TODAY’S COMMUNITY CHURCHES AND MEGA-CHURCHES
The Lord is using diversified types of structures to build His church today. From the traditional church to the emerging house church networks, God’s Spirit is being poured out on His people. Our God is a God of infinite creativity and variety; you see it in His creation, from the long-necked graceful giraffe to the multicolored butterfly. You see His variety in the shades of skin color of His people and the multitude of talents and gifts He gives. God had no interest in producing clones when He created the world.
It’s my conviction that He continues to bless variety and creativity in His church today by the many different structures and methods He uses to accomplish His purposes. Although I sincerely believe the new house church networks are tailor-made for today’s generation and will be a force in returning to the New Testament model of church life, I also believe God is using today’s conventional church structures–what I call the community churches and mega-churches–to play their part in God’s future plan. God will build His kingdom regardless of our models, structure or plans.
Churches that operate within a more traditional setting and those that operate outside of traditional structures are both needed. It is a big job to equip the saints for ministry and bring the gospel to a lost and dying world. We need everyone to work together, allowing the new and the old to coexist and complement each other.
In this chapter and the next, we will look at three necessary types of healthy churches found in the nations today: the community churches, the mega-churches and the house church networks. Their combined strengths will contribute to bringing about God’s kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven!
The Community Church
In nearly every community around the world, you can find what I like to call “community churches.” Most of these churches meet in a church facility each Sunday morning, in addition to holding various meetings at the church building throughout the week. There are many styles and flavors of community churches. There is the Methodist flavor, the Baptist flavor, the Congregational flavor, the Episcopal flavor, the Presbyterian flavor, the Vineyard flavor, the Assembly of God flavor, the non-denominational flavor, the independent flavor; the list goes on and on. Some are Calvinistic; some are Arminian. Some are Charismatic in their worship expression, while some are traditional. Some churches are dispensational in their theology, while others focus on the here and now. Some churches are cell-based, and others are not. Some are “seeker-sensitive”—geared for those new to Christianity, while others appeal to the mature Christian with extended times of worship and the exercising of spiritual gifts. Nearly every Sunday somewhere in the world, I have the privilege of speaking at one of these community churches with their different flavors. I love the many unique expressions of the body of Christ. It would be boring if each expression looked exactly the same!
My family and I live in rural Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In this county alone, there are more than 600 community churches of every kind imaginable. The great majority of those churches have between 50 and 200 members. Some have 400 to 500 or even 800 to 900 people. When they reach approximately 1000 attendees, they fall into another classification—mega-church—which will be examined later.
Although community churches range in size, they all have a clear target area they are reaching—the local populace. In many cases, those that attend and those they reach live in the general geographical area.
Community churches are like community stores
The community church reminds me of the local community store. Where do you buy your groceries? You probably shop at a local grocery store in your community. It might be an independent store, or it could be part of a large chain of stores, but it is the store closest in proximity to where you live. You may personally know the clerks, and you know where specific items are shelved.
Some neighborhood stores, like community churches are larger than others, but they still feel like a community store. This store serves your local area. Very few people in our neighborhood would drive a long distance to get their groceries. Some even walk to a corner grocery store.
Likewise, very few people will drive long distances to worship with other believers who gather each week at their community church facility. Proximity and ease of access are a big part of the very nature of the community church.
More Choices
Thirty years ago, nearly every church in America was a community church (generally a church of 50-1,000 in attendance). There were very few exceptions. Then something happened. American Christians and American pastors started to hear reports about churches in places like Seoul, Korea, that were massive. We heard that there were over 100,000 people in Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul.
Dr. Yonggi Cho, pastor of the world’s largest church in Seoul, came to America to explain how pastors in America can also have large churches by “praying and obeying.” He taught these church leaders to obey the voice of the Holy Spirit and train small group (cell) leaders and release the ministry of the church to these trained leaders. Through the help of small groups, rapid multiplication and growth occurred.
The Mega-Church
This new mentality led to a wave of mega-churches mushrooming across America. Many implemented cell groups to help them grow. Victory Christian Center of Tulsa, Oklahoma, whose founding pastor is Billy Joe Daugherty, is a mega-church that has had cell groups for 20 years. Their weekly Sunday worship attendance is 7,700 and they are now one of the few churches in the world that will break through the 1,000-cell group mark, according to Karen Hurston in her book Breakthrough Cell Groups. (1)
Not only did mega-churches like this spring up in major metropolitan areas, they appeared on the rural scene. Today, at least in the United States, it is not unusual for people to drive for an hour or an hour and a half to attend worship services at a mega-church. Mega-churches have much to offer. There are ministries for every member of the family, twelve step programs for those with addictions, Bible schools, concerts, youth ministries, singles’ ministries; you name it, almost anything is available. The mega-church phenomenon has changed the face of the church in America.
