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FIRST RESPONSE: A New Reformation? |
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Written by Don Williams
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Page 1 of 2 First Response
August 2007
A New Reformation?By Don Williams
For many today, especially post-moderns under 40, the very nature or definition of the church is up for grabs. The Los Angeles Times ran a front page article (July 23, 2007) headlined: “Seeking the living word – in their living rooms.” The subtitle reads, “It's how the church began, say small Christian groups that forgo clergy and ritual.” Here is a sample from the article:
“Jason Kilp had a short commute to church one recent Sunday. He walked about 15 feet from the bedroom of his Anaheim apartment to a small worship service in the living room. 'It's intimate,' the 24-year old graphic design student said. Unlike gatherings he and his wife have attended at a 4,000-member mega-church in Irvine, Kilp said, 'this is like a conversation. It's somebody talking to you.'”
The Times goes on to say that this movement among evangelical Christians, depending on who is talking, is either a second Protestant Reformation or a sellout of biblical principles. These groups are called house churches, living room churches, the underground church, the organic church, the simple church, the church without walls. Proponents and detractors alike say that going to a house church “has the potential of forever changing the way Christians worship.”
Next The Times introduces the ever quoted George Barna, Christian pollster and author of the book “Revolution” which details the changing nature of worship. A 2006 survey by his firm concluded that 9% of US adults attend house churches weekly. This is a ninefold increase over the previous decade. Furthermore, 70 million Americans have experienced a home service. The Times continues, “Those most likely to attend house churches...are men, families that home-school their children, residents of the West and nonwhites, while those least likely...include women, people older than 60 and Midwesterners.” Barna comments, “We predict that by the year 2025, the market share of conventional churches will be cut in half.... People are creating a new form of church, and it's really exciting.”
Critics, however, say that the home church movement is a consequence of the failure of mega-churches. Theologian David Wells (of Gordon-Conwell Seminary) cautions that these churches are “empty of Biblical substance. This is not real Christianity.” But advocates respond that this is how the early church, absent of numbers, resources and under persecution, began. They also hold that the house church movement satisfies the craving for more intimate worship. “'People can get a lot closer to each other than in a formal church setting where everyone sits with their heads facing forward,' said Milt Rodriguez, 54, whose nondenominational ministry, the Rebuilders, has started five 'first-century style' house churches in Colorado and Missouri since 2002. 'Its not just one person preaching with everybody following. Everyone has a function, and everyone shares.'”
Barna credits the growth of house churches to the “post-modern mindset” which places the highest priority on relationships and shared experiences. “We're finding, increasingly...particularly among young adults [that]...people are feeling disconnected, and when they attend conventional church services, there's not much there to connect them to others present” and to God.
The average house church meets weekly with 10 to 20 people. They tend to depend on spontaneous leadership and encourage fuller participation. Roger Finke, sociologist at Penn State University, says that this grass-roots approach appeals to nondenominational Christians. “If you are Orthodox, or Catholic or Lutheran,” he said, “you wouldn't think of having the authority [to worship] without being part of a larger hierarchy. For evangelicals, the ultimate authority is the Bible. They don't depend on ordained clergy to provide ritual or give them sacraments. They want to get back to what the early church was like.”
David Wells warns that such groups are very inward-focused, gathering people who like each other. Prophetic preaching, confrontation or discipline would be very difficult and break most groups up. “What do you do about the sacraments? What about discipline? Will the group be able to address moral calamity? When you have a clubby little group, other people don't naturally make their way in.”
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First Response 
