House Churches & Institutional Churches, Part 6

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Jay F Guin

Getting organized

We need to talk about just what it is that elders should do. Not what they do, but what they should do. You see, if the early church was led by city-wide elders, what did they do?

It’s not that easy to answer, since we’ve always read the passages about elders in light of a small, autonomous congregation. So let’s take a fresh look. Continue reading →

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Real Restoration: Acts: Peter Preaches in Cornelius’s Home

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Jay F Guin

God compelled Peter to go to the house Cornelius and preach the gospel — to not just a Gentile, but a commander in an occupying army!

(Act 10:34-43 ESV) 34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”

The fact that God shows no partiality is fundamental to his nature.

(Deu 10:17 ESV) 17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.

(Rom 2:9-11 ESV) 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek,  10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.  11 For God shows no partiality.

(Col 3:11 ESV) 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

It’s astonishing, isn’t it, that despite this clear revelation about the nature of God, Christians in all ages have included bigots of all sorts. Continue reading →

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Missions: Mark Woodward, Part 5

Posted on June 12, 2011 by Jay F Guin

In part 5 of his series, Mark argues that we need an overarching, worldwide strategy for missions. And we need to share information among the churches and missionaries. He suggests —

We need a Wikipedia-like site for mission information, preferably one where every country of the world is listed and where our fellowship can share our combined knowledge and experience publically.

I’m sure there’s a clever programmer among my readers who could set this up and give Missions Resource Network a link to post on their site.

Imagine a website that shows where all Church of Christ missionaries are at work, with articles by each regarding the needs of that location.

Continue reading →

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Thought Question: He is so almost right

Posted on June 11, 2011 by Jay F Guin

He is, of course, very wrong, and yet he’s almost exactly right.

How would you have rewritten his talk?

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House Churches & Institutional Churches, Part 5

Posted on June 11, 2011 by Jay F Guin

Now, the fact is that neither the institutional church nor the house church model coheres with the First Century model for how to organize a church. In the New Testament, there was but one church in a given city. That church might have met in numerous locations — houses — but it was one church under a single eldership.

We don’t really know quite how scalable this model was. How large could a church get before a group of elders couldn’t manage it without forming it into smaller, more manageable bodies? Well, the church in Jerusalem quickly grew to 5,000 men (Acts 4:4), and was surely well over 10,000 in total membership early in its history, and yet it was under the apostles and the elders (e.g., Acts 15:2). But what about a city with 1,000,000 Christians? How is that best organized? We don’t know. But it’s surely hard to imagine a single group of elders overseeing 1,000,000 Christians.

Regardless of that problem, this information plainly contradicts the old Church of Christ notion, still heard on occasion, that a church should plant a new autonomous congregation once it grows to over 150 members. The apostles obviously didn’t agree. Continue reading →

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Real Restoration: Acts: Stephen’s Speech

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Jay F Guin

Stephen was, of course, the first Christian martyr recorded in Acts. He preached the gospel and was arrested for blasphemy.

Now, nearly all of Acts 7 is taken up with Stephen’s recitation of the history of the Jews. It’s a strange way to defend yourself from blasphemy! Why did Stephen give such a speech and why did Luke record it?

(Act 7:2-53 ESV) 2 And Stephen said: “Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,  3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’  4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.  5 Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.  6 And God spoke to this effect–that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years.  7 ‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’  8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. Continue reading →

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House Churches & Institutional Churches, Part 4.1 (Economics, Christ’s Church, and Unity)

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Jay F Guin

David Himes wrote in a comment to a recent post,

Using your basic logic, Jay, the best economic solution would be for all of the believers to meet in house churches, thus, eliminating the need to pay for and maintain buildings or large staffs.

Price wrote in response to the same post,

I guess I don’t see how home churches in and of themselves cause a problem. It seems that the unwillingness to come together in a bond of unity to do something bigger than what can be done by the individual is the problem. Continue reading →

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Missions: Mark Woodward, Part 4

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Jay F Guin

In Part 4 of his series, Mark Woodward argues that the local congregation should be recruiting missionaries from among its own members —

Let’s begin shifting our paradigm by making home congregations—no matter the size—the first place of inspiration and where the first opportunities for selection take place. What would it look like if it were the norm in our congregations for children to hear missionary stories, for middle schoolers to make short  service mission trips, for high schoolers to move toward faith-sharing mission experiences,–but it didn’t stop there!

What if the college students were encouraged and enabled to do longer summer missions, and young families were encouraged to take their children with them on missions, if parents of teens did mission trips with their teenagers, and grandparents took their grandchildren with them. Continue reading →

Posted in Church Plants and Foreign Missions, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

House Churches & Institutional Churches, Part 4

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Jay F Guin

Small groups sometimes work well. Sometimes not so well. Let’s start with the criticisms some have. In the Christian Standard, Brian Jones argues that we should “euthanize” small groups.

The Achilles’ heel of the modern-day small group movement is simple: Small groups don’t create disciples; disciples create disciples. And modern-day small groups are led, for the most part, by people who have attended the church, had a conversion experience, led a reasonably moral life, and can read the study-guide questions, but are not disciples themselves.

American churches have lowered the bar of small group leadership to an absurd level. In fact, it’s so ridiculous most churches would be better off not even having small groups than to offer them with leaders who aren’t disciples.

Ouch! Yes, if small groups are poorly led, they’ll produce poor results. Continue reading →

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Real Restoration: Acts: Peter Addresses the Temple Crowd

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Jay F Guin

Peter and John healed a beggar outside the Temple gate. A crowd gathered in amazement, and Peter delivered a sermon on the spot —

The guilt of the crowd

(Act 3:12-26 ESV) 12 And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?  13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him.  14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,  15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.”

Again, Peter accuses the crowd — “you” — of denying Jesus and causing his crucifixion. Obviously, not everyone there at the Temple was also present when Jesus was tried. Nor were all personally guilty of demanding “Crucify him!” And yet Peter says “you killed the Author of life.”

To modern ears, this seems impossibly unfair. Guilt is personal. And as a rule, the scriptures speak in terms of personal guilt. But Peter’s point isn’t that the Jewish race is guilty of the blood of Jesus. Continue reading →

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