Popular Bible teacher and bishop, T.D. Jakes, started his mega-church upon relocating his family and 50 other families from West Virginia, to Dallas, Texas, to establish a new church called “The Potter’s House.” Within eighteen months, it grew to more than 14,000 worshipers! It is one of the nation’s fastest-growing mega-churches. Christianity Today Magazine notes “other mega-churches such as Saddleback Valley Community Church in Mission Viejo, California, and Willow Creek in South Barrington, Illinois, took several years to become so large.” (2)
It is a fact that mega-churches are growing rapidly. According too the National Association of Evangelicals, there are about 189 churches with more than 3,000 average weekly attendance nationwide. In our nation, every two weeks a new church with 2,000 or more members opens. (3)
Our rural area of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, presently has five mega-churches, each having over 1,000 people in attendance every week with two of these churches having about 3,000 attendees.
Mega-Churches are like Wal-Mart superstores!
I like to call the mega-church the “Wal-Mart Superstore church.” Wal-Mart has taken our nation by storm. Twenty-five years ago, I had never even heard of Wal-Mart since Wal-Mart was mainly a department store chain in the southern part of our nation. Then it invaded northeastern USA where I live. Now Wal-Mart is everywhere! People will drive for an hour or more to shop at a Wal-Mart because they love the low prices, the huge inventory of consumer products and they can get all they need in one place all at the same time.
Mega-churches, like the Wal-Mart superstores, are large and they offer an abundance of services to the churchgoer. However, unlike the community church where you may know nearly everyone, at a mega-church you probably know only a few people. Yet, church members thoroughly enjoy a mega-church since everything is easily accessible in one location.
In 1980, I started pastoring a church that focused on meeting in cell groups in homes during the week and also in Sunday morning services. Using the cell group structure, we continued to multiply our numbers until we were in the mega-church category. Many of us drove an hour or more to attend weekly services on Sunday. There was a Bible school, a dynamic youth ministry, a singles’ ministry, and a ministry for those who had gone through a divorce; dozens of short-term mission teams were sent out, plus many other specialized ministries were taking place. Dr. Cho, the pastor of the world’s largest church, came to speak at our church for a leadership conference. Our mega-church had the feel of a spiritual Wal-Mart.
Everyone is different, having varying needs; so it’s not unusual that some people love Wal-Mart while others seldom if ever shop there. The same is true when people decide which church to attend. Some love the mega-church while others feel lost in the crowd and prefer the smaller community church…
New horizons ahead!
When I think of the beginnings of our new church plant in 1980, I realize it actually started as a house church. It had all the components of a little church by itself with leadership raised up in-house. When we made the move to a larger building after outgrowing the living room we were using, the dynamics changed considerably. We needed to develop the “temple ministry” of church life as we met for a larger celebration on a Sunday morning in addition to our small cell groups. The evolution of this change as resulted in a more traditional community church much like the other churches in our area, despite our unique cell-based structure.
Although my experience has been in the life of Christ expressed through the community church and the mega-church, this experience points to far more possibilities for the church to go about its task of discipling the nations. That is why I am excited about the feasibility of house churches. We need to “keep all options open” so the Lord can use all of His servants to function together as one body to change the world.
It’s time to “pray and obey” again
Time marches on. What was new and unique several years ago becomes an old wineskin in today’s world.
I believe it is time again to pray and obey. Generation X and many others who share their passion and convictions are dreaming of another type of church in America—the house church network. I am so grateful to those who have gone before me. They prepared the way for me—as a young man—to start a unique wineskin that was different from the status quo.
A new day has arrived, again. The Lord has been instructing me and many of my generation to prepare the way for the next generation of church planters and church leaders who will model a new type of church for the next generation.
In today’s church world, you can find the community store churches and the Wal-Mart superstore churches everywhere. The Lord has and will continue to use both. However, He will also use the new house church networks with their different approaches and structures to build His kingdom. Let’s open our hearts to this revolutionary force that is growing quietly in humble house churches across the nation and around the world.
