Finding Church: Duane W.H. Arnold PhD

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7 Responses

  1. Linn says:

    Duane-I really enjoyed the essay. I look for the things you mentioned whenever I look for a new church (usually because of a geographic relocation).

    Many believers are very romantic about house churches, but they lack a knowledge base. If you’re a church planter, you may need to start in a house. However, if the congregation grows, you will either need to split the group to two houses or find a bigger meeting place. That is what happened to a house church I attended in a new housing development. In 45 years they have gone from Masonic hall, to a rented school building, then a church building that they bought from another congregation that they are enlarging.

    Most house churches that don’t grow stagnate and may have overbearing leadership who can wander into cult-like thinking. The church I attend currently received some folks from a house church last year where the atmosphere had become oppressive.

    All that to say that we romanticize too much about the purity of the house church in early Christian times.

  2. Duane Arnold says:

    Linn

    “All that to say that we romanticize too much about the purity of the house church in early Christian times.”

    Absolutely! When we look at the structure and make up of the early church, it is not a mystery. It is something that can be known and emulated.

  3. Officerhoppy says:

    Duane
    Thanks for this. Makes me reassess some things in my thinking and expressions of worship.

  4. JD says:

    Glad to hear these insights into the history of us His people.

  5. Em Wegemer says:

    Officer holly @3:12…… Me, too! ! !😇

  6. Dread says:

    This was an edifying posting filled with information that challenges and encourages.

  7. Duane Arnold says:

    Dread, JD and Hoppy,

    Many thanks… much appreciated!

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