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Paying Obeisance to Planned Obsolescence

A diabolically clever marketing concept is one referred to as ” PlannedObsolescence.” This can be defined as the conscious decision on the

part of a retailer to produce products that will become obsolete and/or

non-functional within a defined time frame. This causes consumers to

have to buy the product repeatedly, as their old one is no longer

functional or desirable. From cars to computers, commerce to clothing,

the marketing world has been taking advantage of - and in many cases,

creating - the consumer’s short attention span since the 1920’s when

mass production became a part of our everyday lives.
Where the House Church Movement is concerned, Planned Obsolescence

is a concept worth considering.
With so many people hopping aboard the House Church ship, with them

are coming legions of attitudes, misconceptions, traditions, spiritual

wounds, emotional baggage, and manmade liturgies that are being

transferred to living rooms from Legacy churches across the globe. It’s

quite common for attendees to merely replace the traditional church they

came from with somebody’s den. The tendency is to pick one’s place on

the couch and settle-in, at least until the House Church Honeymoon is

over when somebody or some “thing” rubs us the wrong way.
Author/speaker Frank Viola says the average House Church only lasts

from 6 months to 2 years. If he’s correct, what some people might refer

to as frequent Church splits or even failures are, in reality, frequent

Church multiplication opportunities.
In his book, “The Church in the House: A Return to Simplicity,” author

Robert Fitts writes, “If we put regular church splits into our plans and

our prayers, we will be gloriously happy, and everyone will be blessed

when a split occurs. Every house church is born pregnant. Our vision

from the very first day is that we will give birth to a baby church…The

vision for Saturation Church planting is to have Christ’s presence in

every little neighborhood in every city in every country in the world…”
David Watson of City Team Ministries said, “It’s absolutely essential

that lay people start churches.”
Unfortunately, too often, we merely model what we’ve seen in

traditional church…that includes the nightmares that accompany a

church split.
A STORY OF CHURCH MULTIPLICATION
Beth lives 35 minutes away from Ted and Jane McElroy’s home where

their house church meets each week. She lives in a rural area and

doesn’t mind the drive through the country to get to her church family.
Recently, she has grasped the concept of being Trained, Equipped and

Released. In her desire to do her part in multiplying The Church, she

has been planting seeds and bringing up the subject of House Church

within her sphere of influence as the Spirit leads. A divorced, single

mother of two girls, Alice, has shown an interest in learning more.

Alice claims, “It’s too hard for me to get my kids ready for church on

Sunday. I come home late from waiting tables at a club and, after I pick

up the kids from mom and dad’s, I just don’t have it in me to get up and

get my girls ready on Sunday morning.” The concept of House Church

appeals to Alice. She admires what Beth has - a relationship with

Christ that seems real, natural and attractive to her.
One day, Beth tells Alice, “If you want, I have some friends who can

explain House Church a whole lot better than I can. Why don’t I bring

lunch and, if you can get some people together who might want to know

about it, we can come over and explain it…”
Alice agrees. Sunday is her day off. Beth helps her compile a list of

friends she might invite and they make arrangements for lunch the next

Sunday. That afternoon, Beth contacts Bert and Ernie, two leaders from

the House Church group at the McElroy’s. The following Sunday, after

confirming the meeting, Bert, Ernie and Beth drive over to Alice’s

parent’s home. Alice had called Beth early in the week to inform her of

the change because her parent’s home was bigger. When they arrive, not

only is Alice there with her parents and daughters, but several friends

from work showed up, one with her husband, and a neighbor, too. In all,

there were eight adults and two children in the house. Beth brought food

and Alice did, too, so there was plenty of eating and relationship

building. A few of those in attendance sipped cold beer with their lunch.
Finally, Bert gets everyone’s attention and begins to explain why they

came. He likes to show an inspiring DVD on House Church that he

bought from House2House.net. Afterward, Bert and Ernie field questions.

Beth helps. There’s lots of interaction. The Spirit was present and, when

they prayed before they left, there were many tears. In the days ahead, the

three would eventually make return trips for teaching and equipping the

group. Ultimately, the new group will follow Beth’s example and find

themselves multiplying. Beth had decided to remain with these new groups,

deciding it was better that she pour into these spiritual communities rather than

commute. Occasionally, she rejoins her friends at the McElroy’s and, as

needed, Bert and Ernie gladly travel to Beth’s new Church plants for teaching or

fellowship. Eventually, out of that new Church plant, three more Churches

are planted in other small rural communities. More are expected as each

new one follows the example set for them..
So, what happened at the McElroy’s House Church when Beth traveled

with Bert and Ernie to a house 35 minutes away on their group’s own

meeting day - to speak with Alice? The Church interceded for their

absent friends, that’s what, praying for the success of their outreach. They

ate, some testified about sharing their faith that week, they talked, some

laughed, children played. They acted like the family they had become and

celebrated the very first potential church plant to come out of their group

as they were witnessing the advancing of the kingdom firsthand. They

happily discussed the transformation they had all observed in Beth’s life

and how proud they were that she was the first, though the least-likely,

in their group to try and plant a Church. One lively topic of conversation

started when Jane excitedly asked who among them would be ‘next” to

plant a Church and if it would be in a Church in a home, apartment,

office, dorm or coffee house.
The McElroy Church, Alice’s Church, and all the new Church off-shoots,

