The Readers' Issue

By Dan Trotter... I have just had a wonderful idea. In this issue, we are going to print all of the communication we have recently had from our readers. This way, when somebody has something nasty to say, I can blame it on you!

WARNING!! The Surgeon General has been committed to Bellevue Hospital for the Insane. His successor has determined that he got there by reading NRR. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!!

DIALOGUE...

Please tell me--what heretic sent you heretics this heretic's name and address? Oh, I suppose it doesn't really matter as long as you promise to keep me on your mailing list.

Brother Artie, I, too, have a dream. I see in the near future a manifestation of the Bride of Christ, one of whose characteristics will be a visible unity, a unity which the world can see with its natural eyes (John 17:21-23). I understand why I have been labeled a fool for believing such a thing could happen--such a unity would not leave room for those who are into personal kingdom-building. Such a thing would require the destruction of many caves and prisons in which God's people have been taken prey (Is 42:22). I see a Church composed of those craving a perfect heart instead of settling for rote rituals, that are not much more than outward expression of tomb white- washing. I see a Church composed of those who have only one Father (He who is in Heaven), one Leader (the Son, Jesus Christ), and one Teacher (the Holy Spirit). The members of this Church will shun any kind of title that implies that they have the authority (gentile in nature) to lord it over others and tell them what they must do. Believe it or not, the Church does not need self-appointed human bosses (or, for that matter, leaders appointed by other humans). If Christians would only read the Bible, they would know what kind of characteristics are to be expected in a Christian leader... when I listen to any other Christian, I must listen for the voice of my redeemer, for He may speak to me through anyone that He wishes. It is a matter of submitting, not to a titled, authoritarian, position-monger, but instead to the anointing of Christ that may be being manifested through that other person at the moment...

Besides this, if America's church becomes the recipient of persecution... would She not be left "leaderless" if all her leaders were titled? A future version of the Nazi S.S. would only have to go through some paperwork to find out who are the leaders (the titled persons) and very easily remove them. Then what would happen to those who were left who had come to depend on one man instead of the Holy Spirit? (cf. Jer 17:5-8)

I see a Church who will refuse pagan monetary support. (Deut 23:6, Ezra 9:10-12)

I see a Church that will cease passing judgment on the world for "those who are outside, God judges." (I Cor 5:13)

"I see a Church so pure that intentional lying may very well result in death once again.

I see a Church that will cease boasting in men and their fleshly accomplishments, the likes of which Paul counted as dung. Indeed, no man will dare announce his name publicly for fear of the holy presence of Jesus.

I see a Church that has only one message to proclaim rather than all the different messages and gospels being presented today. A message so simple that an illiterate will be able to carry it to others.

I see a Church so pure that intentional lying may very well result in death once again...

Yes, Artie and Dan, I do have a dream, and a big one at that. But our Lord has given me the faith to believe that I will see that day.

Thanks for your recent issue No. 7 of Vol. 1. It arrived kinda chewed up from the mail or some such calamity, so I'd like another one...

Also, I do not appreciate your increasing the odds that I'm not going to be getting rich this month!

I'm already getting NT Restoration Newsletter and am enjoying it. Also Voices is good.

Our sources in New York tell us that there is a certain institutionalist there that goes ballistic whenever he encounters house church literature. Apparently your issue of No. 7 came into his hands, and he commenced to gnash his teeth on it. But be of good cheer, I will replace No. 7.

Thanks for the No. 7 newsletter. Good stuff. I enjoyed. I like the light touch, the way a newsletter should be.

I liked the letter from Ken Bennett, and would be delighted to have you direct him out our way--since he is in the business of getting the right things going.

...I enjoyed reading your October '93 issue... On page No. 1, you said that "we find ourselves like the Laodicean church: wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked." Not exactly true. If "we" refers to most Christians, they probably do not find themselves or their church in a dire condition. Rather, they think that they are doing fine in their own eyes. Neither did the Laodicean church find itself blameable. That is why God sent the prophet John to call that church to repentance. They needed to repent precisely because they did not find themselves wretched, miserable, etc. God has sent out some people into the church to point out the lack of metanoia in the church, but those people are rarely heard or are cast aside. Is your point here that we cannot minister to the brokenhearted unless we admit our own brokenness before God? Makes sense, I guess. One can hardly minister if he feels that he inhabits a superior realm.

Greetings in Jesus' name! Thanks for sending me a sample issue of NRR. It is very different and very interesting.

Do you have a copy of The Normal Christian Church Life by Watchman Nee? I think you would agree with most of his views. The footnotes in the old Scofield Reference Bible will support your view of church government. Keep up the good work!

