We Must Discover the Great Lost Secret. . .

WHAT MUST THE CHURCH OF CHRIST
DO TO BE SAVED? (16)

Let’s face it, the Churches of Christ are in the doldrums. Our services are often boring, lifeless, gloomy. I’m convinced that our most loyal members attend regularly because they are just that, loyal, and not because they find it joyous and exciting. We are not growing. An outsider would never see us as imaginative, creative, or innovative. Except for some encouraging exceptions, we are not a changing people and we are not out on the cutting edge. We are going to have to get with it or we will not be saved.

That other mainline denominations are in the same predicament does not justify our own stagnation. As a well-known automobile executive says on TV: Lead the way, follow, or get out of the way. It is not all that different with the churches. If we don’t get with it, we will not have to worry about what will happen to us. We’ll be left behind.

At the heart of our problem, as well as other churches, is that we are caught in the trappings of our own institutionalism—or churchism might be the word. We have expensive edifices to pay for and to maintain, staffs to support, programs to fund. Our Achilles heel is the System. The System resists change, except occasional cosmetic change. Nothing real or substantial. The System demands conformity, and it is uneasy with thinking people around, especially a thinking preacher or a preacher that says something.

The System must maintain the status quo, and it must preserve itself at all cost. This is why it seeks to keep everyone satisfied by reacting rather than acting. And most significantly, the System is tied to the building. Regular church attendance, along with generous giving, is the essence of “faithfulness.”

This brings me to the one thing above most everything else that we must do to be saved. We must recover—or is it discover?—the great lost secret of primitive Christianity. That secret was the dynamic of joyous, Spirit-filled gatherings in homes. Primitive Christianity knew nothing of buildings that never seem to get paid for. They did not have to bother with building an educational wing or getting the parking lot resurfaced, which are major tasks for the modem church. The early churches were house churches; as they grew they took in more homes. It wasn’t until the third or fourth centuries that they had edifices and eventually “sanctuaries.” This is the great secret of the early church that we are indifferent to—they were house churches while we are cathedral churches. They had a Holy Spirit-complex while we have an edifice-complex.

The edifice-complex has pews lined up one behind the other where we look behind each other’s cars and may not even know the people who sit on the same pew—and may not even speak to them, week after week. The Holy Spirit-complex expressed itself in the home with sisters and brothers gathered in a circle, sharing their stories from out there in the world, drinking and eating together, rejoicing together. They were usually a persecuted people who took refuge in each other in the family circle, which was truly the Body of Christ.

Acts 2:46 tells us about them: “And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts.” There are four references to “the church in thy house” and at least 20 instances in Acts and the letters where Christians met in homes. They were in the temple grounds, in synagogues, in the streets, in homes, but they never “went to church” in a building set apart for that purpose, not for at least 200 years. This does not mean that it is wrong for us to have buildings, but we need to realize what we have allowed the System to do to us.

In home gatherings they knew each other and grew close to one another. Everyone could take part. They didn’t have to worry about a woman “getting in the pulpit” since there was no pulpit. They shared together, with each part functioning unto the edifying of the Body. They did not look to an employed functionary to deliver sermons; there were no sermons. They didn’t have to worry about how to dress; if one came in smelling offish it was OK. If a congregation needed to expand, it took in another home; if it needed to be dissolved, no problem since it had no mortgage to payoff. In the home they were “members one of another,” rejoicing in the Spirit. The great lost secret of the primitive church is that they were empowered with the Holy Spirit in home gatherings.

I do not conclude from all this that we should close down our buildings. We cannot be the first century church, but as the 20th century church we can discover the great lost secret of the primitive church and make it applicable to our own time. Our buildings can be used for small group gatherings as well as large congregational meetings, but they should be more intimate and open to the leading of the Spirit than the usual Sunday school arrangement. Let eight to ten men and women gather in a circle each Sunday and Wednesday evenings long enough to get intimately acquainted. They could start by sharing what Jesus means to them, and from there they could talk about their fears, hopes, problems, family, etc. They would learn to pray together as a family of sisters and brothers, and they would eventually unburden their souls to each other.

Along with this we could get away from our buildings and into homes more than we now do. A congregation could take a Sunday evening each month to meet in homes, with something like ten to twelve people to each home. We need to be in each other’s home, come to know each other better, love each other more, learn to pray and share together in a way that cannot be done in the big “sanctuary” at church. In such an atmosphere the Holy Spirit can teach us more about the meaning of unity and fellowship.

The same circle could continue meeting on a long term basis, but in time the circles could rotate so that a greater number in the church would know each other more personally. It is when we can share our long-kept secrets with each other, along with our hangups, that we really become “members one of another” where when one suffers all suffer and when one rejoices all rejoice. This is Body life and this is the great lost secret of the primitive church.

These small groups are also ideal for friendship evangelism. Outsiders can often be introduced to spiritual things in the informal atmosphere of a private home rather than in a church setting. The joy and spontaneity of the home gatherings can also transfer to some degree to the public assemblies if only we will be less rigid. When our services are reved up and there is “a sweet spirit that fills this place” we will be more inclined to share it with others. Who wants to invite a friend to a boring service?

To discover the lost secret we must be more open to change. We must get beyond the institutional church to Christ himself. We must become vulnerable to each other as sisters and brothers, fervent in the Spirit, serving the Lord.

To do this we do not need to think big in the sense of huge congregations and mega-churches. The lost secret is not big programs, large crowds or huge budgets, just as it is not necessarily big government and big business that makes a nation truly great. We may rightfully become disillusioned with “big” things. Our hopes might better lie with quiet processes and small circles where transforming events may take place.—the Editor