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Let’s set the Church back 2,000 years!

In July of 2000, Billy Graham was too ill to deliver an opening address,
even by satellite, at a week-long international tribute to him in
Amsterdam.

Instead, his son Franklin delivered the address on his behalf. “We must
go back and search the word of God to discover what we need to do
for the extension of the Kingdom in our day,” said Billy Graham, in a
statement read by his son. “We must go back 2,000 years to discover
the future.”

In 1949, at an 8-week Los Angeles revival, a fellow evangelist
accused Graham of setting religion back 100 years. Graham replied,
“I did indeed want to set religion back, not just 100 years but
1,900 years, to the Book of Acts, when first century followers of
Christ were accused of turning the Roman Empire upside down.”

WESTERN HOME-STYLE CHURCH

The Book of Ecclesiastes says, “There’s nothing new under the sun.”
It’s true. The “new” thing that has so many people so excited - this
thing that’s being called Simple Church, House Church, Organic
Church, Liquid Church - with churches sovereignly popping up
everywhere that a Christian feels led to start one - is not so new. Not
only are these types of NeoChurches closest to The Church we read
about in the New Testament, but for decades many third world
Christians have been forced by circumstances into becoming this
same sort of Book of Acts, house-to-house-style church.

Why did the first century church fail? By human standards, true, what
Jesus initiated cannot be considered a success. But by God’s higher
standards, the Early Church format has always had a heartbeat as true
Believers have struggled for 1800 years to bring this type of Christian
community - away from the trappings of an established, denominational
hierarchical organization - into being, often losing their property and
even their lives in the process.

From the earliest days of Christianity where the faithful were persecuted
by the Jewish establishment of the time, to the Roman persecution under
Nero, persecution has often been the preferred method of evangelism.
“Change or Die, in Jesus’ Name!”

As with many religions, Christianity is not a homogenous group; there
exist many sects which often find themselves at odds with each other,
often because one group does not consider another Christian at all. So,
in their own misguided display of allegiance to their Lord, they set out
to obliterate those from other tribes who claim to be Christians as well.
In medieval times, when the Roman Catholic church moved to suppress
the Cathars, while nearly twenty thousand were being massacred, one
monk was asked how Catholics could be distinguished from Cathars
once the battle ended. He famously replied, “Kill them all, God will know
His own.”

Despite so much infighting, there has always been a remnant of Bible-
believing, Jesus-lovers who dared to seek and be imitators of Christ -
even if it cost them their lives. This “little flock” (Luke 12:32), also called
“the flock of God” (1Pet. 5:2), is alone given the kingdom. Though
imperfect, she alone preserves the Scriptures and contends through every
generation for the apostolic faith once delivered to the saints. While
multitudes of compromised groups may call themselves “Christian,” using
watered-down Bibles in rituals replete with heathen practices, there has
always existed this kind who preaches the “Gospel of the Kingdom”
(Matt. 24:14; Acts 1:6) and preserves and promotes the Doctrine of Christ.

GRINDING OUR WHEELS TO A HALT

A few days ago, as I was speaking by phone with a friend in Pakistan -
a man who has planted nearly 900 House Churches - he hesitated and
said, almost apologetically, in a low tone of voice, “I do not know why
I am saying this, but I pray that America will one day experience God
through persecution as we have.”

I’ve read similar kinds of statements from brothers and sisters in other
persecuted lands. I am convinced that persecution WILL come.
Something is coming that will grind our billion wheels to a halt. In 2001,
soon after I had broadcast a message called “Praying Church or Playing
Church,” America’s shores were attacked. I was asked if I had spoken
prophetically. I responded that the 9-11 attack was NOT “it.” Though
3500 people were massacred in a matter of moments, something else is
coming. I have often said that, if I were an enemy of this nation, I’d
attack on Super Bowl Sunday and I’d strike at our nation’s
communication systems; specifically, computers. From cars to
corporations, even the nation’s defense system would be compromised.

But that’s just me talkin’.

GOING HOME TO BE WITH JESUS

As the family goes, so goes The Church. As The Church goes, so goes
the nation. With so many people returning to the home - from home
childbirth to home schooling to home businesses to home funerals -
doesn’t  it stand to reason that Home Churches would be on the horizon?

They’re already here.

