Quickly growing movement wants to make Jesus visible
House churches in the USA now have ten million Americans involved
China is no longer the only country with a big and growing house church movement. According to the American Barna institute, about ten million adult Americans are involved in independent house churches, and that is many times more than in the beginning of the nineties.
In the USA, this movement is also called Simple church and Organic church, terms that show that it is not only about the congregations meeting in homes rather than in church buildings. During the past weekend the organization held a conference in Dallas, USA, where Dagen was present [N.B. I did not type this last sentence – an editor or someone added it without asking me – hence the unfortunate choice to use the word ”organization”]
Chatting more important than speeches
Imagine a conference where the speakers pay in order to participate, rather than getting payed. Where talking to the other participants is said to be more important than the program. That is what this year’s national house church conference in Dallas was like.
There was a general informal and friendly atmosphere at the roughly 250 participant large conference. All seats were around round tables and personal stories from speakers and presentations were mixed with discussions and exercises on various themes, where the people around each table, or half of them, would form groups.
One of the exercises that was used several times was a social tool called ”Sashet”, a short for the English words sad, angry, scared, happy, excited and tender. In groups of three to five persons the participants got to choose which of the six emotion adjectives that described how they were feeling at the moment and why – a way of quickly getting a deeper contact with each other.
Traits of the movement are an absence of hierarchical leadership and employed pastors. People strive for a family-like community with deep relationships between all of the members and a form of meeting where all always participate and share.
Spontaneous meetings
It is also common that people try to avoid deciding in advance what the meetings should contain and instead strive for them to be lead more directly by Christ, by the members spontaneously sharing what God has put on their hearts.
Except for the common meetings and meals, the participants at the conference could also choose between different tracks to learn more on a certain topic. The most popular track, that was chosen by about half of the 250 participants, was named ”Christ-centered communities” and was led by church planters and authors Frank Viola and Milton Rodriguez.
Viola and Rodriguez have many years’ experience of planting and coaching house churches and talked about the importance of really focusing on Christ and of applying the Principle of the Cross – to die away from yourself.
Jesus made visible
Frank Viola also explained that a truly organic congregation is about more than just meeting in a home to study the Bible, pray and fellowship. He described church meetings where Christ gets to lead the members in their sharing in a way so supernaturally coordinated, that non-believers that are present are overwhelmed.
– We’re talking about a meeting where Jesus is made visible, he stated.
DAVID SPÅNBERGER
08-619 24 00
Picture text: HOUSE CHURCHES. About 250 participants came to the 2009 national house church conference in the USA. There was an informal and friendly atmosphere at the conference, all seasts were around round tables and personal stories from speakers and presentations, were mixed with discussions and exercises on different themes, where all or half around each table formed groups. There were also spontaneous prayer circles after one of the conference meetings.
Facts: Simple/Organic church
Internet pages:
- www.simplechurch.com
- www.house2house.com
- www.paganchristianity.org
- www.barna.org
- www.cmaresources.org
Books:
- Organic Church, Neil Cole
- Pagan Christianity, Frank Viola and George Barna
- Reimagining Church, Frank Viola
- The Rabbit and the Elephant, Tony & Felicity Dale, George Barna
- Revolution, George Barna
”This is according to Jesus’ vision”
Troy and Angela Bachman started a house church
Troy and Angela Bachman were really comfortable in their pentecostal congregation in Oklahoma. The pastors and the worship team were great and they felt very comfortable in their cell group. Still Troy felt that something was not right.
What Troy started thinking about was why their congregation did not grow faster when everything seemed so good. When he also read statistics that showed that on the whole things were going down for the church in the west, he started feeling discouraged.
– I prayed to God and I asked: ”What are we doing wrong? Something has got to be wrong. If you’re at work anywhere, if your Spirit is moving anywhere, I would like to join that”.
Read books
The situation led Troy to read George Barna’s book Revolution, where he got to know more about the house church movement and that God actually seemed to be doing something there, outside the traditional four walls.
After that, he read Frank Viola’s book Pagan Christianity, about how the church has changed since the time of the New Testament, and he felt that the book matched his own thoughts. Troy started talking about this with his wife Angela, but she couldn’t understand him.
– I said, ”don’t mess with my church, it’s right with me”, Angela says and laughs.
Strange things
Troy started praying that God would also show Angela what he wanted, and then strange things happened. First Angela saw in a curious dream how a lot of non-saved people were standing in their back yard waiting. A time later she had a vision where a lot of people were standing admiring a big fruit, while lots of small fruits, only a short distance away from them, were falling to the ground and were lost.
Finally Angela was also convinced that God called them to leave the traditional church to start a house church. They had a hard time when they had to leave the church they liked so much.
When six months passed and none of those they had invited to their home came, Angela started doubting and one day she asked God where on earth the fruit of what he had called them to was. Then suddenly a woman that they had previously invited phoned them.
– She says, ”I don’t know what it is, but I just feel like I need to call you. Can we come over?” And their it started, and there was like a chain reaction, Angela says.
Their house church began as late as in May this year and now they are 18 people meeting twice a week, of whom five were saved and baptized after they started.
When it comes to differences between cell groups and house churches, Troy mentions that cell groups are not autonomous, that they are funded by the parent church and that they usually follow a program that is in line with the vision of the parent church.
In a lost world
– Whereas house churches become alined with the vision of Jesus Christ for their own community. The house church places us under the headship of Christ and gets us out more into a world that’s lost, Troy says.
DAVID SPÅNBERGER
Picture text: STARTED SOMETHING NEW: Troy and Angela Bachman were cell group leaders and felt really comfortable in their pentecostal church, but still Troy felt that something was not right. They became convinced that God called them to leave the traditional church to start a house church.
The question: Which was your best experience from the conference?
Sandy Wagenmaker, Michigan:
– Hearing from so many different people that it’s all about Jesus and he has to be the focus of everything. That it’s all about him and bringing the Kingdom to everybody around us.
Tracy Todd, Texas:
– I’m grateful for the many people I’ve met. Finding out what house churches are and the central fact that we connect with one another to express that divine life we were given, to express Jesus, and it is that Person who is most important.
Philip Matthews, California:
– The networking and the additional resources and the presentations we have recieved. We feel equipped.
Bonnie Maisen, Arkansas:
– That God is teaching us that it’s time to go out. A lot of this conference has been about going out, which fits right along with where we are, and it always happens that way – it’s always exactly what we need at the exact right time.
Trevor Wagenmaker, Michigan:
– To be with believers that are doing the same thing. A lot of practical ideas to implement in our house church, that could help us grow closer together and closer to the Lord.
