I am baptist Church Planter and I agree with all your writtings presented in your web site. actually, if you wnat to see how far we are, please read the next link, I hope it shock you the way that now we encorage to our missiners to do exactly the same things that you explain in your web site. This is: Starting small houses churches with a average size of 16 members, with no cleregy but local leadership, organized not by denomination but geographically. http://www.imb.org/CPM/default.htm

Now I am in Atlanta. Here the american baptist are pretty much the same that the last centuries. Doing my ministry as a Church Planter has been dificult since I do not have suport of a local church: I am suported for the National Mission Board and other important denominational liders, but I need LOGIC INTELLIGENT ARGUMENTS to convince myself and others that starting house chuches it is "geeting out of the religion and denominations" not "getting into a new denomination".

You have asked some good questions relative to denominationalism and wondered if "house churches" can possibly be just another denomination.

Yes they certainly can!

But let me back up a bit. A "denomination" is simply a "name" by which a group has been named. There is nothing wrong with having a name. Scripture gives quite a few names to us. They include "Believers, Brethren,Children of God, Christians, Disciples, Saints, the Elect etc. All of these names designate relationships which are true of all of the people of God or denote something which God has done for all His children.

The problem with every denominational sect or division in Christendom is that they are not satisfied to take names which unite all Christians. Rather, so many want to be distinguished FROM others! So names are chosen to designate distinctions and those distinctions divide what God has united! When people call themselves "Baptists" they are saying, "WE baptize believers (but others do not) we are distinct." When others call themselves "Pentecostals", they are saying, "WE practice speaking in tongues and preaching the Gospel as they did on the day of Pentecost (but others do not) so we are distinct." "Prebyterians" are saying, "WE practice church government by presbyters (but others do not) so we are distinct." Those who call themselves "Reformed" are saying, "WE follow the teachings and practices of the reformers (but others do not) so we are distinct." One could go on and on citing many such examples. But the very same problem was in the church at Corinth when Paul wrote First Corinthians! Some said, "I am of Paul" but the implied message was "Others are not, so we are distinct!"

You see, contrary to the names that we are given in scripture which emphasize relationships or facts which are true of all Christians, sectarian names were all designed to emphasize activities, practices, allegiances etc. These things always divide!

So if we call ourselves "House church", we have created just another sect because we are distinguishing ourselves from other saints by something which we do which they may not! When a friend of mine is asked, "What church do you go to?" He responds with mock surprise, "Is there more than one???" When asked what church I belong to, I like to say, "The believers, the brethren, the saints, the Christians." Usually, that does not satisfy the inquirer for they want to distinguish me somehow from others. So I like to respond by saying, "Well, we should get our direction for our churches from the new testament, shouldn't we?" People will usually agree with that. So I ask, well if I was to go by scripture, what "church" would scripture place me in? What denomination would the apostles counsel me to join?

Then I say, "If you happened to be a "Pentecostal" and I tell you I am a "Baptist", immediately we both think of things on which we differ and fight and squabble so a big wall goes up between us! But if you tell me that you are a Christian, and I tell you that I am a believer and someone else tells us that he is a child of God, there are no walls that go up! We realize that we have so much in common in relation to Christ!

I really like the way the Lord Jesus handled questions like this: In John 1, two disciples of John had just met Jesus for the first time. They asked him, "Rabbi, where dwellest thou?" The Lord Jesus could have said, "Down the street at the next corner, turn left, go three blocks and turn right. Its the second house on the left with the blue shutters." In that way, He would have emphasized the THE PLACE. The two could then have run off without him to find the place and missed out on knowing Him! But instead of that, he called those two men into realtionship with Himself by simply responding, "Come and see." They did. But they not only found the place but ABODE WITH HIM that day!

I think we need to consciously and purposefully emphasize relationships with the Lord's people when asked about our connections. "We meet with some Christians! Would you like to come with us?"

I'm not sure if this is just what you are looking for, but hope it is some help along the way!