THE
CHURCH IN THE HOUSE
A
Return to Simplicity
by
Robert Fitts
This
book has been recently published in book form. To request your
copy,
please
contact Robert at the following address:
Robert
Fitts
76-6309
Haku Place
Kona,
HI 96740
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
WORDS OF
ENDORSEMENT
INTRODUCTION
FOREWORD
Chapter One:
MISSION STATEMENT
Chapter Two: THE
CASE FOR HOUSE CHURCHES
Chapter Three:
THE HOUSE CHURCH IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Chapter Four:
WHAT IS A CHURCH?
Chapter Five:
WHAT IS HOUSE CHURCH?
Chapter Six:
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP
Chapter Seven:
SATURATION CHURCH PLANTING
Chapter Eight:
THE WHEEL AND THE VINE
Chapter Nine:
ONE STEP TO UNITY
Chapter Ten:
WHAT DO YOU DO IN A HOUSE CHURCH
Chapter Eleven:
HOW TO START A HOUSE CHURCH
Chapter Twelve:
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
SUMMARY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BIBLIOGRAPHY
WORDS
OF ENDORSEMENT
"Here is a fine
tool for those concerned about planting churches as the basic building block in
reaching the world's remaining Unreached Peoples."
---Dr. Ralph
Winter,
Founder and
president of the U.S. Center for World Mission
"Bob Fitts Sr.
is a man with a passion to saturate the world with local churches. This zeal
comes through clearly as a mandate in his book Saturation Church Planting.* This
is truly a strategy to fast track discipleship that is
desperately
needed right now as millions have been turning to Christ in Asia, Africa, Latin
America and Eastern Europe."
---Loren
Cunningham,
Founder and
President of Youth With A Mission
"Not everyone
will be ready for the radical changes Fitts suggests, but everyone who is
interested in completing the Great Commission in our time should be familiar
with his material . . . Fitts says that it is his firm belief that within the
next ten years there will be a house church movement in full swing in every
country on earth. If he is right, it just may be that the house church movement
that caused the early Church to sweep throughout the Roman world of the first
century, will look very much like the movement that finally finishes the Great
Commission."
---Dr. James H.
Montgomery,
Founder and
President of DAWN Ministries
"Robert Fitts
is one of God's growing number of voices today on the subject of the house
church. He has been 'a man in preparation' for many years. This book gives a
compelling presentation for the simple, Biblical approach to church life. We can
see the Great Commission fulfilled quickly if we will follow this approach to
church life. May God use this book around the world to awaken His people to His
plan for His Church.
---Nate Krupp
Author and
church planter
INTRODUCTION
In the summer
of 1969 the Lord spoke to me to begin asking him for disciples in every nation.
Four years earlier he had impressed upon me to pray for the nations by name,
giving me the promise of Psalms 2:8, "Ask of me and I will give you the nations
for your inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession."
From that time it was a joy to pray and believe that the Lord was going to do
something to enable me to touch nations for Him.
My plan at the
time was to multiply disciples by concentrating on one person and then teach him
to do the same, so that, in time, we would see disciples in every nation by the
process of multiplication through prayer, faith and
patience. With
that in mind I began to pray more fervently. As I have prayed and moved toward
the vision over the years, the Lord has revealed that the best way to disciple
individuals is to multiply churches, small groups of
disciples.
I sincerely
believe that it was in answer to this prayer that the Lord began to change our
lives and our circumstances so that we went through a very long and difficult
period of preparation. As the years went by, I was tempted to lay aside the
vision as a wild dream filled with personal ambition that had not come from the
Lord at all. But somehow I could not let it die within me.
On a quiet
afternoon in the Fall of 1990 I was on my knees in my bedroom in the city of
Riverside, California. During this prayer time, I was reading MISSION FRONTIERS
magazine, a periodical put out by the UNITED STATES CENTER FOR WORLD MISSION
founded by Dr. Ralph Winter. The article I was reading was about a mighty move
of God in China, I kept coming across the phrase "house church movement."
Suddenly a flash of revelation exploded within my spirit. I could almost say
that I felt it physically! "HOUSE CHURCHES!!!!" I was not shouting, but my
spirit was. "House churches! YES!! That's it! I can plant house churches! Praise
the Lord! I know I can start churches in houses!" My excitement knew no bounds.
My confidence soared!
I had been
walking through a long, dry desert, spiritually. I had laid down everything. I
had been stripped of ministry, house, airplane, health, even hope was dying
within me. I felt that somehow I had not responded to the Lord in the right ways
over the years and that I would never see the fulfillment of the vision of
disciples in all nations. Then when that simple little idea of house churches
was introduced to me through what was happening in China. A new birth of vision
began to rise within me.