As a church, we have an open meeting led by the Holy Spirit, yet under the protective care of elders. We encourage one another to share their spiritual gifts with others in the assembly. No one person holds supremacy in the church, nor dominates the meeting. The purpose of the church is to encourage one another in our faith, to teach the inerrant Word of God, and to equip each other to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with a lost world!

The pattern of the New Testament church was to build up believers in the Lord, to edify one another through planned and prophetic teaching, and to celebrate the Lord's Supper as a meal. New Testament believers primarily met in homes rather than separate church buildings. This gave believers the financial freedom to meet the legitimate needs of other believers as well as the needs of widows, orphans and the poor. Meeting in homes also encouraged Christians to use their spiritual gifts to edify the church body. Indeed, the church saw itself as a family, expressing intimacy, accountability, discipline and love.

We strive to follow all Biblical patterns normative to the New Testament church. Our open meetings begin around 3:00 p.m. as we freely participate in praising and singing, in teaching, in praying and in sharing our experiences in the Lord. Each person has the opportunity, as well as the responsibility, to participate in the meeting in such a way that the whole church is edified! Next we share an agape meal together in celebration of the Lord's Supper. Each person brings food, such as a covered dish, to share with others as we continue our fellowship together.

The following article was written by Keith Anderson, who left the institutional church in 1990. He now meets with fourteen other families as a house church in his home in Stone Mountain, Georgia. His article addresses the "how and why" of his church meeting...

It's not easy breaking away from the institutional church. You're viewed as a spiritual maverick, discontent with the status quo of modern ecclesiology. Even your friends see you as someone searching for a church culture buried in antiquity nearly twenty centuries earlier! You feel trapped. And to make matters worse, your experience is limited to a self-perpetuating church system where unscheduled input from the pews is not tolerated.

So what should you expect when you break away from the traditional church and begin to meet in someone's home! What actions should you take to promote the Scriptural development of a house church? I made the decision to leave the contemporary church after five years of acquiescing to the traditional trappings of worship--the need for a large building, the legitimacy of a professional clergy, the silence of spectator worship. I asked myself several questions: Why continue to shoulder the expense of a separate church building when I already had a home to meet in? Why limit the church meeting to a teaching homily given by one man? And why spend scarce resources on a costly church staff when I could instead be helping fellow Christians, the poor, widows and orphans?

Tradition. Biblical answers invariably pointed away from the institutional church. As a result, I agreed along with several others to meet as a church in my home and follow distinctive, New Testament patterns. Still there were problems. It would have been far easier if none of us had ever set foot in a traditional church building. So many things had been etched into our subconscious. So much needed to be unlearned. Thankfully, some of us had already begun an in-depth study of the New Testament church before we had our first meeting. This study is available in a six-tape album entitled: "Searching for the New Testament Church." To request this album call (404) 981-8592.

Closed Meetings. Most churches today have closed meetings. Virtually everything said is prepared in advance leaving little room for Biblical spontaneity. The traditional service proceeds like religious clockwork. Those freedoms described in the New Testament Church meeting (I Corinthians 14:26) are tragically missing. The church bulletin now replaces ecclesiastic freedom. Indeed, the Spirit of God is quenched. Having abandoned the open meeting, the vast majority of churches today meet each Sunday as Bible studies. The pastor teaches while the congregation listens in silence.

This is not to suggest that every house church meeting is a working model of the New Testament church. Instead, a different set of problems is encountered. Such problems, however, can be dealt with Scripturally. On the other hand, the structural problems inherent to the institutional church--professional clergy, silent laity, staff contracts, expensive buildings, misdirected giving--all result from ignoring Apostolic patterns and ultimately face stiff-necked opposition. As a church, we are free to interact with one another throughout the entire meeting. We have no preplanned agenda. We share Scriptural insights or revelations with each other. We sing and pray together as the Spirit of God leads us. The focus of our meeting is directed toward the encouragement and edification of the entire church body. Everyone has the opportunity to contribute to the meeting as they build up one another in the Lord!

Making Contact. The growth of a house church primarily depends on friendships and personal contacts. Such relational communication is normally neither planned nor lengthy. Therefore, if interest is expressed in the house church, follow- up that interest with a personal letter describing your church. Include a detailed Statement of Faith. The Statement of Faith reassures the reader that the doctrine of the church is Scripturally sound, and that it is not a cult. I keep one in my wallet as well as several in my van (I Peter 3:15).

