Do any Baptists....

[sag38]

Hey Keeper, I was just reporting on what I've seen. I wasn't so much evaluating the rightness or the wrongness. However, when a church, traditional or non-traditional grows from the addition of people already churched in a area where the vast majoirty of people are un-churched and probably lost, it's not accomplishing the mission.

 

[Revmitchell]

That it is an act of rebellion may not be true in all cases RM. It may be a reaction to a bad church situation (pharisaism, legalism, apostacy) and done in ignorance.

Ignorance is not an excuse-all but :

Luke 12:48 But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

HankD​

There may be some who have house churches. But there is a wide spread house church movement of which the likes of George Barna is part of. This specific movement is is as institutional and organized as any traditional church . The dfference is they reject biblical authority of any Pastors or church leaders. They reject any preaching. They use pejoratives like "monologueing" or "pulpiteering" to describe preaching. This organized house church movement is rebellious. I have researched this and spoken to a number fo them involved in it. It is a cultish movement. As far as what anyone else is doing well I am sure they have their own agendas. But "the" house church movement is what I am speaking of.

http://www.hccentral.com/index.html

 

[annsni]

There may be some who have house churches. But there is a wide spread house church movement of which the likes of George Barna is part of. This specific movement is is as institutional and organized as any traditional church . The dfference is they reject biblical authority of any Pastors or church leaders. They reject any preaching. They use pejoratives like "monologueing" or "pulpiteering" to describe preaching. This actual and organized house church movement is rebellious. I have researched this and spoken to a number fo them involved in it. It is a cultish movement. As far as what anyone else is doing well I am sure they have their own agendas. But "the" house church movement is what I am speaking of.

http://www.hccentral.com/index.html

What

I was just reading a book called "Why We're Not Emergent" and they were saying that these terms are terms used by the emergent churches too. Interesting because I had never heard of them before.

 

[annsni]

Amen, glad to hear it is working well.:applause:

Concerning the structure of your cell group:

Is there a designated leader, moderator, or facilitator?

Or, is the responsibility shared? If shared, do they take turns (i.e. weekly or programatically), or is it dynamic?

Is the group using a particular workbook or is it a self-designed Bible study?

I'll also answer for our cell group.

We have a designated leader - the person who is responsible for the group and will go to the cell leader's trainings and who report back to the pastor that is in charge of that "zone" of cell groups. It just makes it easier to have one or two leaders for communication issues and such. However, that doesn't mean that the leader leads every group. In our group, my hubby and I are the leaders but DH has gotten tired of being "on" all the time with also being worship leader and leading the college ministry so we started doing it where the husband and wife team who's house we are meeting at will run the group. It's worked out really well so far.

As for what materials we use, we always use the "pulpit curriculum" - speaking about the message and how to apply it to our lives. Infrequently a group will decide to take a bit of a detour here and there for a special purpose that is needed in their group and I know in our own group, we've also had weeks where we decided to focus on prayer and worship rather than the teaching/discussion time because that is what was needed by the group members. It will vary depending on the message, member's needs, who else is there (visitors, unsaved spouses, etc.).

 

[annsni]

I have also seen house churches that have been rebellious (as in "no church here is good enough for us" or " we've been hurt by too many organized churches that we don't want to go to another one") but then I've also seen house churches that were church plants. I've never heard of an organized one other than some group that some people from our old church joined and I'm not too sure about it - it sounds cultish. There were things that the daughter told us that just doesn't sound right so I'm not too sure about it. It sounds like it's part of a larger group because the different house churches will meet together for "fellowship" but no matter how we've asked over the last 2 years, this girl won't tell us the name of the group (we drive her home from school often). Weird.

 

[Revmitchell]

I was just reading a book called "Why We're Not Emergent" and they were saying that these terms are terms used by the emergent churches too. Interesting because I had never heard of them before.

These "churches" are very emergent.

 

[HankD]

There may be some who have house churches. But there is a wide spread house church movement of which the likes of George Barna is part of. This specific movement is is as institutional and organized as any traditional church . The dfference is they reject biblical authority of any Pastors or church leaders. They reject any preaching. They use pejoratives like "monologueing" or "pulpiteering" to describe preaching. This organized house church movement is rebellious. I have researched this and spoken to a number fo them involved in it. It is a cultish movement. As far as what anyone else is doing well I am sure they have their own agendas. But "the" house church movement is what I am speaking of.

http://www.hccentral.com/index.html

OK I see what you are saying and I agree.

1 Corinthians 1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.​

HankD