I arose from my
knees and began to walk and think and pray and plan. "Now I know that I can
plant churches! I can plant lots of churches!" My spirit soared. My faith once
again was rising. For more than twenty years I had
majored in
house groups. For five of those years I had helped form hundreds of house groups
for children's evangelism. For four years I had been pastor of a house church
myself and I knew, firsthand, the many advantages of THE CHURCH IN THE HOUSE.
Now, I felt confident that I could help plant hundreds, perhaps even thousands of house churches
and see people trained to pastor these little congregations.
For years I had
known that the most rapid growth of the church took place in the first two
centuries of the Christian Movement. Now I was reading about the phenomenal
growth that was taking place in China and it was a HOUSE CHURCH MOVEMENT. As
these two thoughts came together in my mind, the explosion occurred. I could not
escape the obvious conclusion: the most dramatic church growth in history, both
in ancient times and in modern times occurred where there were no church
buildings.
Not long after
this I did a study in the New Testament on the church in the house and wrote an
eight page paper entitled, THE CASE FOR HOUSE CHURCHES. I began to share it with
others and found that people were interested. In some places there was RED HOT
INTEREST! I went to Mexico not long after I wrote it and it was translated into
Spanish.
As the Lord
opened my understanding to what was in the New Testament and church history
about "the church that meets in the house . . . " and as I had more and more
contact with others who had seen the vision for simple church, I added to the
eight page paper and called it Saturation Church Planting. It fell into the
hands of various church leaders and over a period of four years was sent out to
about 40 countries. I began to receive letters from church leaders in many
countries asking for more information on The Church That Meets in the House. The
following is my effort to share what the Lord has been teaching us over the past
several year about going back to SIMPLE CHURCH.
Throughout the
following pages I have sought to keep before me the wise counsel of Dr. John
Amstutz, a long time friend and a leading mission strategist and teacher to the
Body of Christ. Several months ago I sent him a
copy of the
paper, THE CASE FOR HOUSE CHURCHES, and he wrote me a valuable commentary on it.
I am including it as the foreword of this paper.
FOREWORD
(Letters
of Endorsement)
Dear Brother
Bob,
Your article on
house churches was excellent. It reflects what many of us have believed for
years, that the expansion of the gospel to all the nations would require a
simple, infinitely reproducible form of church planting, the kind that is found
in the scriptures itself, as well as in countries that will not permit open
worship and witness, like China, Burma, and Nepal.
In our
denomination, our most rapidly growing works in restricted access nations are
house church movements. In Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan and Burma this is true.
Further, in other countries where there is a measure of freedom, house churches
are also being encouraged as the quickest way to get a true movement happening.
The biggest challenge in opening minds to house churches is in countries where
the gospel has been for many years, like countries in Europe and Latin America"
Asia has proven the easiest to encourage house churches.
Bob, I would
encourage you to wisely and sensitively encourage house churches wherever you
go, especially in third world countries. Also to help the people stay humble
about it all lest they look down on believers who have and believe in buildings.
The great need today is for unity in the Body of Christ. We really don't need to
divide over buildings. So help people to lovingly make room for different
methodologies, and that really is what we are talking about. What is important
is that we get the gospel to all the world as quickly and as effectively as
possible. In some cases buildings may be needed, in many other cases house
churches will work and, in a few places, perhaps both will be needed. If the
fulfillment of the Great Commission is our goal, then let's use any legitimate
means available to get the job done. I believe there is no more effective way
than planting new churches to fulfill this goal, and house churches is one of
the most efficient ways of planting churches.
In Jesus'
Bonds
John
Amstutz
CHAPTER
ONE
MISSION
STATEMENT
THE CHURCH THAT
MEETS IN THE HOUSE OF CHARLES AND LINDA is a community church that meets at 1492 Palmyrita in
Riverside, California at 7 p.m. every Tuesday. We have open meetings with
everyone participating. We sing praises to Jesus and seek to build up one
another in love. Everyone is important. We read the Bible together, and discuss
it in an informal way. Anyone who wants to participate joins in the reading and
the discussion. All things are done for encouragement.
The group prays
for each other, for other churches, for families, relatives, friends and
neighbors; we pray for our president and our country. We minister to one another
through prayer, prophetic words, the gifts of the Spirit, and through material
aid as the Lord leads. We often have a meal together and celebrate the Lord's
supper.
There is no
membership list. Those who belong to the Lord are all members one of another.
All seek to follow the instructions of the apostle Paul in I Cor. 14:26 about
how to meet.. . . "When you come together everyone has a hymn, or a word of
instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be
done for the strengthening of the church."
We believe that
God's provision for church leadership is through self-supporting elders trained
right in the local church as servant leaders. We love one another, are fully
accountable to one another, help one another, and are willing to pour out our
lives for each other.
The church is a
people and not a building, an organization, a business, or an institution. We
are the people of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the
cross to pay for our sins.
When we grow
too large for the space we have, our plan is to start another church in another
house. The church that meets at Charles and Linda's was "born pregnant." It was
born with a vision to give birth to another church. We fully expect that every
church birthed out of this one will also be "born pregnant!"
