The Normal Christian Church Life (#10) - Chapter Nine

Chapter 9 - "The Organization of Local Churches"

This is the final chapter of this book; after this I will be writing random thoughts for a few weeks.

I will give a brief summary of this lengthy chapter (please see entire book online at Google Books if you want more), then I will close this post with comments on the house church movement today.

Nee begins the chapter by listing three things that we typically regard as essential in our present-day concept of "church":

• A "minister"
• A church building
• "Church services"

He proceeds to deal with each of these in detail, explaining how the New Testament Church viewed them. The chapter also deals with the distinction made in the New Testament between "church" and apostolic ministry (which Nee refers to as "the work"). Some summary statements Nee makes in this chapter are the following:

• "The relationship between the work and the church is really very simple. A worker (apostle) preaches the gospel, souls are saved, and after a short lapse of time a few of the comparatively advanced ones are chosen from among them to be responsible for local affairs. Thus a church is established! The apostle then follows the leading of the Spirit to another place, and history is repeated there. So the spiritual life and activity of the local church develops, because the believers bear their own responsibility; and the work extends steadily because the apostles are free to move from place to place preaching the gospel and founding new churches."
• "Romans 12:5 Apart from Christ, the Church has no head; all believers are only members, and they are 'members one of another.' Mutuality expresses the nature of the Church...All those who compose a church take their place as members of the Body, not one occupying the position of head. The whole life of the church, and all its activities, must be stamped by this characteristic of mutuality."
• "The Scriptures show two distinct kinds of meetings - apostolic meetings, which are led by one man, and church meetings, in which all the local brethren are free to take part."
• "There are several purposes for which the church meets, as recorded in Scripture. First, for prayer (Acts 2:42; 4:24,31; 12:5); second, for reading (Col. 4:16; I Thes. 5:27; Acts 2:42; 15:21, 30-31); third, for the breaking of bread (I Cor. 10:16,17; Acts 2:42; 20:7); fourth, for the exercise of spiritual gifts (I Cor. 14)."
• "The apostolic meeting is not an intrinsic part of the church life; it is merely a piece of work, and it ceases with the departure of the worker (apostle). But the church meetings go on uninterrupted whether the worker is present or absent."

To conclude this post, I will share that I believe the Church, under the Lord's leadership, is beginning to move back to the ways of the early church when church gatherings were in inconspicuous places (like homes) and were much more effective in displaying the beauty of Jesus, in discipling believers, and in winning the hearts and minds of unbelievers (or "pre-christians") without the road blocks of hierarchical structures and systems, buildings and the huge expenses required to maintain these elements.

As I live and work among the younger generations, I increasingly see the ineffectiveness of our systems and structures as they get in the way of "parenting" them in God, which is what they desperately need and want because of the massive breakdown of the home in our society. House gatherings will provide family life for the upcoming generations; the Lord will increasingly find places where He can "set the solitary in families" (Psalm 68:6).

The movement towards house churches is growing rapidly and while there are various approaches to this, there is much common ground among those who are voices today in this movement. For those interested in knowing more I recommend the following books: "Pagan Christianity?" by Frank Viola and George Barna; "Reimagining Church" by Frank Viola; "Houses that Change the World" by Wolfgang Simson; "The Rabbit and the Elephant" by Tony & Felicity Dale and George Barna; "Organic Church" by Neil Cole; "Missionary Methods: St. Paul's or Ours?" by Roland Allen.