Monday, December 01, 2008

House church? Sanctuary style church? Both?!

CCWblog.org: An Appeal for the Use of House Churches to Extend Sanctuary-Style Churches

Not saying this is the right approach, also not saying it isn't. But it is an interesting take on how we should gather together and it shows someone who is thinking beyond just the all or nothing approach some people take. For some, church is church. We gather in the church building and sit in the pews and follow the bulletin and sing when told and pray when told. For others, there is a radical need to reject everything about the old steeple houses, and their rejection of the steeple house is a point of pride and separation from others. In both extremes, the form of the church becomes an idol. Give Jim's post a read!

(Please note I have no idea what else Jim Ellif believes and this link is a point of interest, not an endorsement)

(HT: A Better Covenant)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was thinking about your thoughts on "Christian Institutions" yesterday.

Isn't it interesting that (to my knowledge) none of the original churches of the New Testament started by Paul, Timothy, James, Peter etc. are still around?

Now we know those institutions were founded properly and filled with genuine converts (charismatic Calvinists no less) But they did spawn other churches that reproduced themselves. Perhaps that is how other Christian institutions benefit us. Seminaries give us people like John Piper, Mark Devers, Al Mohler, MacArthur etc. Sure it also gives us Brian Maclarens and that fruitcake down in florida who was kicking people in the stomach to heal them...but there will always be wheat with the tares.

Have you found a church yet? WHen are you moving?

James said...

Joe, I beg to differ on your assesment that the original churches planted by the men you mention are not around. That is a fallacy from the pits of hell, an inevitably it breaks down almost instantaneously. The reason we assume those churches are no longer around is because there are no physical remnants that provide an evidence of their existence. But the fact that you or I can even say we've ever heard the gospel in any way rests solely on the proclamation of the gospel by those men. Thier provision and foundational work has provided the building blocks that sit upon the cornerstone of the church. Jesus Christ Himself. So, in actuality, that church has been around for thousands of years, and honestly, I see it going absolutely knowhere, for He is the fount of our Salvation.

The Bridegroom will come for His bride when it is time, but for now, she waits. Always has, and always will.

Unfortunately, the only memory most people have of the church is the building or institution they can touch, feel, smell, or see, not the one that believers are baptised into the moment they profess faith, participate in death, burial, and rise in resurrection to new life, do they ever partake of the church that is the bride of Christ. It saddens me that we make such loosley based assumptions from our American concepts of presence determining existence.