We have a deep
desire to see the Bride of Christ grow in purity and effectiveness. We make no
claim to perfection, but we are learning, and sharing as we learn; and we are
asking some difficult questions. We need your prayers and your kind input as we
follow the leading of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We seek to
relate to the whole body of Christ within our locality and not just to those who
attend our fellowship. Since we are all members of one another, we encourage all
who come to this gathering to attend other meetings of the body of Christ as the
Holy Spirit directs. We are submitted to spiritual authority wherever it crosses
our path. We do not believe in "selective submission" which says, in essence, "I
am submitted to this group or that
leader and to
no other."
All the "one
another" verses in the writings of Paul were addressed to the citywide church
and not to a local congregation, therefore we submit to all the saints and all
the elders within the citywide church. We are responsible to God and to one
another to fulfill all our commitments with regard to service within the body of
Christ.
Saturation
Church Planting is a vision to form churches everywhere for the purpose of
fulfilling the Great Commission through evangelism, discipleship, and world
mission. The house church is an effective tool to evangelize and disciple the
city and a vehicle to reach out to all nations. We invite you to "come over and
help us!"
CHAPTER
TWO
THE
CASE FOR HOUSE CHURCHES
"Greet
Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. Greet also the church
that meets at their house." (Romans 16:3)
"The churches
in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you
warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house." (I Cor.
16:19)
"Give my
greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her
house." (Col. 4:15)
"To Philemon,
our dear friend and to the church that meets in your home." (Philemon
l-2)
From the above
scriptures it is clear that the early church met in homes. They did not have
church buildings. Such buildings did not appear until the year 232 A.D. In those
early days they were not called "house churches" They were "the Church" that met
in the house of someone. It is notable that the most explosive period of church
growth in history, until recently, took place during those early
years.
However, right
now, in China, there is an unprecedented movement that even surpasses that early
growth of the church and this unparalleled revival is a house church movement.
The following is taken from the Caleb Report in the 1990 Jan./Feb. issue of
MINISTRIES MAGAZINE. The report is given by Loren Cunningham, founder and
president of YOUTH WITH A MISSION:
"According to
the U.S. Center For World Mission, more than 22,000 Chinese are coming to Christ
each day. That is the equivalent of seven days of Pentecost every 24 hours and
it is happening right now. Most of this explosion of new belief is coming from
China's rural communities, where 80% of the population of China lives. When I
was in Hong Kong not long ago, Jonathan Chao, founder of the Chinese Church
Research Center, told me how the Chinese revival is being spread by young
people, mostly ages 15 to 19. The teenagers go to villages and share the gospel
where it has never been heard before. As converts are organized into small
groups, the teens call for the 'elders, (believers in their twenties) to come
and teach the newly formed home church while the younger Christians go on to
reach the next village. Chinese pastors and teachers don't have financial
impediments to spreading the Christian message: they live with the peasant
farmers in each new area and don't construct buildings. They have very little
and need very little. By this simple means, the good news is leaping across the
fields and mountains of China."
The explosive
church growth that is now going on in China and that which attended the early
church in the book of Acts had something in common: they were both a house
church movement. This same kind of growth is seen in other countries today where
church buildings are not allowed, as we saw in the John Amstutz
letter.
The principle,
simply expressed, is that the growth of the church in any given area, will be in
direct proportion to the number of obstacles that we allow to hinder the
planting of new churches. From my experience in both planting and pastoring
house churches I see some definite advantages to this approach to church
planting and church multiplication:
HOUSE CHURCHES
ARE EASY TO START
To plant a
house church you do not need to buy property or build a building. You won't need
a pulpit or pews or hymnbooks or a piano. You can do without a baptistery, a
Sunday School and a youth pastor. You won't have to belong to a denomination or
be incorporated or meet on Sundays or have a church bulletin or meet in the same
place every week.
You won't have
to have a sign with the name of your church on it. It won't need a name. In
fact, you don't even have to call it a "church" as long as you know that it is
"the church, which is His Body". None of the above is bad or wrong, but neither
are they essential. The apostle Paul used none of the above in his
church-planting ministry. We have left the simplicity of the New Testament and
added so many extras, which are really not essential, that it has become more
and more difficult to start a new church.
Ray Williams, a
close personal friend, has been a missionary in Mexico for over 30 years and has
been instrumental in starting scores of churches out of which hundreds more have
been birthed. He told me recently that he once started a church in a wheat
field. That church has grown, and out of it have come a multitude of other
churches, each with a church planting vision. We make it too complex. God is
calling us back to simplicity and ease of multiplication.
A HOUSE CHURCH
IS RELAXED AND INFORMAL
Several years
ago I took my family to a church where the pastor was an outstanding Bible
teacher. I loved the church and wanted to continue to attend, but the dress code
was completely out of our reach. Some people do not come to our churches today
because we have set the standard of dress too high and made church a "formal"
event. Many who will not attend a formal church, will attend a house church. It
is more relaxed with a casual, family setting.
