"So, How is House Church Going?"

I had the "pastor" of the church I used to attend (we still communicate) ask me the other day, "so, how is that house church going?".

It got me to sit down and write a response... so I thought I would put it here too...

I have come to think less about "how to DO church" and more about how to "BE the church". Which makes even the label "house church" sound funny to me now. So, I am not sure how to answer how the house church is going, but here is part of the journey I have been on....

On a personal level, we are getting together with and meeting more people now -- getting to know more people than we ever have before -- going outside of our familiar acquaintances and circle of friends to meet new people (as well as staying in touch with old friends) and that has been good. We have met up with a small group of believers who get together... Meeting in their homes or wherever they can. Many have been "outside of the organized church" for 4- 10 years. We met another couple through the internet who has just recently started hanging out with us, worshiping and praying with us who had left an abusive church two years back and finally were convinced that they needed to seek out new relationships with Christians but not in a typical church setting.

The more I consider what Jesus said and what Paul and others wrote... The more I see that the emphasis (even in the New Testament) is about PERSONAL responsibility, faith, and relationships rather than describing a 'movement' or a 'procedure for organizational ministry'. Jesus said next to nothing about what this thing the "church" would be, except to describe it in personal terms of the people's nature and responsibilities... How to live, how to act, how to worship the Lord (with their lives -- spirit and truth -- location is not important... Etc.).

I told you once (maybe more than once) that John 3:8 has always fascinated me... I kept thinking maybe there was something more in that verse that I kept overlooking but could not quite put my finger on?... I think maybe some small insight into it was given to me while reading an article by a guy from New Zealand named Jack Grey.

Link to Jack Grey's article: "My search for the church (part 1)".

He mentioned the talk to Nicodemus in john 3 and it peaked my attention. This writer was talking about a new view of what the 'church' might be: That it was not primarily organizational... That it was primarily personal and directed by God as a collection of individuals. (in other words, it was meant to be a people of God who practiced a life of being led by the LORD himself and as a PART of that, they would live their lives together not to simply meet and live out some kind of spiritual life, but as a part of the rest of the whole of their lives. They were a 'force' hidden in society (sometimes for safety's sake because of persecution) that was not a 'tangible' or 'targetable' group... Nothing to really see except individuals who followed the Lord, loved one another and loved everyone else too.

So... He pointed to John 3:8 where Jesus is describing these people who are "Born Again"... (In essence... The Christians who would come and become the church)

"...The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

For years I read this and thought, "this is speaking of how the Spirit moves in our lives... We see that He is active but we can't put our finger on him... Like the wind." Then it dawned on me that if you really read the verse... It is not really saying the SPIRIT is like this... It says that EVERYONE BORN OF THE SPIRIT is like this. It is only descriptive of the Spirit in that He live IN US... But Jesus is talking about US.

I started thinking... How can we be like that? What does that mean? Hear and see the effects of a Christian but not know where it comes from or where it is going?

That is where I started thinking that Jesus was really describing the church here... Not in organizational terms like we are used to hearing, but on a personal level... That the church, if it were simple like I mentioned above, would be a force for influence, change, blessing, love on a culture even though it would be hard to pin down where it was coming from, what it was called, where it's leadership was, where it was located... All the things we would normally think of asking about a religious organization. It was "untouchable" as a group because there wasn't really a "group" or an organization, or a location, or anything beyond the individuals who made up God's Spirit-led guerrilla force. It would be like the police looking for a suspect using the wrong eyewitness description.

I guess I picture it something like the American revolution... An organized force (human society) being overcome by a hit-and run, rag-tag un-seen army that does not seem to have any organization or leader... And yet seems led by one mind or one passion. For us that leader and passion is the Lord alone.