Danger Signs for House Churches

Here are several pitfalls that you'll want to avoid.

Larry Kreider and Floyd McClung
We are advocates of houses churches. We are completely convinced that God
will lead thousands of people to start new house churches within the next few
years. But that could be good, or it could be a disaster.
House church is not a panacea for all that ails the institutional Church, nor
should it be an end in itself. Like any church, house churches can get off track
every church is made up of fallen people who hurt and disappoint each other.
We make mistakes. We sin. The closer we get to each other, the more we see
each other's faults and the more we can hurt each other. Relational Christianity
in house churches can be messy.

Here are some common pitfalls and how to overcome them.

The Pitfall of Consumer Christianity

House churches should be about something far more radical than trying to be a
smaller version of big churches. If we simply replicate the bigger churches we
know well (on a smaller scale), we end up multiplying problems, not offering
solutions. Our culture needs a new expression of church, not a dumbed-down
mini-version of what already exists. If people want a church that is radically
committed to the mission of God, sooner or later they will have to contend with
the valuesthe DNA, if you willthat have been instilled in them for years in
traditional churches.

DNA is an apt analogy for the persistence of values imported into house
churches from traditional churches. The problem we face is almost cellular!
Apple trees produce apples and orange trees produce oranges, and if a
person's experience has been a social, cultural, and economic system that
produces churches shaped by our Western culture, we should not expect that
person to produce anything different without deep spiritual change. .

Leaders of all church sizes know what it's like for people to leave over a slight
disagreement about the style of worship or for a different variety of programs
offered at another church. Many Americans and Europeans choose their church
like they pick toothpasteby shopping! If they don't like the product at one
church, they'll check out another product the next week.

House churches run counter to this consumer mentality. They flat-out don't work
unless people are committed.

The Pitfall of Inauthentic Community

If we seek community with other followers of Jesus without an orientation to a
new definition of churcha definition that is about genuine community and
radical commissionpeople will revert to expectations based on older models.
We must orient people to a community based on genuine relationships that
require honesty, forgiveness, and mercy. If we do not, churches will experience
conflict and division among people, and conflicting expectations within people.

In order to experience genuine community in a house church, we have to trust

other people. But there is this little problem called sin! We don't, however,
believe that sin is the greatest barrier to community, but lack of forgiveness.
People in our nation are broken, and trust doesn't come easy these days. When
people consider whether or not to trust, many seem to think that
the other person's sinfulness is the problem. They are idealistic about their own
lack of sin. Idealists don't do well in communitynot because they are
imperfect, but because they don't acknowledge their imperfections and received
the forgiveness of God. If idealists have not received forgiveness, they will
struggle with giving it to others.

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It's important to get this right. If you are part of a small community, sooner or
later someone will do something to hurt or disappoint you, and you may once
again have good reason to avoid "the Church." But Dietrich Bonhoeffer points
out in his book Life Together that the Church is not a place for idealists and
humanists. Rather, Church is a community of forgiven sinnersa family of
people who need mercy from those who have learned to forgive like Jesus.

The Pitfall of Pride

A common pitfall in any new, radical effort to do church differently is pride.

Pioneers of new church communities may tend to view their way of doing
church as the one and only solution for today's ailing Christian culture. If we are
doing church differently because it is novel, because it is trendy, or because it
meets some personal need or preference, we are doing it for the wrong
reasons. Simple church communities are only one of many ways the Lord is
calling the Church to rise up and be unleashed in the world today. One model
does not fit all.

As soon as we think our group is the only "right" group around town, we're in
trouble. Pride always comes before a fall. We must learn to follow the path the
Lord has laid out for us with great conviction and, at the same time, honor what
He is doing through others walking a path that looks different from our own.

The Pitfall of Fear

Another trap to avoid is fear, particularly fear of what people think. House
churches are largely unproven entities in today's church world. They are new to
many people and depend upon sometimes-inexperienced people to provide
leadership. Despite these challenges, house-church leaders must act in faith,
not in fear. They must build what God has called them to build and gain the
courage to press on even when they encounter people who question their
nontraditional approach to church. Even though house churches may lack
credibility, what they lack in status can be made up for by courage and vision.

Fear of our own mistakes is another thing that can hinder us. Bible teacher Bob
Mumford once said, "I do not trust anyone unless he walks with a limp." He was
referring to Genesis 32, when Jacob, after wrestling with the Lord and
demanding His blessing, was touched in his thigh and from that day forward
walked with a limp. When God lovingly deals with us through difficult times, we
walk with a spiritual limp the rest of our lives. This is the stuff of which true
spiritual fathers and mothers are made.

Jacob's example testifies to the fact that we all make mistakes. It also teaches
us that we must not give up. We may be doing all the right things, but problems
will still arise. Or we may be tempted to go back to something easier than
dealing with the shortcomings of humanity. Being a spiritual parent to believers
in a house church is not easy. But it is rewarding.

The Pitfall of an Independent Spirit

Still another hidden danger is developing an independent and isolationist spirit.

Sometimes those who do not want to be under any type of spiritual authority
gravitate toward house churches because they believe they can do their own
thing without having to answer to anyone. There are also house-church groups
that are reactionary against the institutional Church, often indicative that people
have been hurt or abused in traditional churches by controlling leaders.

Through this kind of disillusionment and disappointment, believers may totally

isolate themselves from the greater Church. This kind of independent spirit is a
form of pride, and it is very unhealthy. In contrast, the Lord's plan is to use the
local church to protect us, help us grow, and equip us to be all that we can be in
Jesus Christ.

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The Pitfall of Heresy

House churches may fall into the trap of heresy if they are exclusive and
unwilling to work with others. This can be avoided if we are accountable to other
leaders in a house-church network and in the Body of Christ at large. We need
accountability to keep us from false teaching.

The best solution to heresy in the Church is not to have better-trained leaders in
the pulpits, but to have better-trained people in the pews. An institutionalized
church does not keep us from error. The size and structure of the church does
not keep us from heresy. We can only find freedom from error by testing
everything by the Word of God, in relationship with godly believers outside our
circle and accountable to others in the wider Body of Christ.
Neil Cole of Church Multiplication Associatesa family of simple church
networksexplains how they handle the threat of heresy in a simple church:

Do I teach scriptural interpretive skills in our movement? Yes, I do, but it is not the first
thing I do. First I set the saints to reading the Scripture without any middleman. Once
the sheep hear the Good Shepherd's voice, they will follow Him for life. There is a
significant "imprinting" that needs to take place from the very beginning of a new life.
Like the baby ducks that will follow their mother, new disciples must connect with God's
voice early on.

People will ask me, "Then aren't the disciples going to misunderstand scripture?" Yes,
of course they are. And so did I when I was a young disciple. Perhaps we should allow
people the freedom to make a few mistakes, leave with a few questions, and learn as
they grow. I remember my first Bible study that I ever taughtit was heresy! And I
managed to utter a four-letter word in it as well. I am glad someone gave me a chance
to do better the next time.

I do teach basic Bible interpretation skills, but I wait until the disciples emerge as
leaders and are preparing to teach others. When they are responsible for others'
learning, then I teach them basic interpretive skills.

Larry Kreider and Floyd McClung; excerpted from their recent book Starting a
House Church (Regal Publishers, 2007). Used with permission.

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KEYWORDS:
Heresy; House churches; Pride; Problems