In his book,
UNDERSTANDING CHURCH GROWTH, Dr. Donald McGavran lists Eight Keys To Church
Growth In Cities. The very first one gives us his assessment of the value and
importance of planting and multiplying house churches. He
states,
"The eight keys
I am about to mention are not mere guesses. They describe principles about which
church growth men are agreed.
First,
emphasize house churches. When the Church begins to grow in cities among
non-Christians, each congregation must soon find a place to assemble. The
congregation should meet in the most natural surroundings, to which
non-Christians can come with the greatest ease and where the converts themselves
carry on the services. Obtaining a place to assemble should not lay a financial
burden on the little congregation. The house church meets all these requirements
ideally. House churches should always be considered, both for initial planting
and for later extension."
HOUSE CHURCHES
ARE EVANGELISTIC TOOLS
Dr. Peter
Wagner, considered by many to be the foremost authority on church growth today,
says, "The best method under heaven for evangelism is church planting. There
never was a better method and there never will be." SATURATION CHURCH PLANTING
is the vision now being adopted by mission leaders
worldwide.
A church that
divides in order to multiply will experience addition. A church that has its
focus only on addition will tend to bog down and stagnate. Our goal has too
often been to try to make one very large congregation rather than to multiply
congregations. We cannot say that God would never lead anyone to build a very
large congregation, however, the Body of Christ in any city will increase much
more rapidly by multiplying congregations than it will by seeking to build a few
super churches. We praise God for the super churches. We pray for them we
minister in them, we bless them. It is not "us and them." It is US! The whole
Body of Christ belongs to all of us and we belong to each
other!
HOUSE CHURCHES
FACILITATE THE TRAINING OF PASTORS AND LEADERS
It has long
been understood by educators that the best method of training is still the
apprentice method, which is "one on one, hands on training" such as a
blacksmith, plumber, or lawyer would have received a hundred years ago. They
learned by observing and doing while being accountable to a master in the trade.
This was Jesus, method. His disciples learned by watching, listening and doing
while they lived their lives with the master teacher himself. House churches
will enable us to train pastors to actually do the work of pastoring while they
are under the supervision of a more experienced pastor. They will grow as the
church grows under their leadership. Some will pastor more than one house church
since they will not all meet on Sunday morning.
HOUSE CHURCHES
HELP BOND RELATIONSHIPS
A small house
church makes it much more likely that the very shy will find their identity
within the body of Christ. In our house church we usually had our noon meal
together on Sundays. Each family would take part in preparing and serving the
meal. The forming of relationships occurs much more easily in such "household"
situations.
HOUSE CHURCHES
ARE ECONOMICAL
A house church
will be able to channel almost all of its finances into missions and mercy
ministries. Some of our house churches in Texas channel 93% of their offerings
into local benevolence and foreign missions. There may be some minor expenses,
but since the meetings are held in houses all building expenses are
avoided.
Meetings can be
held on other days or nights as well as Sundays. Nothing in the New Testament
says that Sunday is the time for church. As a matter of fact, the pattern in the
book of Acts is that they met daily. The first day of the week is seldom
mentioned at all and never is it emphasized as a special day set aside for
worship. The apostle Paul discouraged a "special day" mentality in his writings.
"You are
observing special days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that
somehow I have wasted my efforts on you." (Galatians 4:10-11)
Of course many
of these house churches will be led by pastors-in-training who will have regular
jobs and will pastor a house church as time permits. While the honor of a
livable income should go to those who are giving full time to the work, it is
also true that those pastors who serve part time should also receive similar
honor through love gifts and some remuneration from tithes and offerings to
offset expenses and to encourage them in the work of the ministry. "The workman
is worthy of his hire." (whether part time or full time) On the other hand, men
should not wait until they can be freed from a full time job before they begin
to serve as pastors. The apostle Paul worked with his hands often, not only to
meet his own needs, but also the needs of those who traveled with him.
"You yourselves
know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my
companions. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we
must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is
more blessed to give than to receive.'" (Acts 20:34-35)
HOUSE CHURCHES
CAN SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF GROWTH
Some of our
congregations have grown so large that they have to build bigger buildings or
rent more space or go to two services. This is what we call a "happy problem".
There is also a happy solution: Begin to train pastors by assigning them an area
of the city and sending off two or three families to start a house church in
that section of the city. The most life-giving thing a church can do is to have
a baby. I have seen churches die because of a spirit of possessiveness in the
leadership. God will bless the people who are continually giving away everything
that God gives them. Jesus said, "Give and it shall be given to you." A giving
church is a growing church.
