2 Comments:

We had a Pastors wife here one day and she said that her husband had a hard time convincing the people there that they were to reach out... its been a frustration for him for years. I've heard that same complaint dozens of times. When she left I began thinking about that and a quote from Eugene Peterson came to mind...... "Churches are perfectly suited for the results that they are getting now".. and I think the clergy-laity system is one of the systems that keeps people as spiritual babies..... and produces apathetic people. I don't think some house churches do much better.. in my experience after they have the honeymoon period..... which includes a lot of criticizing the I.C. .... they settle into a cozy informal church service revolving around, eating, bible discussion and singing... and prayer requests.... and little reaching out.........

By  frank, at 1:51 PM  

Frank, like the comment. Agree with you that some HC's are struggling with this too. Couple of thoughts: Thankfully there are some who have managed to break out of this merry-go-round and are seeing their churches reproducing among the unchurched down to 4th & 5th generation plants (in the UK!!). This issue is critical though - can many more of these new organic churches break out of their tight circles of comfort any better than the legacy churches from which they came? The other thing is my long held suspicion that the new paradigm of church which this involves is essentially NOT for the already-churched but for the unchurched. Often these newly formed groups from ex legacy churches simply default back into 'house group' mentality. and that aint gonna do no one no good!

By  alexander, at 2:31 PM  

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