Today, there is a new, "old" movement toward forming house churches (also called house groups or cell groups) that are much like the "classes" used by the early Methodist movement. This summer an nationally printed article featured in the Great Falls Tribune quoted one source saying that an estimated 6-12 million people are currently attending house churches in the US. The trend toward house churches started 30 years ago in Great Britian, and continues today. See Fresh Expressions weblink in the side bar.
Some questions have been raised as some of us talk about house churches forming in the Yellowstone Conference to reach out to those people who aren't currently attending a church:
"Is forming house churches going outside the existing churches?", "Is this going to work against the denominaton?", and, "how are we going to stay a connectional church with house churches?" These same questions are still asked even in places that have already started using house churches with denominational sanction. See sidebar link to Bishop Graham Cray's remarks about fears about Fresh Expressions of church.
These are good, relevant questions we will ponder together. I'd like to use the next few blog entries to share some of my ponderings, and more importantly, much information through statistics, websites and video'ed interviews with current United Methodists leaders and other mainline denominational leaders.
But first, I'd like to reflect back on our Methodist roots...
When John Wesley and a few other like-minded Anglican priests decided to go outside church buildings to meet with people in public places and began meeting in private homes, they didn't do it with the idea of being outside the Anglican church. They were not trying to start a new movement, let alone a new denomination. They just felt compelled to share the love of God with people who wouldn't hear this Good News unless they tried a new way. John Wesley et al. didn't begin knowing what would happen, but they acted in response to their understanding of their situations, in their time. And, it changed what Christianity looked like from then on.
Many Christians, including United Methodist denominational leaders, feel that we are in the midst of great global and cultural shifts, that like John Wesley's times, will require us to embrace new ways of being witnesses to God's love in our world. See Call to Action weblinks in the side bar.
What the effect of forming a some house churches or trying some other new expressions of Christian living will have on United Methodism is not for us to know. That is God's business. (See Acts 1:8) But, if we act with integrity upon what we see, hear and know of our situation, in our time....praying all the while that we are participating as partners of Jesus Christ in God's Mission, surely we will continute to be transformed through God's enduring grace.
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