Michael Green,
Principal of St. John's College of Nottingham, England, in his address before
the International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland in
1974 spoke on Methods and Strategy in the Evangelism of the Early Church. He
said,
"In the early
church, buildings were unimportant; They did not have any during the period of
their greatest advance. Today they seem all-important to many Christians; their
upkeep consumes the money and interest of the members, often plunges them into
debt, and isolates them from those who do not go to church. Indeed, even the
word has changed meaning. `Church' no longer means a company of people, as it
did in New Testament times. These days it means a
building."
The fastest
growing movements in history have always been those that have not bogged down
under ponderous organizational structures and have focused on essentials without
wavering.
CHAPTER
THREE
THE
HOUSE CHURCH IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
The scripture
passages below show that common, ordinary dwellings were used for spreading the
gospel and for discipling new converts both during Jesus' lifetime as well as
during the expansion of the New Testament church in the book of
Acts.
A House Where
Jesus Is Worshipped
"On coming to
the house, they saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and
worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of
gold and of incense and myrrh." (Matt. 2:11)
The very first
time a group gathered to worship Jesus and offer him gifts was in a house, the
house of Mary and Joseph.
Peter's House
Is Used For A Healing Meeting
"When Jesus
came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's mother-in-law lying in a bed with a
fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to
wait on him. When evening came, many who were demon possessed were brought to
him and he drove out the spirits and healed all their sick." (Matt. 8:14-16)
In the early
days of his ministry, Jesus used the house of Peter to conduct preaching,
healing and deliverance meetings.
The First
Communion Service Is Held In A House
In the last
week of Jesus' ministry he said to his disciples, "Go into the city to a certain
man and tell him, `The teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to
celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house,'"
(Matt. 26:18)
Our Lord could
have chosen to celebrate the first communion with his disciples in a synagogue,
in the temple, or in some other place of religious significance, but he chose to
celebrate it in a common ordinary house. Thus he set his seal on the common
dwelling place as a holy and sanctified place, worthy of the most solemn worship
services.
Jesus Preached
To Crowds Assembled In Houses
"Several days
later he returned to Capernaum, and the news of his arrival spread quickly
through the city. Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with
visitors that there wasn't room for a single person more, not even outside the
door. And he preached the word to them." (Mark 2:l Living Bible)
The things we
do in our church buildings today, Jesus did in houses, in the open air, and in
the temple courtyard during his three years of public ministry.
Pentecost Came
To A House Church
"When the day
of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like
the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where
they were sitting.". (Acts 2:l-2)
Many of us have
never considered the number of foundational events that took place in someone's
house. The first worship service happened in a house. The first communion
service was in a house. Jesus preached and healed the sick in a house. The
gospel was first preached to the gentiles was in the house of Cornelius. The
outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was in a house. And the
first churches that the Apostle Paul started were all in houses.
Over the
centuries we have lost the dynamic of simplicity and have added things that have
slowed the progress of the church into all nations.
In The Streets
And In The Houses
"They
worshipped together regularly at the Temple each day, met in small groups in
homes for communion and shared their meals with great joy and thankfulness.."
(Acts 2:46)
The early
church not only met in small groups in homes but also in larger gatherings in
public places. The most rapid growth of the church, both in the past and in the
present day, has been when the church was not using formal meeting places, but
remained flexible, mobile, and militant.
Saul, The
Persecutor, Attacks The House Churches
"But Saul began
ravaging the church, entering house after house: and dragging off men and women,
he would put them in prison." (Acts 8:3)
Where did Saul
of Tarsus go to find "the people to the way" to drag them to prison and to
death? He found them meeting in houses. He himself would later plant churches in
houses on his missionary journeys.
A Praying House
Church Delivers Peter From Prison
"Day after day
in the temple courts and from house to house they never stopped teaching and
proclaiming the news that Jesus is the Christ." (Acts 5:42)
They did not
meet in the temple proper, but rather on the temple grounds, or in the vicinity
of the temple where the people were gathered. This was an open-air meeting. THE
HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY by Lion states that,
"Christians had
no special buildings but met in private houses. Justin Martyr (100-165 A.D.) was
asked by Rusticus the Perfect: `Where do you assemble?' Justin said, where each
one chooses and can, or do you fancy that we all meet in the very same place?
Not so, because the God of the Christians is not circumscribed by place.'"
In his book,
CELLS FOR LIFE, Ron Trudinger says,
"They initiated
the practice of meeting daily in the temple and of breaking of bread from house
to house: this term can also be rendered: `In the various private homes.'
Synagogues were used for a while, but as we see in Acts 19, it was not long
before many of these were closed to Christians. But we continue to find
significant references in Acts and the Epistles to churches in
homes."
The House
Church That Opened The Gospel To The Nations
"The Following
Day Peter arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and called together
his relatives and close friends. As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him
and fell at his feet in reverence. Peter went inside and found a large gathering
of people." (Acts 10:24-27)
This is a good
example of how to start a house church. Someone who is hungry for God and for
the things of God calls together a number of his family and friends and then
calls for the man of God to come and share the Word of God. So simple!
