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Vol. 1, No. 2 - May, 1993
Testimonies
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There is something in this life that is more difficult to do than to stay awake in an American church on Sunday morning. What's more difficult than that? To leave the American church system. The believer who takes this radical step is immediately confronted with insecurities resulting from the deprivation of certain social securities the American church system offers. Who's going to bury me? Who's going to marry my daughter? These and similar questions are asked more than you would think. The American church system is more than civil religion: it is social religion. It provides certain forms of community that tie its members into each other, their communities, and their pasts. These "benefits" are usually not consciously noticed, until they are gone. Therefore, a believer who is fed up with the church mess with which he is embroiled is not necessarily going to take the plunge into radical house church Christianity. Other things might mean more to him than real, personal, in-depth relationships. However, there are some who would take the plunge if they knew an alternative was possible. This issue is dedicated to those who want to come out, but are discouraged or afraid. You are not alone: every radical house church Christian spends a good deal of his time being discouraged or afraid. Below are testimonies of ordinary believers with an extraordinary love of Jesus and his truth who have come out. We hope they are an encouragement. And incidentally, its perfectly legal and perfectly easy to have your daughter married in a house church!  WARNING!! The Surgeon General has determined that if you keep listening to boring sermons, you are going to die from spiritual constipation! Our first testimony is that of Mr. Sidney Paul Strickland, businessman, manager of Southland Mobile Homes in Sumter, S.C. Your editor has known Paul for years, including those years he was comfortably ensconced in the American denominational system. Paul was a pillar of the establishment, a veritable wooden soldier of the reactionary status quo. His stability and balance were mind-shattering. His conservatism was not only remarkable in the theological sense (as it still is), but also in the inertial sense. He even began to develop a receding hair line. But then something amazing happened. He found himself reading books and eating Sugar Babies in church, in order to survive the Sunday-morning boredom. He began searching, and wonderful to relate, he is a radical house church Christian. If Paul Strickland can come out, anybody can. Even you. What Paul now believes and practices is presented below. In a short space, his article gives the reader the essence of house church Christianity. Yes!! It IS possible! Your daughter CAN be married in a house church!!!!
First of all, we tenaciously adhere to the principal of an open church. An open church is one that practices open worship, open sharing, and open ministry. Open worship is best defined by the instructions given in I Corinthians 14:26, "when you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or interpretation." Very few, if any, denominational churches would allow on a regular basis a place in the order of worship for everyone (or whoever is so led) to lead a hymn, give a short teaching, share an insight or revelation given by the Lord during the week, etc. Truly, "all things should be done in a fitting an orderly way, "but by our man-made, prearranged "order of worship, "we have ordered all spontaneity and sometimes even the Holy Spirit our of our meetings. Open worship gives the reins of the meeting back to the Holy Spirit to move through and use all of his people in the gatherings as He sees fit. Open worship encourages and even demands participation, not spectatorship. Open sharing is also defined in I Corinthians 14:26 and in verses 29-31. Verse 30 states that "if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop." How often in a denominational church with its weekly sermons have you seen verse 30 obeyed? The first speaker (the priest or pastor) would normally consider it improper and even unscriptural to stop the homily and allow a "layman" the opportunity to speak. Verse 31 states, "For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged." How can all prophesy or preach when only one is recognized as competent, trained, schooled, and licensed to do so? This leads to the last area - open ministry. The Protestant Reformation gave the Bible and the doctrine of the "priesthood of every believer" back to the people. The problem was that the people received the doctrine of priesthood, never the reality. Roman Catholic priests were simply replaced with Protestant priests or pastors with essentially the same offices and duties. The Bible was returned, but the priesthood was never returned. Open ministry recognizes the inherent privilege and even right of every member of the Body of Christ to participate in the ministry; in practice and not just in doctrine. Please do not interpret this as an attack on the multitudes of good men who are members of the professional clergy. We simply state the fact that nowhere in the New Testament do you find men who give "sermons" three times a week to a group of spectators who themselves are never allowed to say more than a little "amen." Nowhere in the Holy Writ do you find a church that had one "pastor" over it. The New Testament church was governed by a plural eldership, equal in authority, and mutually submitted to one another. No eldership or particularly, no one elder, is seen as monopolizing the Christian gathering week by week and year by year. The eldership is to encourage the church toward open sharing and open ministry so that "the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." (Eph 4:16) As the early Reformers cried out "sola Scriptura," so we also cry out for a return to New Testament patterns and meetings. We believe that new wine is being readied to be poured out and only the new wineskins of New Testament order and pattern can contain it.
