(Portions of an article about our
house church in the Washington Post)
"Going to Church by Staying at
Home"
Clergy-Less Living Room Services Seen as a Growing
Trend
By Michael Alison Chandler and Arianne
Aryanpur
Washington Post Staff
Writers
Sunday, June 4, 2006; Page
A12
After Sunday dinner at Joe Rodgers's
Rockville home, guests adjourn to the living room for
church.
In his makeshift chapel, wooden
kitchen stools and a floral print couch act as pews, a
portable keyboard substitutes for an organ and the host,
an electronics technician by day, serves as
pastor.
But just as there is no formal name or
dress code for this church, there is no sermon or
pastor-led prayer. When it came time to bow their heads
on a recent May evening, each of the 10 adults in
attendance had something to contribute: One man prayed
for success with his new fitness program; another sought
guidance as he prepared for his upcoming
marriage.
The worshipers have different faith
backgrounds, including evangelical, Episcopalian and
Catholic. What they share is a dissatisfaction with
traditional church services. "You can't ask questions in
most churches. You might make an appointment with the
pastor, get in his daybook for a quick lunch," said
Rodgers, 50.
A growing number of Christians across
Washington and around the country are moving to home
churches -- both as a way to create personal connections
in the age of the megachurch and as a return to the
blueprint of the Christian church spelled out in the New
Testament, which describes Jesus and the apostles
teaching small groups in people's homes.
Estimates vary widely for a movement
that is by design informal and decentralized, but the
consensus among home-churchers is that they are part of a
growing trend. George Barna, a religion pollster,
estimates that since 2000, more than 20 million Americans
have begun exploring alternative forms of worship,
including home churches, workplace ministries and online
faith communities. Barna based that figure on surveys of
the religious practices and attitudes of American adults
that he has conducted over the past 25 years.
"These are people who are less
interested in attending church than in being the church,"
said Barna, who became a home-churcher last year. The
alternatives are attractive to those who want to deepen
their relationships with God and one another, and they
also suit Americans' growing taste for flexibility and
control of their schedules, he said.
...Home churches are usually
nondenominational and consist of a dozen or so friends or
family members who often meet without an ordained
pastor.They have historically proliferated in countries
with repressive regimes. In China, millions of people
have converted to Christianity in unauthorized home
churches over the past half-century. But the United
States has seen only intermittent swells of activity.
...
Critics of the home-church movement
warn that, by meeting only in small groups with lay
leaders, Christians could become disconnected and stray
from orthodox beliefs.
...Many traditional churches do have
midweek Bible study groups or cell churches. For some,
these can be a first taste of home church, said Greg
Windsor, a real estate developer and a member of the
Rockville congregation that meets in Rodgers's home.
Windsor, 48, became interested in home churching almost
10 years ago while he was attending a megachurch in
Montgomery County.
"The person sitting next to you in the
pew could be close to dying, but people don't really know
one another," he said. By abandoning the steeple, the
pastor and the crowds of people, Windsor said, his tiny
congregation is trying to live according to the New
Testament.
"A lot of embellishments happened over
the centuries," Windsor said. The modern Christian church
is "like a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy of a
photocopy," he said. "It starts getting distorted and
changed."
Windsor and his wife started reading
about home churches and broke off from a bigger church to
meet with a group in northern Maryland. After several
years, that group grew too large -- about 30 people --
and the couple broke off again, starting the home church
in Rockville. Stripped to its most basic elements, he
said, his group can focus on developing "deep
friendships" and "helping one another grow
spiritually."
The service changes from week to week,
depending on what members are going through or thinking
about; they might organize a Bible study or discussion
around managing their finances or overcoming
depression.
On a recent Sunday, they watched a
film by Focus on the Family that chronicles the lives of
early Christians and their attempts to convert the
Greeks. Afterward, they talked about how those
experiences compare with challenges in spreading the
faith today.
They sang hymns and put money into a
small cardboard box, to be donated to homeless programs
and victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. As the
Communion bread and wine were passed around the circle,
music played while others swayed and whispered "Oh God"
and "Merciful God."
By about 9 p.m., it was time to go
home. But Windsor said church does not end when the
service is over. Members might meet several times during
the week, and church can continue over coffee at
Starbucks or during a biblical discussion at a family
barbecue.
For them, church is not tied to a
building or confined to a couple hours a week, he said.
"It's a way of life."
Full article http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/03/AR2006060300225_3.html
If you would like to know more about
us, please contact us by email
at windsor@upwardcall.net
In Gods grace,
Tom Windsor