This meeting in
the house of Cornelius was historic. It was the breakthrough that convinced the
Jewish believers that the Good News was for all the nations of the world and not
just for the Jews.
Lydia's House
Was Europe's First Church.
"After Paul and
Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia's house where they met with the
brothers and encouraged them.." (Acts 16:40)
The church of
Philippi was formed in the house of Lydia. We are not told how the church grew, but when the group
could no longer fit in Lydia's house, they probably formed another group
somewhere in the city and continued to divide and multiply. Church history
supports this conclusion.
Paul's Rented
House
"For two whole
years Paul stayed in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him.
Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the
Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts 28:30-31)
These final
words in the book of Acts reveal that Paul not only made use of the homes of
others for the proclamation of the gospel, but that he also used his own rented
house for spreading the good news of God's love.
The fastest
growing movement in the world today, the Christian movement, began in houses. It
had its greatest growth while it remained a fluid, simple, mobile,
relationship-oriented people.
From Shadow to
Substance
All the types
and shadows of the Old Testament were totally fulfilled in Christ. We no longer
need the tabernacle, nor the vestments, nor the temple, nor the furniture, or
any such thing. "Christ is all and in all. We are complete in Him" We no longer
need a "holy place", or an altar of incense' or a laver, or shewbread, or urim,
or thummim. We don't need the shadows for we have the substance. HIS NAME IS
JESUS.
A woman said to
Jesus "Sir, our fathers worshipped on the mountain, but you Jews claim that the
place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." Jesus declared, 'Believe me,
woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father, neither on this
mountain, nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we
worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming
and is now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and
truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and
his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." (John
4:20-24)
Jesus made it
clear that the time had come and that Jerusalem was no more a holy place than
Samaria was for HE HAD COME and in his coming he forever brought an end to the
idea of holy places, for he himself had fulfilled all the types and shadows of
the Old Testament.
Let us rejoice
and praise the Lord that we have been released from all bondage and legalism as
to a place where we are supposed to worship God! We are free to worship him
alone or together, anytime day or night, in any place we
choose!
CHAPTER
FOUR
WHAT
IS A CHURCH?
The original
word in Greek, ecclesia, is composed of two words: ek, meaning, "out of" and
kalleo, meaning, "I call." The meaning of church according to the original word
is, "I call out from." When Jesus said, "I will build my church." He was saying' "I will
call my people out of the world and they will assemble in my name, and the gates
of Hell shall not prevail against them." This implies that his called out people
will rally as an army to take the
world for him and the enemy will not be able to stop the advance. This
invincible army will be motivated by the love of God within their hearts and a
message of love and forgiveness on their lips.
Actually
ecclesia has two meanings: that of being called out and that of being assembled
together. We cannot experience church until we come together. My wife and I are
one even when we are separated from each other by many miles. But we do not
experience the full benefits and blessings of our marriage union until we are
together. Even so, you and every other believer in your city constitute the
church in that city, even when you are not assembled. But we cannot receive the
benefits and blessings of church until we assemble together. This, of course,
does not mean that we all have to be in the same place at the same time. That
will probably never happen in any city.
NOT A RELIGIOUS
WORD
I was amazed
and delighted recently to discover that the word "ecclesia" in the New Testament
was not a religious word at all. I was reading through the nineteenth chapter of
Acts where the apostle, Paul, was threatened by an angry mob who wanted to kill
him. The writer uses several different words to describe this mob: "the whole
city", "the people", "the crowd", and three times he uses the word, "assembly",
"The assembly
was in confusion; Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people
did not even know why they were there . . . The city clerk quieted the crowd and
said: 'Men of Ephesus . . . if Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a
grievance against anybody, the courts are open and there are proconsuls . . . If
there is anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal
assembly . . . After he said this he dismissed the assembly. (see Acts
19:28-41)
The remarkable
thing about the above passage is that the word assembly in the original language
is ecclesia, which is the word we always translate, "church." So Jesus used a
common word when he said, "I will build my church." It was not a religious word.
It simply meant a called out group, or crowd, or fellowship, or assembly. So we
can use the word church when it communicates what we are saying, but we can also
use the word fellowship, or gathering, or brethren, or saints, or disciples. It
simply means a group of people.
"PEOPLE MOVING
TOGETHER"
John Dawson, in
his book, TAKING OUR CITIES FOR GOD, said,
"There is no
absolute model for what a local church should be. I once spent an afternoon with
over one hundred spiritual leaders from several denominations. We tried to come
up with a universal definition of a biblical local church. You may think that it
was an easy task, but if you consider all the cultures and circumstances of
people on the earth and you examine the diversity of models in the Bible, you
will begin to understand our frustration. After many hours of discussion, we had
produced many good models, but no absolute definition other than `people moving
together under the lordship of Jesus.'"
I like the
definition, but I really believe the Lord has given us a very good definition of
what a local church is as well as what the universal church is. It is found in
Ephesians 1:22-23.
