Home church can be ‘us four and no more’, or ‘batten down the hatches’ against the world, and for some, against traditional church. If our motivation is retreat, then the Kingdom will not be advanced. I received this from the House2House newsletter (house2house.tv)
“Growth is not automatic, generally speaking, for small groups. This is underlined by some pertinent comments for the newsletter that is sent out from time to time by Maurice Smith (see parousianetwork.org for his most helpful comments and insights.). Quoting from his July 5th newsletter:
“Let’s face a harsh reality. When all the latest books on house church (or simple church, or organic church, or campus church, etc.) have been read & digested, and all the latest house church conferences have been attended, at the end of it all there remains one brutal truth. If the house church movement does not become an outreach-oriented movement that actively, prayerfully and creatively seeks the transformation of neighborhoods, then we will perish as a movement . . . and rightfully so. We cannot and will not survive as a “Honey, I shrunk the Church” movement (I stole that from John White in Denver!) that simply reproduces what we have traditionally known as “church” on a smaller scale behind the four walls of a house.
There is much talk today about 24/7 houses of prayer and how they compare to the early Moravians. There is a lesson here for the house church movement. Like the early Moravians our house churches need to become centers of prayer and fasting where we spend time praying, fasting, seeking and listening to God. But the Moravians then sent out an impressive number of missionaries/evangelists, people like Peter Bohler who befriended John Wesley and became instrumental in his eventual conversion. To me this speaks of concerted prayer COMBINED with intentional outreach. If we as a house church movement do not become outreach oriented we will die. Simple as that.”