House Church Talk - Biblical reasons for leaving IC's

[Bruce Woodford]

Hi Glenn,

You wrote:"having listed negatively for us in your post various ills of what 
are NOT the biblical paths (organizational membership, hired clergy, 
clerical sermons, financing buildings, clerical titles, etc.), what 
specifically would you point us to positively as THE SCRIPTURAL SOLUTIONS? 
[Oftentimes it is easier to point out the many problems than to offer 
carefully the much-needed scriptural solutions to them.] "

You are right in that I simply mentioned features of religious practices 
which have no new covenant basis. (Most of the practices of what I used to 
call "new testament churches" were  derived solely from the old 
testament!!!)

The solutions to the above-mentioned problems would be the acknowledgement 
and practice of new covenant truths such as:
-membership in the "organism" the Body of Christ of which Christ alone is 
the Head and every believer in Jesus Christ is a member. (I Cor.12, 
Ephesians 1, Colossians 1 etc)

-every believer is part of God's "clergy".  The word translated "heritage" 
in the KJV at I Peter 5:3 is the Greek word KLEROS  from which our word 
"clergy" is derived. This is exactly the same group of people referred to in 
I Peter 2:10 as the LAOS ("laity"), or PEOPLE of God.

-while monologue sermons spring from Greek rhetoric, scriptural "homiletics" 
is NOT the science of sermon preparation and delivery, as most Bible schools 
and seminaries teach!
All homilies (the Greek word HOMILEO) in scripture are, in fact, 
conversations among a number of people! (See Luke 24:14,15; Acts 20:11 and 
Acts 24:26)  This is entirely in keeping with the "one-anothering" which is 
the scriptural "agenda" for Christian gatherings which are the remedy for 
"forsaking the assembling of ourselves together", Heb.10:24,25.
-new covenant saints have no scriptural mandate to finance buildings, but 
rather to give generously to meet the needs of PEOPLE! (Acts 20:33-35; I 
Cor.16:1,2; II Cor.8 and 9 etc etc)

I might also mention, as others have also pointed out, that Paul never once 
referred to such an institution as "house church"!!!  Houses were just the 
most natural, normal, readily available places where relationships among 
those who were related to Christ could be nurtured! The new covenant 
emphasizes KNOWING PERSONS rather than GOING TO PLACES!

There is far more that could be said relative to new covenant relationships 
and practices, but trust these few examples will be helpful.

Your brother in Christ,
Bruce