Sunday July 25, 2021

House Church

We’ve been closed on Sundays since 2001, twenty years now, and to most folks it doesn’t make any sense.   I imagine in a retail/food service business, an enormous percentage of sales take place on Sunday.

As a believer I don’t really divide with anyone over the question of how to observe the Lord’s Day.  For us, it became a very easy commandment to observe since our Saturday business, particularly in the Fall, can be pretty brutal.  We came to wonder how we could ask anyone to put in another double shift after a Saturday double shift.  Rest sounded great.  Thank you, Lord.

House church, on the other hand, and worship in general, is actually a bit of work.  No sleeping in.  Prepare a message.  Wrestle with the complexities of God’s Word.  Sing a few hymns with a few folks sitting around a table in the tavern, without a piano player.  (We’re a VERY small fellowship.)

So why house church?  Aren’t there any fellowships worth joining?  Probably.  If I lived near Jeff Durbin’s church in Arizona, I’d be there more than one day a week.  His sanctuary is full of large families; they believe in kingdom (dominion oriented) theology, where Christ the King rules now and expects Christians to change their culture for the better.  He didn’t bow to the mask mandate or the lock-down.  His people went right on gathering in defiance of the tyranny imposed by public health pinheads.  I think, moreover, his church is making a real difference in the lives of the people he teaches and the community where they gather.

On the contrary, if you judged your church by the state of your community, how would it rate?  Is it knocking down the gates of hell? Do your local politicians, your local school boards, your local law enforcement live in abject fear of offending the church, (the people of God)?   Or is your pastor more interested in this summer’s beach reading?

Our problems in America are essentially theological.  Life gets better, and our communities get more healthy, when we worship a real God who rules now.

Categorised in: Farm Journal, News

This post was written by Jim Riley