Category: HC vs. Instutional Church
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One Plants, Another Waters, and Then…?
by James Rohrer Dr. Rohrer is Editor in Chief, Sage JPC and HME, University Research Reviewer, Walden University. This essay is motivated by the observation that Christian small assemblies are formed, sometimes grow into networks, then seemingly evaporate in just a few years. Some plant, others water, and then what? Is God bringing an increase? Or…
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Ordination
Does It Have Any Place in the Houses Church? The purpose of ordinations is to ensure that candidates for leadership positions in the church meet the expectations of the church calling them. Those include experience and theological training, and if the role includes preaching, the presentation of a sample sermon. Usually there is also an…
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Authority in the Church
When persecution against the House Churches eased early early in the 4th century under Constantine, Christians found ways to form larger assemblies, encouraged, no doubt, by Constantine’s aggressive church-building programs. It is not surprising that these larger assemblies formed hierarchies. This very human tendency is so common that one has to wonder why Moses needed…
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Hijacking the Church
The first to hijack Christianity was the Emperor Constantine, who used Christianity to unite the Roman Empire under his control. Carrying the Chi Rho symbol, the first two letters of “Christ” in Greek, his soldiers prevailed against Maxentiius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge of 312 AD. Constantine invited the “bishops” of the day…
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Separation of Church and State
While house church theology and the American political left may disagree on a long list of issues, they are in lock step on the question of the separation of church and state–but for completely different reasons. One might look at separation in a number of ways. We Christians are told that we must separate from…