Come
Home: Rediscovering the “
By
Jason Johnson.
A woman was asked
one day why she cut the ends off the ham before cooking it. "This is just
the way my grandma always did it," she replied. What she didn't realize
was that her grandma had to cut the ham so it would fit in her small pan.
It is human nature
to follow tradition without even knowing why. We often perform tasks as they
have "always been done." Some traditions are positive and carry with
them culture and history, and some bring us a sense of security and stability.
Other traditions, like the ham-cutting, outlast their use and replace the
original function altogether. This is called "putting form over
function." The form is the tradition or way of doing a task or function;
the function is the basic goal that lies at the root of form. The form should
exist to bring the function to life, not the other way around.
Take for example
the function of a prayer of petition. In one form, a priest in a high-liturgy
church recites David's words from Psalm 51 included in the Book of Common
Prayer: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit
within me." A layperson in another church leads the congregation,
"God, we've messed up in many ways this week. Make us clean again. Put
Your Spirit into us." A soldier in a foxhole simply cries, "Jesus,
I'm sorry!" All three prayers share the same function but have various
forms.
There is one form
of church that has existed since Pentecost. Currently it is said to contain
more Christians than any other kind of church worldwide. It is called
"house church." As the name implies, it is a church that meets in a
home. It was the only form of church found in the New Testament or in the world
until the time of the emperor Constantine (with one or two archeological
exceptions). Between the years A.D. 313 and 321,
A simple
definition of a house church is a group of believers who meet in a home to
function as a New Testament church. This usually means a focus on the basics of
prayer, fellowship, learning and evangelism among a smaller group of people.
All are encouraged to participate, use their spiritual gifts and share life
together in community that extends beyond meeting times. Examining the idea of
house church challenges common ways of doing church and helps point us back to
its biblical functions, because the house church essentially challenges three
unnecessary forms in Western churches: buildings, clergy and programs.
A specific church
building is one form that hinders essential church functioning. If a traveler came asking for "the church" in a
typical second-century Roman town, he was directed toward a gathering of
people, not a physical structure. Even the Greek word for church literally
means "called-out ones," with an underlying idea of gathering
together. So why is the question, "Where is your church?" answered
today with directions to a physical address? The form of the building has
overtaken the basic nature and function of the church as people.
There are no holy
places in biblical Christianity. Only one holy God lives with a holy people.
This notion began in the Old Testament. The holy ground around the burning bush
was holy only because God was in the middle. The same was true for the
tabernacle and the
Jesus knew the end
of worship in the temple loomed near. Matthew 24:1 reads, "Jesus left the
temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his
attention to its buildings." They were impressive buildings. Luke probably
thought, Think of the ministry potential to the
outcasts here. Maybe Mark pictured a healing and deliverance center. John stared wide-eyed counting the evangelistic
possibilities. Judas weighed the money bag in his fingers as he watched people
pay the temple tax. One would think a sensible response from Jesus would be,
"Yes, yes. And I tell you the truth, apostles, all of this could be yours!
Greater church buildings than this you shall build in my name." What Jesus
said was not even close. Instead He responded, "Do you see all these
things? I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every
one will be thrown down." Jesus replaced the temple with something greater
— Himself, with His holy people gathered around.
Church began at
Pentecost. Instead of filling a "holy place" God filled the people
who were seeking Him together in a house. Again, there is nothing magical about
the form of church in a house. It emphasizes the biblical idea that church is
people and can begin and exist anywhere God's people breathe. It drives the
truth of Jesus' words: "For where two or three come together in my name,
there am I with them" (Matthew
Another form that
threatens true church functioning is the false separation between clergy and
laity. Martin Luther brought us a reformation of theology and began the
Protestant church. He rediscovered the gospel of salvation through faith by
grace, an essential function within the church. Unfortunately, Luther
transferred the hierarchy of priests directly into Protestantism.
Jesus spoke of
more than physical structure when He claimed to be replacing the temple. He
also abolished the division and hierarchy of the priesthood. Matthew 27:51
reads, "At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top
to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split." Only the high priest
could go behind that curtain, so when priests were instituted in the church the
temple curtain was hung again. This curtain of "clergy" versus
"laity" has separated holy people from God and mired their
functioning in the church. Martin Luther coined the phrase "the priesthood
of all believers." Unfortunately, he only applied it in the sense that we
no longer need to go through a priest but have direct access to God for
salvation. He forgot that it means every believer also has gifts and a role of
ministry in the body of Christ. While I'm thankful for Luther, he simply
replaced the old priestly structure with new priests and the same old
structure. The church will never fully function until that curtain comes down
once again. This idea will shake some earth and split a few rocks, but
rediscovering church is worth suffering a little violence.
"Church is
people" and "the priesthood of all believers" are both essential
elements within the church, but what should happen when the church gathers
together is continually at the center of focus and
controversy. There is a worship renewal happening around the world. Not the
thousands in the North American "renewal" movement or the tens of
thousands buying the latest worship CD. The real renewal is happening with the
millions around the world who are learning how to gather in someone's home and
circle in prayer. People are leaving the complications of church programs and
returning to the basic functions described in the book of Acts: "They
devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the
breaking of bread and to prayer. ... Every day they continued to meet together
in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with
glad and sincere hearts ..." (Acts
The Lord's Supper
is a good modern-day example of the form replacing function. William Barclay
writes, "The celebration of the Lord's Supper in a Christian home in the
first century and in a cathedral in the twentieth century cannot be more
different, they bear no relationship to each other whatsoever." True
Communion functions to remember Christ's body broken and blood shed among us. A
tight liturgical script performed by pastors and priests has replaced the
intimacy of that first Lord's Supper, shared together by Christ and His
disciples. An elaborate and costly program is substituted for the simplicity of
a meal. Sharing daily life together is pared down to a two-hour show on Sunday
morning.
Gathering together
as church has lost its original meaning. Only an honest reevaluation
of church programs and liturgy will restore the biblical functions of the
church. As the buildings are sold, pastors return to the circle of holy people
and programs are cut, maybe then we will discover church once again.
Our beliefs about
church do not need correction. Our church structures need a reformation.
Rediscovering church will take recommitment to the original functions as well
as a willingness to change common forms, even some that have lasted 1,700
years. Maybe it's time to sell the building, cut the programs, de-pulpit the
pastor and come home. Picture the church as the family of God. People cannot
"go to family" as one talks of "going to church." Yet
healthy families do spend time together. They eat meals — many meals. Not
the 300-person potluck, although it's a start, but dinners around a table with
laughter and sharing. Meals with time enough to spill your drink and apologize
as you clean it up. Time enough to get into an argument about something and
then to realize that it's not that big of a deal. Time enough
to get past the happy-Christian veneer to the real life sharing that church can
become.
People ask what
house church is like. House church is like an extended family that puts Jesus
at the center and reaches out to those who are
orphans. What we do is gather in homes to pray, learn and grow in relationship.
Sound simple? It is. Delightfully simple.