Comments on: More thoughts on church and worship

By: Peter L

Peter L — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 03:11:28 +0000

Great post, Pauline. I can attest that some home churches are better than others. I have regularly attended two, and visited a couple of others, though none are in what you call the “movement”. Where I go now is a home church that has been together for over 30 years. It has never had more than 20 attending, as it is in a farm house in rural Illinois, about 20 miles south of Keokuk, Iowa (about a 2 hours drive from where you are, I think).

We have a “pastor” who leads the meeting and shares a message. He owns the house and has been the only regular elder. Other men have come and gone on to other ministries over the years. We have known of this church for most of its existence, and only started attending when we moved to the area five years ago, though we have visited many times over the years.

Our meeting is not according to any pattern, but it is also orderly, according to Paul’s admonishment in 1st Corinthians. The elder opens the meeting with prayer, then we sing from either a hymnal or song book which has choruses and other hymns not in the main book. The songs are requested by the congregation (which currently consists of my family of four, the elder and his wife, as well as two other older women in their 60s, one a widow, for a total of 8). After each song, the requestor is given an opportunity to share why the song was chosen. Usually it is one line or something related to a scripture recently read. Even children are allowed to request a song. Later, there is a time of sharing about the week gone by or prayer requests. Then there is a prayer time, in which several of us pray. The message follows and then occasionally there is another song. Afterwards, we all have Sunday dinner together, with each woman preparing some part of the meal.

The day lasts sometimes until 4:00 or so, depending on if there are guests. About once every two months, a group from Hannibal, MO joins us. The pastor, his wife and afew of the others used to make the hour drive up every Sunday, while he waited for the Lord’s timing on starting a work there in Hannibal. Most of that church are either recent graduates or current students of Hannibal-La Grange College (a small SBC school).

There you have it. If you and your family want to come down and visit, let me know. (Put a post on my blog and I’ll contact you that way. I monitor posts so I can keep the SPAM out.)

By: Karen O

Karen O — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:08:24 +0000

A wonderful, honest post, Pauline.

Just yesterday, I e-mailed my dear friend (& pastor’s wife), Marilyn, with a “copy” of Cindy in SD’s latest review on Pagan Christianity (chaps. 4 & 5) & some comments. Here is part of what I wrote…

“As one of those traditional-type people [that Marilyn had mentioned in an e-mail], I was initially very reluctant, when I first started reading references to Pagan Christianity, to think there was anything to the book’s arguments other than bitterness & maybe off-the-wall ‘let’s change the church just cuz we don’t like it’. But I do find the points made in these reviews intriguing. (The book just arrived today, so I’ll be reading the actual thing soon.)

“I do have mixed feelings about it. By ‘it’, I mean the possibility of learning that our ways of running the church are maybe not what they were intended to be. I have already been exposed to some of the points/issues by reading some comments (on the World blog & elsewhere) written by some who have either read the book & been convinced or already attend ‘organic’ churches. They are the minority – by far – but I have found their comments interesting.

“So then, my next question to myself is – So what do you do if the book convinces you that things should be much different in the church? What then?

“Good question. One thing I would NOT do is stir up any trouble or dissent within our church or go around thinking I know better than anyone else. (One lady on the blog has that attitude.) I would probably ask you to read it & then we could discuss it (if you were interested).

“Again, Marilyn, as I wrote in another recent e-mail, these thoughts & questions are out of curiosity & a genuine desire to learn, NOT from any discontent with our church.”

My church (an Assembly of God) has been making little changes here & there throughout the past few years. The Sunday night meeting went from being another worship-service-&-sermon to a Believer’s Meeting, with everyone encouraged to share. Eventually that meeting became a once-a-month meeting. We have a Bring-Your-Own-Lunch Fellowship after church once a month. And there are some other ideas in the works which would seem to be moving in a more non-traditional direction.

People do not react well to drastic change, so it makes sense that God would help us change little by little.