A missional movement?

There have been some big numbers discussed these days regarding the contemporary house church movement. A recent study by a credible pollster and friend of the simple church expression has claimed that literally millions of people in North America are participating in "house churches" (i.e. simple church, organic church, etc.) . Taking in consideration several personal encounters, it just seems that a lot of lovers of God are simply dissatisfied and disillusioned (and in some cases deeply wounded) due to their church experiences in the U.S. context. Therefore, it is not hard to affirm the potential accuracy of recent studies.

I'm an insider to the U.S. house church movement, and I am excited about what God is doing through some dynamic churches and networks of churches across the country. However, as an insider, I wish or rather hope that these numbers are an overestimation of the situation. I don't necessarily leap up & down as if this is great news. Wonder why? Let me tell you.

If millions of believers are part of house churches across the U.S., then there should be multi-millions of dollars every year being generously poured into feeding the hungry, providing for refugees, and sending church planters into the poorest communities of our cities. This is what I would expect from faith communities that don't pay for big building projects or sustaining costly programs. I've heard of a house church network in Waco, TX that raised one million dollars for Gospel causes and of house churches supporting missionaries, but I haven't been so overwhelmed to see something congruent with such high statistics.

If more than 5 million believers are part of house churches across the U.S., I would expect that we would begin feeling the impact of a missional force on this continent. Relationships are the medium of the Gospel message, and simple church is just that -- simple, reproducible. A missional movement of this magnitude would shake the foundations of our society.

As an insider to the house church movement, my concern is that we could be participating in a reformation of sorts rather than a missional movement bringing justice and salvation to our cities and to suffering people around the globe. Reformation is not a bad thing if it is actually reform, but at times reformation movements fall short of the deep issues of the soul of a people that call for collective repentance.

I advocate for 'doing church' in organic, relational, and simple ways. I've seen the freedom that it unleashes with the help of the Holy Spirit. However, without repentance that leads naturally to mission, we may find ourselves to be rich & well-fed Christians only filling some need in the Maslow's pyramid instead of bringing transformation to our world.

I celebrate that we may be taking good care of one another through the relationships of our simple churches. That is overdue. May it spill out into neighborhoods of the hurting, the poor, and the marginalized. I pray that we may be attentive to the suffering rising from the cities across our land and around the globe. If people and resources have been unleashed from high infrastructures and control mechanisms, then be unleashed indeed. Be unleashed indeed.

Keeping Focus

I don't really count anymore. I used to, but I'm not sure it is the most reliable measure of our stewardship. Listen, I don't have any "baggage" when it comes to numbers & counting numerical growth nor do I think it is some sort of restless evil. Every head counted is a life, a soul. And while sometimes we find reasons to gather crowds in the Bronx, I simply much rather focus on much deeper issues than crowd-gathering.

For example, think about evangelism. I've grown weary of conversations that mourn the U.S. church's lack of evangelism. We ask, "Why don't we evangelize?" We wonder if we're too scared or too lazy. We devise some new plan to get people with the program. This has been going on for decades, and how has it worked so far? The statistics say: Not good. I'm happy to offer evangelism training for those who just need to understand culture and un-learn bad religious habits, but the usual conversation about the U.S. church's lack of evangelism just gets tiresome.

Perhaps we're asking the wrong questions. Maybe the real questions are, "Do we understand God's story? Have we gotten a clear picture of Jesus? Have our hearts been moved by His mercy?" I'm convinced that if the Good News, the story of Jesus, really gets a hold of us that evangelism will take care of itself. Too often, we just put the cart before the horse and wonder why we're not making any progress.

Of course, I do still count sometimes. Every year we have a fellowship retreat, and so every year I count all the people who are somehow connected to us and have potential to participate. Each year I have discovered that our overall constituency is actually growing -- gradually but steadily despite the harsh reality every church faces of losing some along the way. Gathering a crowd is not the main priority, but the increase is encouraging. Last week my wife and I came back from a little sabbath time away in New England and then at the end of that trip participated in Revolution, a Northeast youth retreat (which was anything but sabbath). I discovered that there had been potential for 20 teens from the Bronx to attend with 13 actually going. We're also seeing a lot more connections into youth culture, and it's emerging from multiple contacts and initiatives from across the network.

Still, the workers are few. I am committed to knocking on the doors of Heaven asking for more workers. May God raise up laborers among teens, among Spanish-speakers, among Albanians, among Muslims, among twentysomethings. That every nation will seek the peace of the city and glorify Jesus our Lord.

Pray with us to the Lord of harvest.