Location. Some believe that those who meet in a house church must reside in the same neighborhood as the church. That's desirable, but not necessary. More important than geographic location is the personal commitment of each believer to the church itself. The reason location is even considered an issue is because the American culture is so heavily time-oriented. The success of a house church does not depend on the relative proximity of people within a given neighborhood, but instead, on each person's willingness to sacrifice his personal time for fellowship. The time it takes to travel to a church should not be allowed to obscure the fact that lack of fellowship is often the problem. Distance becomes a scapegoat for fellowship.

Of course, it is important to listen to the experiences of others, but experience is not Scripture. Again, the distinctive New Testament pattern is one of time, not location. Once meeting as a church, people are willing to accept a reasonable time for travel. For example, everyone in my church lives far outside the neighborhood of our house church. Yet this has never seriously hindered the growth of the church nor the people's commitment. Numerical growth, on the other hand, may prove to be a dilemma. People don't like change. They prefer not to experience any type of division in the church--not even a positive division which starts another house church. Nevertheless, twenty-five or more people in one meeting has a decided, negative impact on Scriptural participation. Try to encourage others to begin another house church in their own neighborhood before your church gets too large. Then fully support their efforts.

Eldership. Every Biblical church should appoint qualified leaders--elders who lead the church by persuasion and protect the church by their knowledge of the Word. It's an Apostolic pattern (Acts 14:23). Although a hasty appointment may prove tragic, an endless, lethargic approach to eldership is not only unbiblical but a dangerous road for the church to travel. An excellent book on this subject is Biblical Eldership by Alexander Strauch.

Final Remarks. Beginning a Biblical church is not easy. Many well meaning Christians, blindly steeped in the institutional church, assume the worst. The church which meets at my house is not an exception. It takes time for people to accept your home as a church. Even so, I would never trade our church meeting for the so-called 11:00 a.m. "worship service" orchestrated by institutional churches today. Anything less than a completely open, participative, sharing-ones-spiritual-gifts type of meeting approaches a Biblical charade.

We conclude this issue with a review of a house church conference recently held in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The review is written by Spencer Morrison of Atlanta, Georgia...

My impressions of the conference have me excited and cautious. It was great seeing so many people aimed at house churches and their community life. Yet some of the attendees weren't looking through the scope of the New Testament. It appears the house church movement meets their present needs or agenda, but if they perceive something else as better, they would move toward it, leaving the traditions and patterns that the apostles expected believers to follow regardless of culture or time.

The enormous diversity among attendees became evident in the two house meetings held during that conference. I'm not going into details, but if you want to see how wonderfully diverse Jesus' body is, go to next year's conference. You'll get a healthy eye-opener of the many differences Christ's love in us overcomes. [Editor's note: you will note that NRR is beginning to learn about tact and diplomacy. Reread the last paragraph. Have you ever heard anyone call a bunch of people weird in such a polite fashion?]

A variety of literature and tapes was available. One deserving mention is the newsletter, the New Reformation Review. Steve Atkerson and I read our copies of it late into the night. We couldn't get enough of its cleverly seasoned truth. Go ahead and get on their mailing list. It does a body good. [Editor's note: Now, does this guy have good taste, or what?]

We would like to make some further comments concerning the above mentioned house church conference. The first thing we need to do is apologize for the conduct of one of our contributing editors, Les Buford. It seems that a few of the conference speakers had become confused, and thought they were speaking on the oxymoronic subject of Christian feminism. After several references to this, Les' eyes glazed over, his jaw became rigid, and his index finger became catatonically pointed to I Tim 2:11-12: "Let a woman quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet." His finger did not move the rest of the entire conference.

And if this weren't bad enough, someone (namely Steve Atkerson of Atlanta), using the same tactics used by matadors when they wave their red cape in front of the bull, placed copies of his NT Restoration Newsletter in plain view on a table, which copies contained some of the most male-chauvinist-pig (i.e., chivalrous, women-honoring, Southern-gentlemanly) theology you ever saw. The last we heard, Steve was hiding out in a suburb of Atlanta. We hear that the only woman who will speak to him is his wife Sandra, but that, unfortunately for Steve, she is only speaking things to Steve that Steve doesn't want to hear!

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Speaking of the NT Restoration Newsletter, you may have noticed that last issue we plugged it, but failed to give an address. There was a reason for this. We knew that our readers who were more spiritual would begin praying for God to reveal to them the address. We knew that then we could reveal the address in the next issues, and you would think that NRR was the answer to your prayers! Pretty clever, don't you think? Here's the address: 2752 Evans Dale Circle, Atlanta, GA 30340. While you're at it, get the related set of six audio cassette tapes at 1603 Golf Link Dr., Stone Mountain, GA 30088, (404) 981-8592. We highly recommend them. Your editor faithfully plugs them in every time he drives out of the range of his local country radio station

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