.” Promoting others, and follow the Holy Spirit – in a building!
How did this happen? At least in part, God used the house church movement. The pastor’s mentors include a man who hangs with the likes of Neil Cole and Alan Hirsch. This church has both simple church and traditional church DNA. This is not the IC you used to go to, this is a hybrid, part rabbit, part elephant. More important, at least to me, is that this church has community as a fundamental value. The members of the Vine are very much in one another’s lives. Small meetings, many not scheduled by “leadership”, occur almost daily. Groups of two and three are becoming increasingly common as individuals feel the need for accountability and discipleship. An active prayer e-mail list and Facebook keep many members in touch with one another daily. Good or bad, triumph or failure, major or minor, I know about the lives of these friends in detail and in very close to real time. Because of this, I find myself thinking of them, praying for them, looking for ways to reach out and encourage them, day in and day out. We get calls to be part of last minute gatherings, just to hang out together, and I am very aware when someone is missing from our life group or on Sunday morning. This is community!
I don’t know if The Vine has heard the phrase “a vibrant family of Jesus Christ”, but I can attest that this is what they are – they are living it. Truth be told, some simple churches could learn about community and the priesthood of the believer from this “Traditional Church”.
Okay, that’s nice, but so what? This is just an anomaly, right? Isn’t this just a rare church of more than 20 individuals that has somehow, temporarily, escaped the pitfalls of traditional church? What if that’s not what this is? Is it possible that God has used the house church movement to inject new DNA into His bride, and that what I am seeing is happening in other places? Is this a new thing; is this a new God thing? Are the lines between simple and traditional being blurred? I think that this is exactly what is happening, and I wait with expectation to see more of the same.
As one friend said to me, “You went back to the dark side, and found that the Son had risen”.