Notes:
(1) Karen Hurston, Breakthrough Cell Groups, (Houston, TX: Touch Publications, 2001)
(2) Jim Jones, Christianity Today, “Swift Growth Shapes Potter’s House, “ January 12, 1998, Vol. 42, No. 1, p.56
(3) Ministries Today, “Ministry Matters,” compiled by Eric Tiansay, July/August 2001
“This material was taken from the book House Church Networks by Larry Kreider, (Lititz, PA: House to House Publications, 2001).”
New on the Horizon: The House Church Network
Last year, I agreed to home school our sixteen-year-old son Josh. He had spent eight years in a Christian school and one year in a public school, but he was ready for a change. Initially, when he asked me to consider home schooling him, I thought it would be impossible with my intense travel schedule. However, as my wife LaVerne and I prayerfully considered the possibility, we felt I should go ahead. It has turned out to be a great experience!
Had I told you thirty years ago I was going to home school our son, you would have looked at me strangely. In fact, you may have thought I was getting involved in some type of a new cult. If you recall, thirty years ago, home schooling was almost unheard of in America. Nevertheless, early home schooling advocates make their mark on education in America and today home schooling is commonplace and well accepted as an alternative to traditional classroom training. Home schooling is growing at the rate of 15% annually throughout America. (1) Over the past decade, the ranks of families home schooling has grown dramatically, according to Time Magazine: “More kids learn at home than attend all the public schools in Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming combined.” (2)
Don’t get me wrong. I am not promoting home schooling as the pinnacle of educational experience, but it certainly is a wonderful choice. Parents today have the choice of home schooling their children, along with the traditional choices of public or private schooling. All three types of educational training coexist in nearly every community in America.
I believe within the next several years, house church networks will mushroom all across America. Like our educational choices, they will coexist and network with other more traditional community churches and mega-churches of our communities meeting in church buildings every Sunday. Our God will use and bless all three—the community churches, the mega-churches, and the house church networks.
House church networks
I previously compared the community church to a community store and the mega-church to a Wal-Mart superstore. Now let’s look at a house church network. In describing a house church network, the analogy would be equivalent to the stores in a shopping mall. If the average store found in a shopping mall was taken out of the mall and let to stand on its own, it would die within a year. The normal store in a shopping mall needs the others to survive. Each specialized store flourishes together within the cluster of the others. Yet each store is fully a “store” in its own right, despite being in a mall.
The house churches function like these shopping mall stores. They are individual and specialized, yet they flourish only when they network together with other house churches. We will explain later how they network, but for now let’s look at how each one functions as a real church.
House churches have a unique mentality
The entire concept of house churches requires a different way of thinking than we have been used to. Believers in house churches do not focus on rowing larger like the community church or the mega-church. They focus on growth by starting new house churches by multiplication. One-way of thinking is not right and the other wrong; they are just different. Remember the Christian school, the public school and the home school. Which is right? They are all right, depending on which place you believe the Lord wants you to be.
Since all are valid, the question remains: Which type of church has the Lord called you to be involved in? Most believers do not even know there are three options, just like home schooling was not a common option thirty years ago. Times, however, have changed.
I agree with Wolfgang Simson who firmly believes that when we “bring the church to people,” the church will see greater results:
The church is changing back from being a Come-structure to being again a Go-structure. As one result, the church needs to stop trying to bring people “into the church,” and start bringing the church to people. The mission of the church will never be accomplished just by adding to the existing structure; it will take nothing less than a mushrooming of the church through spontaneous multiplication of itself into areas of the population of the world, where Christ is not yet known. (3)
House churches are small; therefore they can meet anywhere—in a house, in a college dorm room, in a coffee shop, in a corporate boardroom. They meet in these locations and do not think of growing larger requiring the construction of a building to accommodate the larger group. Instead, they say, “How can we multiply leaders and start more house churches:” “How can we walk together as house church leaders?”
DAWN Ministries further clarifies this very point:
The house church is a structure that reflects the core nature of the church—that is, an extension of the spirit of the Father in heaven here on earth. It is a spiritual, enlarged, organic family…it is inherently participatory and not consumer-provider driven. Its responsibility structure is also very simple and effective: individual house churches are fathered by elders, who in turn are equipped by itinerant servants like those in the fivefold ministry (Ephesians 4:11-13). They often related to a regional spiritual father figure, who, through him humble apostolic passion and vision, often becomes something like a “pillar of the church,” an anchor-place for a regional movement that fills its cities and villages with the presence of Christ.
