Day 4— Confusion in Convention

Nothing earth-shattering today. Just a drive with a friend to audit a seminary class on the Theology of House Churches. Maybe more than I bargained for, though. After my pre-reading and seat-time I learned that there’s much more behind a simple House Church than a simple house church. Like many conventional church-starts, there’s a high number that take a nose-dive within the first year. Mostly because folks are just trying to reproduce what they’re familiar with, i.e., taking a conventional church model and just fitting it into a smaller setting, say—the living room of a house. Which is like trying to use plumbing pipes to circulate the antifreeze solution throughout your car engine. No matter how hard you try, it's not going to work. They're not made to work together.

So I’m closing out the day with more questions than answers. Questions like… What has prompted 9% of adults in the U.S. (according to The Barna Group) to now attend a House Church in the U.S. during a typical week rather than a conventional church? What prompted Pastor Bill Hybels to say last fall that much of what Willow Creek Community Church has been doing the last decade or so hasn’t really been effective in producing disciples of Jesus? Why are so many Christians leaving the conventional church, not because they’re losing their faith, but because they want to “preserve their faith,” according to Reggie McNeal (The Present Future)?

It’s a confusing time. Which means, it’s probably an opportune time as well. God seems to be able to get our attention more effectively when things aren’t so clear cut. So... “Surprise Me, God….”