How are House Churches Doing?

From our Advanced Leadership Forum (To join click here)

Now, it depends on what you mean by “doing well.”  If you compare the North American house church movement to what’s going on in India or China, we’re doing VERY poorly overall.  I’ve yet to find a house church network on this continent that is matching the average 4-month multiplication average that’s being seen currently in China.

On the other hand, there are many house churches where lives are being transformed, ministry and mission are priorities, and where multiplication of disciples, leaders, and house churches are taking place.  One of the problems of many of the just-slightly-above-the-radar house churches (i.e., they’re vocal enough to be found) is that they were often founded as a knee-jerk response to the conventional building-based church.  And who wants to be a part of a church that stews in the bile of anger, discontent, complaining, and “we’re right and everyone else is wrong” kind of attitude?  But these house churches are often the ones that get noticed because anger and discontent gets attention.

The North American house church movement is still in its infancy - and it will be awhile before we can determine whether it is just a great experiment in the emerging culture while we were eagerly waiting for the next generation of the organized church, or whether it is here to stay as a mighty army of saints dispersed throughout society.  Until then, I’m one of the Sisyphus’s trying to roll the stone of house church over the top of the hill (or in Gladwell’s words, helping spread an epidemic).