Since New Testament times, there has no longer been such a thing as “a house of God.” At the cost of his life, Stephen reminded unequivocally: “God does not live in temples made by human hands.” The church is the people of God. The church therefore, was and is at home where people are at home: in ordinary houses. (4) Modern-day house church networks
During the past few years, thousands of new small “house churches” that network together have sprung up throughout the world. I was in China recently where over 80 million believers are part of house church networks. More than 2,000 house churches led by Generation X have sprung up throughout Western Europe. Southern Baptist missionaries have started thousands of them in Latin America, India, and Southeast Asia. House church networks have already emerged in the United States in Denver, Dallas, Austin, Cincinnati, San Francisco, and Portland. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Mike Steele, who oversees DAWN in North America, has been personally monitoring the growth of house church networks throughout the USA and the world. He told me how he envisions this kind of church affecting every community:
I believe we will see a day when some cities will be “filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea!” Division and petty jealousy will be replaced by a sacrificial call to serve the people of the city. Christians will be known for what they have done in humility rather than what they say in condemnation. There will be repentance, reconciliation and restoration in whole sections of the city. Communities will be filled with lighthouses, gatherings of believers who “are” the church and reach out to bless their neighbors and restore their neighborhoods. There will be a rapid multiplication of New Testament communities across this continent. We will see the “church” saturating neighborhoods and communities with the presence of Christ, in word and deed, on a sustained basis.
Many believers in non-western cultures have already caught the focus of the church being about “family”. They are hotbeds for the growth of the kingdom as the church meets in homes.
House churches are springing up in America
Mike believes God is stirring the church in the West, to catch up with the non-western house church networks. He reports that many churches in America are beginning to see the church as a “life-style carried out in relationship in order to mentor, empower and release people for ministry.” Here are just a few examples that he gives:
House church networks are springing up around the country. Some have been going for a long time; others are just being birthed and some are only a few years old. The Foursquare church has a house church planting team in Canada. The Baptists in Texas have a network of five house churches in the Dallas area. Dallas has several folks spreading house churches across the city. There are house church networks emerging in Ames, Iowa, and Billings, Montana. One of my dear friends is leading a fellowship of home churches in Denver. They are currently meeting in four homes that soon will expand to nine. There is a house church network in Portland, Oregon, for over a decade. There are others meeting in Salem, Oregon. In Austin, Texas, there is a thriving house church network that is linking with house church networks in San Antonio and Dallas. In Houston, one of my good friends has a network of four house churches. They reach into the youth culture. There is a group from the San Francisco Bay area planting house churches in that city and a group of young people in Northern California planting 25 house churches.
“Churches in the home” networking with others in Virginia
My friend Tony Fitzgerald from Richmond, Virginia, oversees Church of the Nations, and apostolic movement with churches scattered throughout the world. An Australian, Tony has been a church planter in England, South Africa, and the USA and is a true father in the faith to church leaders in many nations. I ministered at a leadership conference at a church he oversees in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, which is touching thousands of people in their city and transitioning to a cell-based church. The weekend I was there, they were so excited because one cell group had recently seen twelve new believers come to faith in Christ, and the people in the cell group were baptizing them the day I left the country.
Tony informed me that he is in a time of transition. Although he has seen the Lord work powerfully in the nations of the world and has seen churches established among the nations, he is transitioning to a new wineskin, a house church network in Richmond, Virginia. Tony believes the church needs to meet in the city both in the house and in celebration, relating to an apostolic team connected with the wider body of Christ. He said they do not call their house churches “house churches” because so many people in America associate unhealthy, negative churches with house churches. In these unhealthy house churches, believers have often chosen not to connect with the rest of the body of Christ in their communities. Tony’s house church network is displaying a new attitude. They are learning to network together in their city, and they are calling their churches simply “church in the house.”
House church network proposed in Canada
Bob Granholm, from Canada, is currently proposing the establishment of a new house church network in British Columbia. He is disturbed by the fact that 1.65 million Canadians express belief in the cardinal tenants of evangelical Christian faith, yet do not attend church. This finding is duplicated many times over throughout North America and the western world. Many believers are looking for authentic church life. They want to experience church from house to house just as Paul told the early Christians, “I…have taught you publicly and from house to house” (Acts 20:20).
House church network in Texas
Tony and Felicity Dale are both medical doctors from England who relocated to Austin, Texas thirteen years ago. They had the privilege of being a part of a house church network in England more than twenty years ago. They are sensing the Lord is calling them back to their passion, ministering to people in their home as the Lord uses them to build His church from house to house. A few years ago, the pastors of their community church encouraged them to start a new church in their home that would multiply into a house church network. Their journey has begun. Not only have they started a house church network in Austin, they have started a new magazine entitled House2House that ministers to believers who have a heart for house churches and house church networks. You can visit their Web site at: www.house2house.tv.
