In reference to your article the
“House Church Movement”
5/17/09 Posted here 5/19/09
Jim:
I just read you above-titled article. Thank you for posting it. The only thing that has kept me from leaving an institutional church (independent fundamental Baptist) for the past four years is concern over discernment and doctrinal purity in house churches. I’ve been looking for four years for a group made up with people with their heads “screwed on straight” doctrinally. I think so many people leave their institutional churches (from whatever denomination) and abandon a lot of true doctrines and perfectly acceptable practices as a reaction against where they came from. In their rejection of where they came from they latch on to all kinds of spurious ideas (contemplative spirituality/prayer, “Christian” yoga, refusal to stand for orthodox Biblical doctrines so as not to be “divisive” or “legalistic”). One of the hobbies that I took up soon after being born again 13 years ago was researching cults and Christian denominations. A lot of cults start as extreme 180 degree reversals from real or perceived problems in churches or groups that they left. They end up just as in error as the places they left behind, but in the opposite way.
The one house church that I visited a few years ago was made up of people from evangelical backgrounds and even an elder who was a deacon at an independent Baptist church. The meeting was completely open (which is good in and of itself) and a few people made remarks about the Bible and doctrine that made my head spin in disbelief. The books I saw in peoples’ hands ran the gamut of doctrinal craziness. The three elders, including the elder doing the teaching, didn’t say a word at the unbiblical remarks that were made. After the meeting I asked that elder about doctrinal purity and the handling of heresy in the church there. His answer led me to believe that his philosophy was “it’ll all work out in the end” or “we don’t want to cause any strife”.
While the institutional church’s stance on the “pastorate”, church buildings, etc. make me grit my teeth, at least I don’t have to listen every week to people saying the most ridiculous things about basic Christian doctrines. How are newly saved Christians supposed to increase in true knowledge and discernment and to grow up if they constantly hear un-countered heresy.
I am not interested in being part of the house church movement. I know enough about movements to give them a wide berth. What I want is to be part of a local assembly of believers meets biblically, is made up of people who love one another as seen in their desire to fellowship and share their lives and Christian walks, and that is made up of people who don’t belong in theological circus freak shows.
Brandon
Dane County, WI