Life span of a house church

Back in the 1990's my wife and I participated in house church for around 15 years. We met many wonderful people and learned a lot in the various conferences and retreats. We also observed that many start ups would only last for a year or so. They would begin with great enthusiasm and then the enthusiasm would fade eventually.

Many found this normal and acceptable at the time. I have not been in contact with many house churches lately but I have wondered if things are changing along these lines. Are there many going strong for over 5 years or more?

Dan B

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    • Your observation is true, Dan. House churches have been oversold and buyer's remorse often followed. Looking back, the motivation seemed to be more from rebellion (defined as freedom or revolution). These aspects do have considerable merit but eventually can wear thin.

      Another big pull factor, also legitimate, was that many saints got badly hurt and even battered in the institutional churches.

      The best motivation - which is never perfect in this life - should have been maturity in Christ and ministry to others. But as you know, people would rather complain and be lazy rather than serve one another and win the lost.

      Ephesians 4:11-13 – And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

      Perhaps, in the providence of God, some churches were meant to be seasonal or short-lived. I cannot say. The longing of the heart, in most people, is to belong to a larger group beyond the home. It's just in their DNA. So it seems.

      By the way... Years ago, maybe 25 or 30, we visited a home meeting at your address in Ohio. Before arriving there, I remember seeing the vast farmlands as far as the eye could see. I am from the South, as you are aware. It was at that point I was reminded that the supposed justification of slavery on the basis of southern farms being too big to manage without black labor - was a very lame and cruel excuse indeed.

      Brother, you have left a clear testimony and a pathway with many blessings to others. I thank you for your friendship. And with you, I long for members of every ethnic group to join hands and bow together at the cross of Christ. Then to arise and declare his glory and preeminence in all things.

      • T

        David, your thoughts aligned with mine when I read Dan's post. (I've been meaning to reply ever since he posted but struggled to complete my thoughts.) We were once part of a ministry that eventually fell apart because the reason to form it was no longer important to those of us who put in the effort to get it going. It was a valuable lesson that has really impacted my view of the church.

        I really hate what our culture has done to the church. You said, "many saints got badly hurt and even battered in the institutional churches". I agree. Yet when I look back to my own experiences then I have no one to blame other than myself for any anger and hurt that I felt at that time. My true motivation was not "maturity in Christ and ministry to others" as you so aptly put. Those things that drew me to be a part of the church at that time were not eternal things that last. Instead, they were cultural. It reminds me a lot of Jesus following the feeding of the 5,000 as found in John 6:22-71. As you read this, please note that Jesus questions the crowd's motives, tells them exactly who it is that stands before them, then watches many of his followers turn away...

        I Am the Bread of Life
        22 On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23 Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.
        25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
        35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
        41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
        52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
        The Words of Eternal Life
        60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
        66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

        Jesus indictment of the crowd's motives is clear when He says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves." Apparently an all-you-can-eat, free meal was a crowd favorite back in Jesus' day too. :-) In the end, Jesus makes this story about Himself, as does the rest of Scripture

        So the question becomes, "what is our motivation for church?" In the institutional church, it seems all to easy to get distracted by 1,000 things other than Christ. But cannot the same be said of house churches as well? And do not many of our concerns arise because of the culture we live in rather than what Scripture tells us about our spiritual condition?

        In general, I find myself very much aligned in my thinking with those here who are skeptical of how the institutional churches are run by those who govern them. But how easy I personally find it to make that single issue the focus of the time that I spend thinking of God. If I'm to be honest though, I find it much easier to blame others for my poor motives. I need to stop seeking after the fish and the loaves and instead remember that Christ is the living bread and water

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