It is happening again. A new species of church is emerging throughout North America and other western nations. Both in major cities and in rural areas, a unique kind of church life is peeking through like the fresh growth of new crops pressing through the surface of the soil each spring.
Hungry for community and relationship, people are learning the values of the kingdom by first-hand participation. They meet in small groups in homes, offices, boardrooms or restaurants. Church becomes a way of life where discipleship and growth occurs naturally as everyone develops their gifts and “learns by doing,” under the mentorship of spiritual fathers and mothers. I like to call this fledgling grassroots phenomenon “house church networks.”
Within the next years, I believe these new house church networks will dot the landscape of North America just as they already do in other nations of the world. Places like China, central Asia, Latin America, India and Cambodia have experienced tremendous growth through house churches that disciple and empower each member to “be the church.”
They are called house churches because each one functions as a little church. They are networks because they work together to foster accountability and encouragement. Although the terminology house church networks, sometimes called micro church networks, may sound like a contemporary concept, they are not really new; in fact, house churches are as old as the book of Acts.
The New Testament church was defined as the people. Believers did not go to church or join the church; they were the church. All members functioned as priests because everyone served as ministers. Each person got on-the-job-training and learned how to make disciples. These followers of Christ practiced their faith in spiritual families, met in homes and radically changed their world. They grew in number as they obeyed God’s Word and shared resources and spiritual blessings. They multiplied into more and more groups of believers meeting in homes, all networking together. This was the original house church networks!
Recently, new house church networks have sprung up throughout North America—from Denver, Colorado to Austin, Texas; from Richmond, Virginia to Indianapolis Indiana; from Toronto, Ontario to Edmonton, Alberta, and dozens of places in between.
(This is an excerpt from an article entitled, "House Church Networks - A Wave of the Future" written by Larry Kreider, former member of the White Oak Church of the Brethren)
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