A 2006 study by renowned Researcher/Sociologist George Barna stated
that, in a typical MONTH, about 43 million U.S. adults attend a House
Church.

Barna predicts that within 20 years, this House Church counter-culture -
one that he refers to as “Revolutionaries” - will comprise nearly 70% of
U.S. Christians, leaving only 30-35 percent (primarily, aging Christians)
in traditional church settings.

Read that again…he predicts that this radical shift will happen WITHIN
the next twenty years! Though some might emotionally contend that this
is impossible, the question remains, “If Barna is right, will YOU be ready?”

Don’t misunderstand him; he’s not trying to create an “US vs THEM”
atmosphere. We must resist the urge to shoot the messenger. Instead,
we should begin adjusting our sails and catch the wind of the Spirit as
He blows.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The West is being given one opportunity after another to “turn the Rome
Empire upside down,” as Billy Graham said. We have ministry after ministry,
modern method upon modern method at our disposal. We are wealthy
amidst a land of visionaries.

So, why is the nation - the planet, for that matter - still right-side-up?

Why isn’t the world being changed?

Quite simply, until we begin teaching the Gospel of the Kingdom instead of
the Gospel of Salvation, we will continue to reproduce the exact same fruit
that we’re producing now - an impotent, ineffective, very expensive Christian
(American Protestants spend about one BILLION dollars annually trying to
make converts from other religions. The Catholic Church spent an equal
amount. Any way we slice it, that’s pretty expensive evangelism. Interestingly,
the Feb 8, 1885 edition of the New York Times reported that it cost $37.05
to convert a single Baptist; $234.91 to convert one Presbyterian).

Until we start preaching the Kingdom message, getting our new converts
delivered, and focusing our messages upon the Doctrine of Christ rather than
that of a denomination or of demons, we will have EXACTLY what we have
now.

We must return to the faith of our fathers…the Church from the year One.

WORLDWIDE HOUSE CHURCH STATISTICS* (Wikipedia.com, somewhat dated)
(Statistical Sources: Rad Zdero (2004), The Global House Church Movement;

Rad Zdero (2007), Nexus: The World House Church Movement Reader; Dawn

Friday Fax, www.jesus.org.uk/dawn; Wolfgang Simson (2007), The Starfish

Manifesto; Wolfgang Simson, EaSi Newsletter, July 2007; Wikipedia)
Bangladesh: 500,000 new believers in HC’s
Cambodia: 1,000 new HC’s in 10 years (1990 to 2000)
Canada: as many as 2,000 HC’s in Canada in the last few years
China: 80-100 million believers in HC’s
Cuba: 6,000-10,000 HC’s since 1992
Egypt: 4,000 HC’s
Ethiopia: growth from 5,000 to 50,000 believers in HC’s during the 1980’s
India: approx. 100,000 HC’s started in 5 years (from 2001 - 2006)
Latin America: 1 million HC-type groups known as ‘Basic Ecclesial

Communities’
Sri Lanka: Kithu Sevena church movement started 131 new HC’s in 7

months (in 2004)
Vietnam: one church planting team start 550 new HC’s in 2 years

(1997 to 1999)
U.S.A.: 1,600 HC’s are cited on internet alone (as of 2003) with

possibly as many as 30,000 HC’s (according to the American pollster

George Barna)
Three years later, in his June 19, 2006 report Barna said 70 million
Americans regularly attend or have “experimented with” a house
church. That’s an increase of 8 percent since 1996, the report said.
Moreover, the movement is taking on evidence of permanence, he
said. “The traditional ways of thinking about and experiencing
‘church’ are rapidly being revolutionized by a form of ‘religious
choice,’ in which people are taking greater personal responsibility
for their spiritual experience and development…Today, house
churches are moving from the appraisal phase into the acceptance
phase. We anticipate house-church attendance during any given
week to double in the coming decade and a growing proportion of
house-church attenders to adopt the house church as their primary
faith community.”
Furthermore, the study noted, more than 20 million adults attend

services in home churches each week. Over the course of a month,

that number rose to 43 million.
I could add to these some amazing statitsics of my own concerning
people I know in Berundi, Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ghana and
elsewhere.

Every blessing,
Michael Tummillo
A servant of God
www.YourTown4Jesus.com