House Church.....

Its true, meeting in a home changes nothing. There are skunk churches, and skunk house churches.

"But here is the challenge: To allow the new without threatening the old. To preserve the old without hindering the new. Those without wisdom choose one but not both. And the result is skunks and turtles.

I visited a House Church in the early 90's. It was run by skunks. A group of disgruntles whose happiness came from the fact they met on Thursday and not Sunday. In a living room and not a sanctuary. On a sofa and not a pew. They were like kids staying away from school, hiding out, proud of their boldness to leave. And yet in all their freedom they managed only to move the church service from a building to a house. Not much else had changed. These were another group. Not skunks or turtles. Another. Butterflies, perhaps. No rebellion. No scars. No issues with ecclesiastical entities. Just people who liked to live with each other in each others context. Environments with wallpaper and photos and TV magazines. Lives located somewhere. Homes where people live and children pick their noses and dogs annoy. Real people who want to see deeply into each other's lives. To delight in the beauty. To heal what is broken. To be healed. Touched. Appreciated but not used. Perhaps these people are the third wave. People who church together without contrasting. Part of a church without an address. A movement without a label . For they do not always call what they do "house church". Sometimes there is no house. Even "home church" does not contain their experience of God and each other in this covenanted journey...... In the meantime, don't expect authentication from the mainstream. The house church movement is basically overlooked and downgraded. Denominational executives are threatened by the idea of housewives starting churches in their own homes rather than their trained professionals in the buildings that were designed for this purpose."

(My Gripes About the House Church Movement by Andrew Jones)

http://www.thirddaychurches.com/resources/guestArticles/gripes