Who We Aren't
There are a lot of wrong ideas that float around about what house churches look like. Some of these ideas stem from simple fear and misunderstanding. Others came to life because poor examples of smaller faith communities (house churches and other “simple” or “organic” church structures) have received more attention than healthy, mature house churches. Some even come from misrepresentation by celebrity voices of the house church scene.
Here, we want to break down these misconceptions and set a biblically grounded precedent for what healthy house churches believe and look like–while also understanding that there isn’t “one right way” for house churches to function.
House churches are not born out of bitterness, division, “church hurt,” or hate for the institutionalized church.
Debunking Myth #1
Some house church founders and members have had to recover from burn-out, disappointment, and spiritual neglect in their experiences with the institutionalized church. But healthy house churches help their members find forgiveness and healing in those cases, rather than being guided by bitterness, anger, and hurt.
We deeply believe Chrisitans who attend institutionalized church services are our brothers and sisters in Christ–not our enemies, nor our “competition.” Many of them are actively, authentically pursuing to know and represent Christ and spread his kingdom. We also believe that those brothers and sisters would be better supported to do so within the structure of a healthy, mature house church than they are within the structure of a healthy, mature institutionalized church.
For more on why we believe this and the foundational concerns we have with the structure of the institutionalized church, our podcast episode, Concerns with the Institutionalized Church, is a great place to start, along with our article series, Choosing House Church.
The house church structure is not a magic bullet for common institutional issues.
Debunking Myth #2
While we do believe the house church structure provides a better foundation than the institutionalized church structure, that alone doesn’t ensure health and maturity in a church. Too often, young house churches begin meeting in their homes instead of a designated church building and think that the change of location will fix their struggles.
But the ways and struggles that these Christians are trying to unlearn aren’t bound by the building. Rather, they’re bound by the mindsets that are created, in large part, by understanding church mostly as an event that people attend to listen to one elevated person speak and to enjoy live worship music.
While we do have concerns with the structure of the institutionalized church gatherings, we believe the core reason why house church provides a better structure is that it provides a firmer foundation for understanding anew what the church is meant to be–which is much more than just a gathering, let alone a building. We share about that on our podcast here and in our article series here.
If you’re currently trying to overcome old institutionalized struggles with your church, we hope our podcast episode, Troubleshooting Common House Church Issues, will be a helpful resource for your journey.
House church gatherings are not like a typical Sunday morning service, small group, or bible study, just in a living room.
Debunking Myth #3
At least not ideally, though many young house churches’ gatherings do tend to start out by simply imitating what they’ve seen in institutionalized church services, small groups, or bible studies, with some added discussion and participation. In fact, one of the most difficult challenges for many budding house churches is in letting go of and finding ways to replace old institutionalized ways–and knowing what pieces to keep or tweak. If you’re experiencing that with your church, our podcast episode, Troubleshooting Common House Church Issues, may be a helpful resource.
That said, we can’t spell out exactly what more mature house church gatherings look like, since they change not only between different churches but often between seasons for churches. Some of the most common questions we get are about what house church gatherings look like, though. Stay tuned for more from our team with a glimpse into the reasons, beauty, and practicality behind the possibilities of what a house church gathering might look like.
House churches are not just a “good fit” for certain personality types or for certain seasons of life.
Debunking Myth #4
The misconception of house church as a “seasonal” call often comes about by seeing institutionalized churches that start out holding services in homes. It can also come from seeing a group of Christians “quit church” for a season to heal from hurt or neglect, often while meeting in homes but without intentions of becoming a healthy, functioning church.
The misconception of house church as only a fit for certain personality types is much more complicated. One piece of that misconception comes from seeing less mature house churches lose sight of their spiritual foundation and become something more akin to a therapy group than a church.
That said, there is also a much more difficult side to face with most of the aspects of house church that people turn away from. The characteristics that are so often brushed aside as personality and preference differences are actually rooted in biblical direction for how the church should interact with one another–and those directions often challenge our ideas of who we think we are. We dive more deeply into that in our article, Choosing House Church, Part 1: Beyond Personal Preference.
House churches do not have less accountability for their members, leadership, or doctrine.
Debunking Myth #5
Accountability in house churches looks very different from accountability for institutionalized churches, where it's usually systematized through a church board and a larger denomination. Unfortunately, accountability isn’t perfect in either system, though we’ll leave our criticisms of the institutionalized accountability structures for another day.
In a mature house church, accountability comes from all directions. It requires empowering every member of the body to hold one another accountable for their words, actions, and beliefs. Because of this, healthy and mature house churches encourage and train both biblical literacy and critical thinking skills for all their members. There can be a certain learning curve to this, and it looks different across different churches, but our team is currently working to gather, create, and organize a few resources and tactics that we recommend.
House churches do not abandon the call to reach the lost and make disciples.
Debunking Myth #6
For house church members, reaching the lost is never as simple as inviting people to a weekly event and hoping the pastor’s message reaches their heart. Because we understand the church as more than a gathering, our goal isn’t ever to simply increase our weekly attendance.
Instead, house church members focus first and foremost on going out to the people and being an ambassador for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20) in their world. They expect to be the representative for Christ for the person in front of them and to disciple them if they accept Christ, rather than to bring that person to someone else (typically the “professional” Christians) to do the bulk of the converting, teaching, and discipling.
Mature house churches are often also focused more on the depth of their reach rather than the width. You aren’t likely to see a house church member passing out flyers en-masse for others to come crowd around their living room for a special holiday gathering. But you are likely to see the same person who first shared the gospel with someone supporting that person as they mature and develop in their own faith and begin to disciple other new Christians themselves.
With the work distributed more evenly, we’ve found that fewer people slip through the cracks of the church’s care. Because of that, fewer people sit in half-way, lukewarm commitments to the Lord, as well. We talk more about this in our article Choosing House Church, Part 3: A Royal Priesthood.
House churches are not a mysteriously private sect built on “group think.”
Debunking Myth #7
To say this plainly: house churches are not cults. We usually only run into that extreme version of this myth from people who have unfortunately seen people taken advantage of or led astray by leaders of private, unaffiliated “organic” faith communities. Unfortunately, cults like that exist–but they exist within institutionalized faith communities, as well. Neither structure is a magic bullet to false doctrine or evil practice.
With that said, it can also be disconcerting for people when they meet people whose house churches have private or semi-private gatherings (which, in our experience, varies church-to-church and season-to-season). However, regardless of how quickly or slowly they invite people into their gatherings, mature house churches are open about their beliefs and their practices–there should be no mysterious, hidden knowledge that someone is trying to entice you to “earn.”
All the members in a healthy house church also know that disagreement can be okay (assuming it’s not about a foundational or salvific doctrine), but that silent disagreement is not okay. Ideally, they also purposefully and actively open themselves up to outside perspectives and discussions. We’ll talk more about this in the resources we’re currently working on to share about encouraging biblical literacy within the church.