Why do we do it?
When I was studying in graduate school (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) I spent much time thinking about how I as a future pastor should build a church that is healthy and pleasing to God. I wouldn’t have pondered so earnestly if churches then, as a norm, were God-honoring, being the church that God wants them to be. I would have had plenty of examples to follow after. It would have almost been like second nature to me since I would have grown up and experienced a healthy biblical church myself. But the reality was far from it. Most churches were weak and dying.
This discrepancy between the church in the Bible and the church that I had experienced made me wonder, “Where did it go wrong? Why are the churches in the twentieth century weak and very different from the ones that I see in the book of Acts?” A deep hunger burned in me to rediscover what the New Testament church used to look like and how I can recreate that in my generation. This was foundational to God’s call to me to pastor His beloved church. If I build a church according to man’s wishes and design and not His will, I would be completely wasting my time, my life and mostly bringing absolutely no honor to God. And I wasn’t about to do that!
After studying the Bible, reading various books and attending not a small number of seminars and conferences on churches and small groups, I came to a conclusion that the house church that we are trying to build and establish in our midst, which we have experienced to a certain extent is closest to the biblical church that I see in the New Testament. We are not there yet. No church in this world is. And we still have a long way to go to be the kind of church that God wants us to be. But I am very pleased with what has been done and continue to take place in New Life through our house church ministry.
For us all in NLF to be on the same page, of the same earnest heart and passion for God’s church, I will write the next several “From the Pastor’s Desk” to clarify some key principles about house church.
Your pastor,
Eric
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