Our next testimony is that of Les Buford, of Seneca, S.C. LET US GO FORTH THEREFORE UNTO HIM WITHOUT THE CAMP, BEARING HIS REPROACH... [Editor's note: For those of you weak on literary allusions, this Scriptural citation means that people are going to think you're crazier than Gehenna for leaving the American church system] My wife and I, and our five children have been having house church now for over a year. At the beginning it was just the eight of us, seven Bufords and Jesus. (Matt 18:70) It was a good time for us to share our personal faith with our own children. I'm sure some folks thought we had backslidden because we weren't members of a church, and I don't recommend it for weak Christians. We had many brothers and sisters praying for us and watching over us and we were still in relationship with our old churches. So don't use my testimony for an excuse to backslide! We could have had a room full of Christians if we had wanted to do a little sheep-stealing from the local assembly that we left after six years, but we love those people too much for that, we really do!!! Now we have two more families who meet with us and are enjoying ourselves immensely!!! We are "Having CHURCH!!!!" Why are we doing this, and what brought us to take such a radical stand about New Testament Christianity? We know people are thinking "Why can't you just find one of those good churches in your area and fit in?" The answer is: I NEVER SIGNED UP FOR THAT!!!!"When I came to Jesus in 1971, at 17 years of age, it was a total surrender, to Him, as my Lord and Savior, but not to any particular organization, and that is where my allegiance is firmly planted to this day. When I was 19, and leaving for Bible School, my mom took me to the church I was raised in, and introduced me to the new pastor. She was showing off her son who was going to Bible School! The pastor, all dressed up in his gray suit, said in that preacher kind of tremelo voice, "That's a mighty fine profession,son." My heart said, not me, I don't ever want to be like him. I wanted all of God I could get, but no part of religion. I've had many good church experiences, and many wonderful pastors and teachers over the years. One of the first and best was Don Van Hoosier, of Highpoint Baptist Church, Macon, Georgia. In fact it was there I first encountered the church as the family of God, instead of as an organization, and I didn't have to join, I just woke up to the fact that I was a part of it. I remember looking around a piano in that huge living room, and saying "I have finally found my family." We all have a longing in our heart for this - our eternal family, because we were created for this very purpose, to live with our Father forever as a family. God also blessed me with the experience of living with all things in common, as in the New Testament. The Bible school I went to, Berean International, started a total living center in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri in which to train missionaries. It was another unforgettable experience of being a part of the family of God. Once you have experiences like that, joining a program-based church is very difficult. After Bible School, I felt led to take a regular job. "Heaven forbid, how can you ever hope to be in (say it with a tremelo voice) 'THE MINSTREY'...if you don't 'take a church?' During these years I experienced some of the early days of the charismatic renewal. Folks were coming out of their dry denominational churches and meeting to pray and seek God in living rooms where the presence of God was so real it was like a cloud in the room - an electrified atmosphere. After tasting of heaven, do you think I could be satisfied with a denominational organization of man? Sadly, most of these groups got themselves a building, hired a professional preacher, got a name, and organized themselves right our of the revival they once knew. Now charismatics everywhere are either sitting miserably in their new pews, gone back to a denominational church, are shopping for a church (the most miserable experience I know), or, worst of all, have quit going altogether. Many of us experienced a revival and will be miserable until we are experiencing it again. We tasted a little bit of heaven in those meetings, and we are just heartsick every time we find ourselves warming a pew again, and attending churches just like the ones we left so many years ago. The only difference is now we have jazzy new worship, and we lift our hands and shuffle our feet. The cloud has moved on and some of us are out there wandering around, outside the camp, looking for our Lord again... "LET US GO FORTH THEREFORE UNTO HIM...OUTSIDE THE CAMP...BEARING HIS REPROACH." |
You may send your opinions, flames, weighty observations, etc., to
Dan L. Trotter
work e-mail:
dtrotter@pascal.coker.edu
home e-mail: dantrotter@yahoo.com
Since 09/30/00 this number of people have ignored the Surgeon General's warning and have read this thing, resulting in gosh knows how much mental and emotional trauma: