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Are WE emphasizing the wrong thing?

It seems to me that many who have stepped out of the boat into the waters of House Church have placed our emphasis on the wrong thing. Far too much attention is being placed upon “The HOUSE” and not enough upon “The Church.” It’s evident by the introverted questions we ask most often:

“What do we do with the Children?”

“What about our leadership?”

“How do we “DO” House Church?”

“Why don’t you meet on Sunday’s, Michael?” Answer: We meet constantly instead - even when we’re all alone.

If the emphasis is on the HOUSE, our focus will be upon how we maintain order in the house. Who is in charge in the house? When do we meet again in the house? What do we do when we get to the house?

The house! The House! The house!

On the other hand, if our emphasis is upon The Church, our questions will be more along these lines:

“What is The Church?”

“Who is The Church?”

“What is my role as The Church?”

“When am I The Church?”

“What did Jesus teach The Church?”

“What was The Church like in the beginning?”

“Where is The Church growing the largest and the fastest?”

“How is The Church managing such incredible growth elsewhere?”

In the Legacy Church, a format has been established from which they have not deviated for centuries, in many instances.

Enter the systemization of the institutional organization. Enter the human management of that which is of God.

Take for example, the handling of the question, “How is one born again?” From denomination to denomination, the response varies. As a result, the Legacy church has come to the point of preaching a Gospel of Salvation rather than the Gospel of the Kingdom taught by Jesus, all in the noble attempt to get as many people “born again” in their ranks as possible. The emphasis, once again, was placed upon the wrong thing, i.e., a particular group’s definition of what it means to be “born again.” In my own life, I was baptized as a baby, baptized in a certain group’s water at age 23, and repeated a Sinner’s Prayer with another group later, each time out of a sincere desire to tow the party line. Each group, however, had their own idea of what it meant to be “born again” and all emphasis was upon that particular act.

In our attempt to “do the right thing,” I’m finding that the House Church movement is resorting right back to the old traditional ways from which many attempted to flee. The emphasis is far too often upon the gathering, the gifts of one or two, and because we are creatures of habit, I’ll bet your group is subconsciously evolving into its very own Living Room Liturgy as well, going from A to Z and wrapping it up all in about the same length of time each time you meet, right? Many never meet at any other time BUT the established times and places.

Are we becoming a mini-Church, or do we have a vision for multiplication so that we can become a mega-church without the edifice?

Are we discipling leaders or listeners?

Are we training Pioneers or Settlers?

Are we a gathering of Hearers or Doers?

Last evening, I watched a program on the Barbarian hordes that destroyed the Roman Empire. The Empire was enormous and powerful but allowed itself to be destroyed because they had dropped their guard. They became inwardly focused upon hedonistic pleasures and power. Even their version of Christianity became so wrapped up in form that they totally discarded function. As a result, they got fat and lazy. They became immoral and greedy. There were assassination attempts, conspiracies, the army lacked discipline and there was disjointedness and disunity throughout the kingdom. In short, the very thing that they had done to become the Empire they were was being used against them. They had been conquerors and now they were being conquered, falling apart at the seams.

Sound familiar? In any case, their enemies crept in. City after city, village after village, Rome’s armies were defeated time after time. In some cases, Rome attempted to make peace with these marauders and form alliances with their enemies. Can you imagine? They were trying to make peace with the very ones whose only goal for them was to kill, steal and destroy!

Where is that Roman Empire these days, hmmm?

We MUST change our focus to the world BEYOND the confines of the actual HOUSES where we meet as well as away from our blessed MEETINGS themselves. Christianity is a LIFESTYLE and the Church is US! How can we GO to something we ARE? Yes, we are The Church, 24/7, INCLUDING our prescribed meeting times and places but ESPECIALLY at work, at home, in the bedroom, the board room and at school all the REST of the time. If we depend on the Holy Spirit in THOSE places; we should depend upon His leadership at mere Church gatherings where we spend so little of our time.

Christianity cannot be about the place we gather for a few hours a week. Unfortunately, that’s what we do in the West because that has ALWAYS been “church” to most of us.

It’s all we know.

God’s TRYING to do a new thing - an old thing, really - in an effort to dramatically advance His Kingdom in the Western world, just as He is doing elsewhere. Its working there and we can learn from their example. For anyone with questions regarding Church Leadership, THEY are our Church Leaders! We really SHOULD get on board with it and resist the deceiving devils of Complacency, Comfort and Tradition as, like a nasty cancer, they slowly attempt to erode our foundations.

Every blessing,

Michael Tummillo

A servant of God