occasionally get together when a traveling minister comes to town, when

a worship group comes to a local city, or to have what’s called ” a meeting

of the work” - or a meeting of the clans - similar to what the apostle Paul

held in Troas.
And on and on The Church grows, becoming a megachurch without walls.
ORIENTAL OBSOLESCENCE
If taken to its logical extension, the day would come when every original

member of the McElroy Church has planted a church of their own somewhere -

in some cases, more than one - to the point where, eventually, not a single

person who started there remained there a few years later. The McElroy’s

themselves will relocate and start another church in their home somewhere

else. Every original member will multiply the group’s Kingdom impact

BECAUSE they embraced the multiplication concept and purposely allowed

themselves, by design, to become obsolete as a group, all the while

remaining the Family of God.
Impossible? Unimaginable? Though that was a hypothetical scenario, consider:

what ever happened to the Church that met at Lydia’s House from Acts 16, the

very first Church in Europe? Did they fade into oblivion, or does YOUR

current House Church belong to Lydia’s family tree? How many House

Churches across the globe can claim that direct pedigree? Many, I’m sure.
Though the story of Beth, Alice and the McElroy church was fictitious,

these things ARE happening all over the world. With the House Church

Movement in America still in its infancy, only now are Christians

beginning to catch the vision. Not so in other nations like China, for

instance.

On June 19th, 2007, I attended a breakfast in Irving, Texas to listen to a man

named Sunday Adelaja, a Nigerian minister with largest church in Europe, a

nearly 30,000-Member church in the Ukraine. They have 500 additional

churches in the former Soviet Union as well as 30 other countries. Sunday

presented his God-ordained plan for winning the world to Christ.

His goal? To establish 10,000 more churches within a 10-15 year period.

I think that’s low.

On top of that, every church he plants is challenged to multiply within a year

and every Member is encouraged and “coached” to disciple 12 others.

In 1990, Ministries Magazine ran something called “The Caleb Report”

by Loren Cunningham, founder of YWAM, in their Jan/Feb issue.

Cunningham wrote, regarding the unparalleled revival in China’s House

Church Movement, “When I was in Hong Kong not long ago, Jonathan

Chao, founder of the Chinese Church Research Center, told me how the

Chinese Revival is being spread by young people, mostly ages 15 to 19.

The teenagers go to villages and share the Gospel where it has never

been heard before. As converts are organized into small groups, the teens

call for the “elders” (believers in their twenties) to come and teach the

newly formed church while the younger Christians go on to reach the next

village…By this simple means the good news is leaping across the fields

and mountains of China.”
Did you notice? Nobody who plants a Church stays very long. Nobody

gets comfortable, thereby eliminating many of the Church issues we face

in the Western Church. They set an example for new converts to follow

and the newbies learn by example. As a result, according to the U.S.

Center for World Missions, more than 22,000 Chinese are becoming

Christians EVERY DAY.
If we expect to see similar growth in the House Churches of America,

Church saturation and purposeful multiplication must be taken to heart

as core, foundational principles.

So, how’s that Church split coming along?
ONE SMALL CONCERN
Where Planned Obsolescence is concerned, there is one potential

drawback worth considering, that is, the potential backlash of

educated consumers when they become aware of the concept. Such

savvy buyers might shed their loyalty and wind up buying what they

perceive to be a more durable product. Where Christianity is

concerned, for many, that “product” may be the trusty ol’ Legacy Church

on the corner. Perhaps this explains why so many of the estimated 70

million-plus Americans who have participated in House Church have

either returned to the traditional setting or remain with one foot in the

traditional model while attending a House Church. According to George

Barna’s research, 72% of House Church participants said they were

satisfied with the sense of community they were experiencing (what’s

going on with the other 28%?). Despite so many satisfied customers,

according to Barna’s 2006 House Church survey results, 66-78% of all

adults who attend House Church ALSO attend a conventional style

church and 6 out of 10 people who attend House Church consider the

conventional church to be their primary church….not a bad thing, but

it makes one wonder why they can’t, or won’t, make the break.
I recently heard from a Church planter about a house he was invited to

speak at where he found all the chairs in rows. The room was complete

with an altar, communion elements and a bulletin…”Honey, I shrunk the

Church!” Church multiplication cannot occur in such an environment.

Living room liturgies don’t allow for the freedom to grow. Wolfgang

Simson said , “If you put two elephants in a room and two rabbits in

a room, in three years you’ll have three elephants and 476 million rabbits.”

Get it?
The New Testament House Church model is a far superior product, I

believe. Nevertheless, it was here once, and flourishing, but vanished,

for the most part, for nearly 1700 years. Why? What did they do wrong

that we are doing better? Are we immune to FORCED obsolescence?

They had the “A-Team” consisting of Paul and Peter, James, Barnabas,

et al. I contend that it’s our failure to advance the Kingdom through

multiplication methods, choosing instead to revel in the relative brevity

of sweet fellowship and friendly confines, that causes House Churches

to become stagnant, introspective, thus opening the door for strife and

discord.
After all, when water isn’t flowing, it can become putrid.
Every blessing,
Michael Tummillo
A servant of God
www.YourTown4Jesus.org