House churches in India
In 1993, the Lord challenged Dr. Choudhrie, a well-known surgeon in India, to relinquish his professional career to establish the church in Madra Pradesh. The Lord has prospered this new work, which started from scratch. Today, there have been 3,000 house churches established with an estimated 50,000 people. Dr. Choudhrie’s vision is to plant a house church in each of the 17,000 villages of Madra Pradesh by the year 2007, and they are well on their way! One of the ladies they have trained started 50 house churches in a year!
The Lord is doing the same thing all over the world
About ten years after planting a new church, we received a phone call from Ralph Neighbour’s office. I knew Ralph from his book, Where Do We Go From Here?, that the Lord had used to open the hearts of thousands worldwide to the cell group movement. Since he was scheduled to speak in New Jersey, he asked to meet with me. Hank Rogers, our administrator, and I drove to New Jersey and met with Ralph during a break in his speaking engagement.
“Tell me your story,” Ralph said. As I told him about our church starting with one cell group and growing to over 2,3000 people all participating in cell groups, tears began to stream down his face. “The Lord is doing the same thing all over the world,” Ralph exclaimed. “People who have never met, have never heard of one another, are using the same terminology because the Lord is doing the same thing through them in many parts of the world. This is truly the Lord.”
As I travel week after week, I find the same being said of house church networks. They are springing up literally all over the world. They are using much of the same terminology, in spite of the fact they have never met one another. This is truly the hand of God.
A “house church” vs. “organized church” mentality
Not every house church will be a perfect example of a community of people in close-knit, interpersonal relationships. Relational Christianity in house churches can be messy.
Additionally, like any church, house churches can get off-track. If you have been turned off by those involved in house churches who have been exclusive, bitter, or proud, please do not “throw the baby out with the bath water.” A group should be forewarned that when they take on a mentality that their group is best (“Us four, no more!”), they are on dangerous ground. We must guard against a “house church” versus an “organized church” mentality.
I have prayed with believers of house churches who have been hurt by believers from community churches and mega-churches. On the other hand, I have also prayed with believers from community churches and mega-churches who have been offended by believers involved in house churches. If any kind of church (community, mega-or house) becomes controlling or exclusive in it’s thinking it has derailed. We are all a part of the worldwide body of Christ. There is only one church, and we must make every effort to walk in unity. Love always believes the best (1 Corinthians 13:5-6). The Lord will take us in our weakness and bring good out of us if we submit to Him.
Unity must be restored
“They will know we are Christians by our love.” The words to a popular 1970’s church camp song rings true in any day and age. Today more than ever, people are looking for a unified church—people who love each other and make an effort to reach out to those different from themselves. The world is attracted by Christians who truly love each other. Jesus required it of true disciples: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another”. (John 13: 34-35).
Jesus knew that the love and unity of His believers sent a compelling message to unbelievers. With this in mind, He prayed for all believers in John 17:20-23:
My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Jesus does not pray for His followers to “become one,” but rather that they may “be one.” The present subjunctive used here in the Greek designates ongoing action: “continually be one,” a oneness based on their common relationship to the Father and the Son, and on having the same basic attitude toward the world, the Word and the need to reach out to the lost. (5) As believers, we will “be one” if we continue to be in unity with God and each other. Unity breaks down barriers!
I believe the Lord is doing an awesome thing in our day. He is restoring the unity He prayed for in John 17:21: “That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Walls that have divided denominations and churches for centuries are coming down throughout the world at an increasing rate. Pastors in the same town who never knew one another are now finding each other, praying together regularly, and supporting each other. This kind of church unity is exciting!
The regional church
Unity like this makes room for the regional church to emerge. What is the regional church? I believe it will be comprised of all types of churches—community churches, mega-churches, and house churches in a particular geographical area. These churches, of many different denominations, will work together to represent the church (the body of Christ) in a region.
In the New Testament, each church was identified by its geographical location—there were no denominations back then!
The body of Christ met in house churches within a city, and they were unified by their specific city boundaries: the church of Antioch, the church of Corinth, the church of Jerusalem, the church of Smyrna. However, today, the church has been divided into many different denominations within one geographical area. Many times, such things as doctrinal interpretations and worship styles were the cause of these divisions in the body of Christ.