"And God placed
all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the
church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every
way."
Throughout the
New Testament both the local church and the universal church is called "the
church." The local body, no matter how small or how large is called "the church"
and the whole worldwide Body of Christ is also called "the church." The church
is Jesus' body whether it is gathered or scattered. This simply means that
wherever there is a group of Christians gathered, there is the church.
I was born and
raised in Texas. At Christmas time we would go out into the country and cut our
own Christmas tree. It was a Christmas tree the minute we cut it and took it to
the house. We would then put a stand on it and decorate it with a whole lot of
little ornaments to make the tree look bright and festive, but if we had shaken
all the ornaments off, it would still have been your basic Christmas tree.
If God were to
shake everything loose until there was nothing left but a simple, basic New
Testament church, what would we have left? In other words, if I take away all
the "extras" and the non-essentials and cut away all the "frills" from what I
understand to be church, what would remain? It is our purpose in this chapter to
answer that question. But first let's examine the word
"parachurch."
WHAT IS
PARACHURCH?
Recently I read
a book that sought to explain the nature of the church. Under the title, WHAT IS
THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE CHURCH TO OTHER PARACHURCH ORGANIZATIONS, the author
made the following observation:
"The Bible is
clear that it is through the vehicle, or instrument, of the church that God is
going to accomplish His great purpose. However, because the Church has not
always been what it was supposed to be, many have become discouraged with the
Church's ability to meet certain obvious needs. For this reason, caring and
concerned individuals have, over the years, established missionary societies,
orphanages, Christian businessmen's organizations and other like institutions to
meet these pressing needs. As God continues to restore and strengthen His Church,
the need for these organizations will diminish and the church will be
ministering to these needs"
It is obvious
in the above quote that the writer felt strongly that "parachurch" is not church
and that something less than church had come along to meet certain needs until
the real church could be healed or awakened to do
the work it
ought to be doing. This is an example of the error of thinking that if it
doesn't look like church it isn't church. The fact is that when a "parachurch",
organization is made up of born-again believers in Jesus who are
come together
to serve and worship him, it is not "parachurch", it is church!
CHURCH IS
PEOPLE. It is not organization, institution or denomination. It would be
difficult to find a true "parachurch" organization. For if it were composed of
Christians, it would not be "parachurch"; It would be CHURCH...GOD'S CALLED OUT PEOPLE!
Even if some members were not born again, it would still be church, for what
church is there without some unsaved people in attendance?
A few years ago
I had the same idea about parachurch. In my teaching ministry l would often say,
"If the church was doing what it ought to be doing, we wouldn't need all these
parachurch organizations." It never once occurred to me that these "parachurch"
people were the people of God and that they were just as much the church, moving
under the Lordship of Jesus, as we were, even though the building they met in
was not shaped like ours.
Our oldest son
has been a member of a well-known "parachurch" organization for many years. They
are doing an outstanding job in missions and evangelism, and growing like crazy
all over the world. A few years ago while we were discussing his future and his
association with this particular organization, I shared that I had some serious
misgivings about the organization because it was not a church, but a
"parachurch" organization. He seemed apologetic and agreed with me fully that
what he and others were doing in that organization, though it was being
wonderfully blessed of God, was still not what God wanted because it was not
happening through a church, but rather through a parachurch." (He was also
confused about church and parachurch.)
A day or two
later I was driving along thinking about our conversation when I felt the Lord
gently asked me: "what is it that makes an organization a church?" As I tried to
answer that question, I felt God gave me a revelation. I had never before seen
so clearly as I did in that moment of time that an organization is not a church
because it has a certain shaped building that people call a church; It is not a
church because it has been duly certified by the federal government as a church;
It is not a church because it has been recognized by a denominational
headquarters as a church; It is not a church because it has regular Sunday
morning services and practices baptism and the Lord's Supper; It is not a church
because it meets on a regular basis or in a particular location. IT IS CHURCH
SIMPLY BECAUSE IT IS GOD'S CALLED OUT PEOPLE MOVING TOGETHER UNDER THE LORDSHIP
OF JESUS.
Alfred Kuen, in
his book I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH published by Moody Press in 1971, says on page
51, under the heading, WHEN IS A LOCAL CHURCH A CHURCH?
"It is easy to
get bogged down with peripheral issues and questions. And there does not seem to
be a clear-cut way to define a local church.
"For example,
is it when you have a constitution and regular meetings? Is it when you have
baptized believers who partake regularly of the Lord's Supper? Is it when you
have church officers, such as elders and deacons? Should numerous norms be
present in order to have a local church? It certainly does not include a certain
level of maturity: for the Corinthians were yet carnal but Paul called them a
church. Further, it does not seem necessary to have spiritual leaders before you
call a body of believers a church, for it is clearly implied that groups of
believers throughout Lystra, Iconium and Antioch were called churches even
before elders were appointed (Acts14:21-22).
