Why I am NOT a home church advocate…
There is a growing “movement” in this country called home church. It is proclaimed to be the next great work of God on the earth. From someone who has meet in homes for over 40 years I would humbly submit that meeting in homes as opposed to meeting in a building is, in fact, missing the whole point. The early church and we who meet in homes do so for one simple reason. It was and is the best and most practical way to enable the local body of Christ to build itself up in love and supply that which every joint needs to supply in order to maintain a healthy spiritual life and walk. If hanging upside down in a barn would better serve that end then I would be a “hang upside down in a barn” church advocate. We are, in fact, a family and families normally reside in homes. Meeting in a home can be the way to encourage brothers and sisters to step out into the awesome glory of body ministry but it can also be a vehicle for control, abuse and manipulation. Which one it becomes is determined by your understanding of the true purpose of our Heavenly Father. He did not send His son to be crucified, buried and rise again so that you won’t have to feel bad or guilty about the sins you committed against Him. That is purely a man-centered, self-centered perversion of the Gospel. Our vision must be changed forever. The glory of God which is found in His son Jesus Christ must explode again into our hearts and blind us to all but Him. Much as it did to Paul on the Damascus road. He did not come just to change my destination, from hell to heaven, but to change my destiny, Christ in me …the hope of glory. He did not bear the cross just to get you from hell into heaven (although a glorious by-product) but to get heaven into you on earth. He taught His disciples to pray, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done ON EARTH as it is being done IN HEAVEN! To meet in a home will give us the “opportunity” to experience that heavenly calling and ministry…each member giving from their heart for the common good unto the building up of the body of Christ. But without the spiritual understanding of His great purpose, meeting in a home or anywhere else, for that matter, will not benefit us in any discernable or appreciable way. Christians can assemble in many different ways but to be “gathered together” (meaning of the Greek word “ecclesia”) it takes the power of the Holy Spirit and the working of the cross into each member, so that Christ, and Christ alone is the Head and Lord of His body. We have found that this is much more likely to happen when we meet together in someone’s home. It is a mighty work of the Spirit to create an atmosphere conducive to encouraging ALL the members to bring forth from their heart. Meeting in a home is much more inviting and enabling for the quiet ones to open their hearts to share. When we are gathered (one locality) together (one heart and mind) the freedom (personal) and liberality (corporate) of His body works together to the building up of itself in love. It is truly awesome and glorious to behold. But to just move from a building to someone’s home will not bring that to pass by any stretch of the imagination
I do believe the Lord Jesus Christ IS calling His own out of the religious system, a system that traditionally meets in buildings, but moving from a building to a home will not change anything in the heart. Just because I have left the system of things (i.e. a building, pastor, etc.) does not mean the system has left me. In observing different home churches, the saddest thing I have ever witnessed is brethren trying to meet in a home with the same “mindset” they met in a building. One even had a podium for the speaker and a section set apart for the “choir”. Meeting in a home is not the answer to the cry of the heart for so many brothers and sisters desiring a richer and more satisfying relationship with Christ and His body. The answer is and forever will be a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. But from that relationship we must quickly be lead of the Spirit to see the necessity of the corporate expression of Christ, found in his body. His desire is to manifest a family of believers for the world to behold. For meeting in a home without the accompanying work of the Holy Spirit in your understanding will just make the meeting smaller, cramped, awkward and just as lifeless as before. A change of location, building to house, will not change you in your heart. The answer is seeing what the Holy Spirit is presently doing in the earth. I am convinced that work is… building His Church by emptying us so that we might be filled up with Christ and then taking those individual parts and joining them to each other, forming (1 Peter 2:9)… a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; Meeting in a home should be the natural consequence of understanding in your own heart what the Lord is working to accomplish in his church. Our Father by very definition desires a family. He is calling us out…that He might bring us in. Into a deep and life fulfilling relationship with Himself and His family. He is calling out His true bride and she is making herself ready by the wisdom and enablement of the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to become that Bride sitting in a building for 1 hour a week, staring at the back of someone’s head, listening to man tell you what God wants you to do today. It is just as impossible to meet in a home with the same man-centered, self-centered mindset and think you will be any better off there than where you were before.
For the Lamb of God to receive the reward of His suffering we must make Jesus Christ, first and foremost, in every aspect of our lives. We must seek understanding as to how that is best accomplished in practical ways. Our Father is working by His Spirit to bring His Son into pre-eminence in ALL things. He MUST have first place in everything we are and do. Gathering together in a home can be a great tool to assist in that purpose and calling but it is not a magical pill to answer the trials and issues of the church.
Home Church Orlando 