The Village

One of the things I have been wondering about lately is what the organic house church can be modelled on. I have found it to be helpful as regards starting to think outside the square so to speak.

The two models that come to mind for the Institutional church is "Government' and "Business" I now look upon the institutional church as a tool for governing people's spiritual life and the resources they bring, namely their money and time. A pretty fundamental heart change which makes it difficult to re-enter the institutional doorway!

In the case of the house church and models that might help us understand the form of the house church, the two that come to mind are opposites to the institutional models, "Servanthood" and what I call "the village".

When I think about the village (The house church)i realise that it is dynamic and consistently changing. (A round stone) The village grows through people moving into the area, through births and declines through people moving out and dying. Friendships within the village are multi-dimentional and regualrly changing. Some are strong friendships, some are not. And so on.. Hopefully you get the idea.

One of the key things I have been thinking about is the walls we have around the village. Most villages don't have a wall but identify with a geographical region. I wonder whether one of the key challenges for the house church is to make sure we don't build walls and if we have, that we break them down. As I write this I realise that the Institutional church has many many walls which make it un-inviting to enter, and that keep those that have entered under control. Just wondering
(one of the comments in our yahoo discussion site. to join click buttern below)