The regional church is not an attempt to do away with denominations and get back to separating believers on the basis of geographical distance exclusively. I believe we have to work with what we have today. This means that the local churches within a collective regional church will probably each maintain their denominational flavor, while working in an unified manner to more effectively share Christ in their geographical area. In short, I believe when unbelievers see the unity of churches in their community; they will be attracted to Christianity.
Fathers will unify to lead the regional church
Over the next years, I believe there will be an emergence of spiritual leaders from various backgrounds and denominations who will form teams of spiritual leadership to “father” this collective, regional church. These apostolic fathers will serve the church in towns, cities and regions to resource the body of Christ. They will not think only in terms of pasturing a church or churches, but will think and pray in terms of sensing a responsibility with other fellow servant-leaders throughout the body of Christ to pastor their region.
This initiative will not be contrary to their denomination’s vision, but will bring wholeness. Although these “fathers of the region” will be concerned about unity, it will not be their focus. Their main focus will be on the Lord and on His mandate to reach the lost as the Lord brings in His harvest. Again, the regional church will include all the types of churches in a geographical location—the community churches, the mega-churches, and the house church networks. All denominations and church movements operating in a region have a redemptive purpose to meet the needs of that particular region.
Churches in a region will honor each other
When LaVerne and I were married in 1971, we found we had two sets of relationships to pursue and maintain: those on her side of the family and those on mine. Both were important.
We need to maintain healthy relationships with the apostolic fathers of our church movement, and we also need to keep healthy relationships with the spiritual fathers of our region. When Ford Corporation runs a car through the assembly line at Detroit, the parts have been gathered from companies all over the world. God has brought together from around the world the unique mix of denominations and church families and has assembled them in your city. Each church and ministry is to be honored. As we walk together in unity in our region, the Lord will command a blessing.
When one studies the revivals found in church history, it is seen that unity among pastors and church leaders in a region is one of the most important prerequisites to revival in a region. Apostolic fathers serving towns, cities, and regions carry the mantle of unity that brings revival. There are apostolic fathers who serve in leadership over movements, and apostolic leaders who serve in leadership over regions. Some apostolic leaders serve in both areas of leadership. These spiritual fathers are not self-appointed, but recognized by the leadership of the church and ministries in the region they represent.
God is bringing people of various backgrounds and affiliations together in unity. God is using these divine connections to accomplish His purposes.
An example of regional church unity
I see this kind of unity beginning among the churches in our region of Lancaster County, in south central Pennsylvania. I am excited about a local regional Christian leadership group that has recently emerged and is in place to “empower the church in its many expressions throughout the region. “ Hundreds of leaders in our country are committed to working together as a leadership community regardless of their affiliation. They represent church leadership, ministry leadership, and Christians in leadership in the marketplace (areas of media, commerce, education and government). This regional group is not an organization to join, but an organized network of leaders devoted to relationships.
Through prayer and fasting, they have appointed 26 Christian leaders to work together on a council to oversee the Christian leadership community. Council members include Christian leaders from many types of churches, leaders in business, key ministry leaders and even a County Commissioner. Some are members of community churches, others members of mega-churches, while others are members of a new house church network but all are members of the body of Christ in our region.
The regional council has prayerfully chosen seven from among them to consider leading the council as an executive team. Presently, four of the seven have begun to serve while the other three are waiting for the Lord’s timing to serve on the team. We asked one of the leaders of the four to serve as a team leader, and he is currently taking that responsibility.
The vision is to “see the church maturing in Christ, strategically serving together to revitalize the church, give a Christ-centered witness to each resident, and bring transformation to the way of life in this region.” This regional team is committed to cooperate in establishing the kingdom of God in the home, neighborhood, community and marketplace. When the body of Christ joins in unity like this we are bound to see results! This effort is an attempt to coordinate rather than control the work of God in our region. Cooperative efforts must always have this perspective.
I believe God calls Christians from community churches, mega-churches, and house church networks to serve together as the regional church in every city in every nation. Together, we can reach the world!
Notes:
(1) “Facts on Homeschooling” by the National Home Education Research Institute, www.homeschoolfaq.com
(2) “Home School, “ by John Cloud and Jodie Morse, Time, August 27, 2001, p. 47
(3) Wolfgang Simson, Houses that Change the World, (Cumbria, UK:OM Publishing, 2001), p. 94
(4) DAWN Report, “The Church Comes Home,” August 1999, pp. 1-2
(5) Full Life Study Bible, NIV, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) p.1621
This material was taken from the book House Church Networks by Larry Kreider, (Lititz, PA: House to House Publications, 2001)