Pastor Chet recently asked a question about whether or not we should believe George Barna's prediction that in the next 20 years over 70% of US Christians will be worshipping in small house churches. I started to offer my opinion, but it kept getting longer and longer, so I just rolled it up into a blog post, and put it here. Check out the original post on Chet's blog...it's really good!

Here goes...

I prefer the smaller setting of a house church. I prefer the non-traditional. It seems as thought the larger church has become very commercialized and self-serving, and I would like to get back to a faith that is dependent on Christ and focused on something other than my local church building. It's time for some Kingdom expanding...enough of this pansy family living. (Admittedly, a kingdom is made up of families and should take care of families, but it should be just as heavily focused on expanding its borders, but I'm getting off-topic here.)

I am tired of the larger gatherings that have very little bearing on the rest of the six days in my week. I am tired of being spoon fed what I am supposed to believe. I am tired of rigid authority structures that appear to serve the leadership of the church, or even selfishly serve the interests of the local church body, rather than the Kingdom of God. I'm tired of being a face in a crowd. I am somebody. I matter to God, and therefore, I should matter to everyone around me, and they to me! I don't get that in a larger setting. I get it in a smaller setting.

It makes very little sense to me to pour tens of thousands of dollars into a room, namely the sanctuary, that will only be used once to twice a week, and is built for a very specific purpose. Couldn't that money be better spent on more in-depth training for Christians? Or maybe we could put that money into a room that could be used by the entire community on a frequent basis. This room could become an investment in actively reaching out to people in the community with the Good News of Jesus Christ!

Why are we pouring thousands of dollars into a music program? Is it so that people can worship? Well, then let's stop teaching people that worship is the songs on Sunday morning, and start demonstrating, that's right, get out of the church office and DEMONSTRATE, that worship is our whole life response to the greatness of God. Why are we inviting people to church? Shouldn't we be inviting them to a whole new way of living? Shouldn't we be inviting them into the Kingdom of God?

I am tired of hearing how there need to be more churches of a given denomination in a given area. The question should not be, "Is there a (fill-in-the-denomination/fellowship) church in that city?" The question should be, "Is the Kingdom of God expanding in that city?"

I am tired of people becoming disgruntled and leaving one church to go be in another "better" church. It is time to become less concerned with the church and more concerned with the Kingdom of God!

I am realizing that more and more of my contemporaries have the same feelings I do about the local church. We will, in all likelihood, be the majority of the Christians in the church in 20 years. If that is the case, then I believe Barna's projections.

What do you think?