Popular Christian speaker and author Francis Chan began a successful megachurch in California in the mid 1990s. When God began speaking to him about the model of church revealed in the New Testament, Chan left his megachurch and began planting house churches.
Chan’s journey – getting back to a more Biblical conception of church – is not unique. God is calling his people to abandon Christian religious traditions that are not found in the word of God and get back to the simplicity of the New Testament.
The following are some quotes from Chan’s book, Letters to the Churches.
God designed the church to be much more than what the majority of us experience in America. There are many of us who believe this and want change. The good news is that God wants this change even more than we do. And He doesn’t just want these changes; He commands them!
God gave us His “order” for the church. He told us precisely what He wanted through His commandments in the Bible. In our arrogance, we have created something we think works better. Rather than diligently studying his commands and delivering exactly what He asked for, we have been influenced by so many other things. We think about what we want, what others would want, what others are doing.
The word of God is the only standard for the church that is going to work. Our own religious habits that are not grounded in God’s word will create an empty religion like that of the Pharisees. Church, like other divine concepts, can only be defined by God; and church in God’s mind is often very different from church in the minds of people.
Just because you walk into a building with the word Church painted on a sign doesn’t mean God sees it as an actual church.
When you start your church, don’t just copy others. Study the Bible with fresh eyes, and search for what he actually commands. You will constantly be tempted to do what you want or what others want. Do what pleases God most.
On the Lord’s Supper
Chan makes an important point about the Lord’s Supper – that it was originally an actual meal eaten together by Jesus’ disciples. This is only possible in a house church.
The first disciples devoted themselves to the breaking of bread, which in the New Testament refers to a shared meal in which they celebrated the Lord’s Supper.
On Seminary
Ministry calling and education must come from God, not man, in order to be effective.
Having spent two years in a Bible college and three years in a seminary, I can tell you that a degree can be proof of intelligence or discipline but no spirituality. Those were easily the five worst years of my life. Remember that in Jesus’ day, some of the religious leaders were the most evil.
Not everyone who has a degree from a college is a genuine servant of God. Not everyone who is called a ‘pastor’ is even born again.
To serve God we need him to teach us and train us in his own Holy Ghost University. That means that we must follow his leading and do things in his way – not according to our own ways or the ways of men. We don’t need the wisdom of man in order to serve God. We need the Bible and God’s power.
On Children in Church
God values children and their role in His Kingdom far more than we do. We need to…do all we can to value their contribution. God sees them as far more than an obligation or inconvenience. In my setting, these passages have led us to incorporate our children into our gatherings, and the results have been powerful.
Children should be a part of house church. They don’t need to be separate, hidden away in ‘Sunday school’ so as to not disturb the meeting. They can be encouraged to participate and contribute. As they do, everyone will be blessed, and they will realize that spirituality is something for them, too.
On Church Entertainment
We don’t really expect God to move, so we fill our gatherings with exciting elements that will entertain people even if God does nothing. This won’t work in the long run.
On House Church
I believe God is leading a movement in this country toward simple, smaller gatherings, and I long to see this movement gain greater traction. I get so excited when I dream about the Church spreading in small, invigorating expressions that look and feel like the early church. My goal is to get you dreaming about this as well.
Everyone has a home. If it’s possible for a church to fit in a home, then we have an infinite number of potential churches no matter where we go. Going small is our best shot at getting big.
When the Catholic Church went so far astray…God raised up Martin Luther, who himself stood in a long line of reformers like John Wycliffe and Jan Hus, to call God’s people back to a true understanding of grace. When this Reformation became too institutionalized, God raised up Anabaptists to bring reformation to a Church that had already been reformed. There are so many reform movements throughout history…virtually every denomination we have today began as some sort of reform movement meant to pull the Church closer to God’s intention.
Bethel Cornerstone 