In my experience in dealing with "home church" situations they are not like the home churches in the book of Acts because there is often no oversight and no authority structure. Most are started by people who are unable and/or unwilling to be under the authority of another or they are exclusionary in that they claim to have the perfect doctrine and they are unable to find a perfect church to attend. I believe the modern "house church" movement is unbiblical. But I want to make a difference between a group that is just beginning and meeting in a house because they have no place else to meet but are under the authority of another church (i.e. many church plants begin this way) and a group that splits off because of rebellion and perfection. Pax, steve Jerry wrote: > Gentlemen, > > Many Christians are now turning away from organized denominational > churches and joining loose fellowships of believers that meet in > people's homes. > > These house churches have very little formal organization and usually > have several men who serve as pastors and not one man who is THE pastor. > > Some of these churches take an antagonistic view toward organized > religion. > > 1) Is this set up and perspective of church any less "church" than > the organized formal institutionalized church structure that most of > us work with? > > 2) Does it matter where a church meets, whether in a building set > apart for weekly services or in someone's home? > > 3) A church building cannot properly be called "the Lord's house" > because the term is used in the New Testament to refer to the people > of God as being the dwelling place of God. > > 4) Does a man have to be ordained as a pastor/elder before he can > preach or pastor a gathering of believers? > > Jerry > > To subscribe, send a message to: pastorsforum-join@... > > To unsubs > cribe, send a message to: pastorsforum-unsubscribe@... > > > > -- ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Pastor Steven G. Rockhill Lisbon Reformed Presbyterian Church PO Box 88 Lisbon, NY 13658 315-393-9041 revrock@... http://lisbonrpc.port5.com +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++