"When, then,
can a body of believers be called a church? I personally tend toward a simple
definition: a body of believers can be called a church whenever that group meets
together regularly for mutual edification.
Jesus said, in
the context of talking about church discipline, `For where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.' (Matt. 18.20
KJV). And it is clear what Tertullian, one of the early church fathers, felt Jesus meant, for he
said: "Where there are two or three believers, even laymen, there is a
church.'"
Jim Montgomery,
in his book, DAWN 2000-SEVEN MILLION CHURCHES TO GO, says, concerning the
question, What is a church?
"I'm impressed
with how a group of Christians faced this most fundamental question in China:
They said, `Concerning [this] question, many older Christians said that they
could not predict the future form of Chinese churches. So they turned to the
Bible for an answer. They found in the Bible that the house-church form was a
legitimate church . . . we found a book by Wang Ming-Dao [perhaps the most
highly respected believer in China who languished in jail for more than 20
years] on the institution of the church. He held that where there were
Christians, there was a church.
We were happy
about this. We assumed that, although our group consisted of only a few people,
we actually were a church, and our head was Jesus.'"
Where there are
Christians, there is a church,' is a profound definition, coming from a Church
growing rapidly and laboring under the most difficult of
circumstance."
A CONGREGATION
OF BELIEVERS IS A CHURCH
A few months
ago I was teaching a small group of believers in the village of La Rumurosa in
Old Mexico. I was explaining Matthew 18:20. "Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, I am in the midst of them.". A word in the Spanish language
translation of that verse leaped out at me. I had not seen it before. It says,
"Donde hay dos o tres congregados en mi nombre, alli estoy en medio de ellos."
"Where two or three are CONGREGATED in my name, there am I in the midst of
them." I asked the group, "According to this verse, how many does it take to
make a congregation?" As I waited for them to answer, I was struck with the
weight of the answer that was forming in my own mind. Two or three is all it
takes to make a congregation and a
congregation of believers with Jesus in the midst is church! Not just two
or three people, but two or three who are called by his name, because they
belong to him.
JESUS IN THE
MIDST
"Jesus within"
is the experience of the individual in his own private walk with the Lord.
"Jesus in the midst" is the church mode. It is Jesus walking among us, touching
us, speaking to us through the gifts of the Spirit flowing through the members of his Body,
the church. "Jesus in the midst," is the corporate experience. "Jesus within" is
the private experience."
When two or
three born-again believers come together in His name, Jesus is IN THE MIDST.
Jesus in the midst is CHURCH! It is a different experience than Jesus within. We
cannot experience Jesus in the midst while we are alone. We can only experience
Jesus in the midst when we are in company with others-- at least one or two
others who are called by his name!
But is it a
church in the fullest sense of the word? Yes, it is church in the fullest sense
of the word. It is the basic church. You can have more than two or three and it
is still church, church in the fullest sense, but it does not become more church because there
are more than two or three. It only becomes a bigger
church.
THE ROLE OF
CHURCH LEADERS
But what about
pastors, deacons, teachers, apostles, evangelists, and bishops? Is it church
without these being present? Yes, it is church, even without all of the above.
The fourth chapter of Ephesians says that the Lord gave to the church all these
ministries, but He gave these gifts to "the church" which was already in
existence.
When Paul went
out on his first missionary journey, he established churches in four cities. On
his way back to Antioch, he ordained elders for those churches. This indicates
that the Holy Spirit, who is the author of the book of Acts, knew they were churches
before leadership was appointed. He also wants us to know that. Consider the
following:
" They returned
again to Lystra, and to Iconium and Antioch, confirming the souls of the
disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through
much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. And when they had ordained them
elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the
Lord, on whom they had believed." (Acts 14:21-23)
The elders were
added to the churches (disciples). Disciples were people called by God out of
darkness into light are The Church! The writer uses the words "disciples" and
"church" interchangeably.
Paul felt it
safe to leave these newly formed churches in the hands of the Lord on whom the
people had believed. This is a key statement. We who are placed into leadership
have taken too much upon ourselves in assuming that the church cannot function
without our constant "watch care" over the flock. A bishop is an overseer and a
feeder and functions as a father or a nurse to his children, but there is a
limit to our spiritual oversight which we have too often violated. The major
violation by church leaders in our day is that we have almost completely taken
the initiative away from the people and have invested it into a "professional"
clergy.
THEN WHAT IS A
CHURCH?
If we take away
all the non-essentials, we would have Jesus and at least two people who have
come together in His name; two people who have been born again meeting together
anywhere, at anytime to acknowledge and honor his presence is church at its
simplest, most basic, most informal level. This, of course, does not mean that
this essential level is where the Lord wants us to operate all the time. Praise
God for larger groups. But let us never lose sight of the basic church. If we
do, we will tend to lapse into forms, rituals, ceremonies, religiosity,
institutionalism, and legalism.
"WHAT IS THE
CHURCH?"