February 13, 2010

• "House Church" reading notes, Ch. 7 & 8

  notes from the book "House Church" by Steve Atkerson

  
  Chapter 7 - Children in Church

  In this chapter, the authors discuss the presence of children in house churches. 

  - The scriptures are silent on children and church - nothing said about Sunday Schools (nor the lack thereof), etc.  Only Acts 21:5 mentions wives and children, escorting Paul and company out of the city on their journey.

  - The traditional church practices segregation... children are grouped by age and taught separately from the adults for the duration of the church meeting.

  - Their recommendations for house church practices:
    1. Relax - children will be somewhat unpredictable and noisy sometimes no matter how much their parents try to keep them quiet - just accept that and move on.

    2. All the adults can help keep tabs on all the kids.
   
    3. Try to find creative ways to keep the kids involved in the main assembly - occasional kid-focused lessons, etc.

    4. No problem with occasional special separate events for the kids, with games, videos, or whatever.  Just not every week.

    5. Hosts can feel free to make clear a set of house ground rules at the beginning.
   
    6. If infants are too noisy / fussy, parents can be encouraged to take them to a different room / etc.
   
    7. Try not to let the meeting become too boring / stagnant, for everyone's sake, but especially the kids' sake.
   
   

  My thoughts on this -- I like the idea of reducing the segregation of kids from their parents and other adults.  This reintegration would seem to promote better connections between kids and parents.  As one of my friends recently said, when kids graduate out of the high school youth group, they tend to drift away from church because of the sudden "disconnect" between participating in the fun game night with interactive youth-focused lessons to the sudden "dry, boring" (feeling) time of silently listening to lectures in pews or prayer time.  But if all of church was small intimate group time, and if kids were used to participating (at least from high school on), there would be no disconnect.

  I do think there will likely be 'difficulties' with younger kids - at least until everybody gets adjusted to it.  Many young families looking for a church will probably not initially choose a house church because they're looking for the convenience of nurseries and kids' programs.  Your thoughts are welcome.

  Also, I wonder how to integrate the "women keep silent in church" principle (of 1 Cor 14 and 11).  I assume that boys would naturally be expected to keep silent in church until they reach 'adulthood' (age 12 for Jewish boys... cf. Jesus in the temple...) and even then to wait for their elders (cf. Elihu in Job), and I guess girls would keep total silence and ask their own fathers at home or talk after the 'assembly' with others about their questions (e.g. other older women, etc).  But it would seem productive to me to have times when the girls could participate verbally too... perhaps not in the 'main assembly' but at some other before/after time?  And the young children?   Our culture tends to put kids on a pedestal of honor, and it is also a very feminist culture, so these differences would be painfully obvious at first.  After time, though, this pattern (women and kids quiet during assembly/teaching/worship time, but participatory at all other times) might come to feel quite normal, as it was through the ages of the Jewish synagogues, etc.

   

  Chapter 8 - "Thoroughly Biblical Church" - "What are the irreducible requirements for a church to be biblical?"

  They suggest 5 basic Biblical church practice patterns (covered earlier in the book in more detail) -
  1. They met on the first day of the week
  2. They met in houses
  3. Their worship was open and spontaneous with "no one leading from the front" and every (male) person sharing
  4. The Lord's supper was a full meal, each time they met
  5. They used non-hierarchical male plural leadership (indigenous, functional/not-positional, consensual)

  They mention that item 1 and 2 could be modified if necessary, as the situation demands, but unless extenuating circumstances were present, there would be no need to deviate from that pattern. 

  Also they say (p. 125) "But let me make it clear as well that I do not by this mean that everything has to be in place from the word go... Of course the Lord's Supper as a full meal ought to be in place from the very start as there is just no possible reason for such not to be the case, but eldership, for example, would normatively arise much later.  And it is often the case as well that someone might take an initial lead in the corporate weekly gatherings until the others learn how to begin playing their part.  But the thing to grasp is that it should nevertheless be quite clear where the church was heading..."

  My thoughts--  I basically agree.  I also think that the transition from modern American traditional church to what they're suggesting is so radical that there would definitely be a lot of struggle and difficulty at first.  But it may well still be worth the change...
  

  • 11:31 pm
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