Open Blogging

Terry says:

Anyone in this community familiar with The Disciple Making Movement (DMM) ? I have two friends who have become leaders in the movement over the last 5 years. It’s similar to The House Church Movement which was popular in the early 1990s, but with one big difference – rapid replication.

The process goes something like this: Form a small house church and be discipled through their program. Have one strong leader leave to launch a new house church by finding a
man of peace” in that neighborhood. Through that influential convert grow another church, rinse and repeat.

They strongly discourage theology in favor of simply reading the Bible and obeying what it says. To them, theology is a distraction from obedience and multiplying home churches. It very much reminds me of The Jesus Movement of the 70s where anyone who gets saved becomes an instant evangelist or pastor with no actual training.

From a Reformed Presbyterian article I just read:
“…disciple-making movements build on a foundation of obedience-based discipleship upon which Reformed Presbyterians cannot build. By stressing obedience, disciple-making movements risk making Christianity another works-based religion for disciples who are taught that obedience is the essence of faith. A focus on obedience also comes at the expense of an emphasis on knowledge. By downplaying knowledge, regenerate believers are denied the depths of the riches of the word of God, especially the riches that have been handed down in the form of creeds and confessions. Furthermore, disregarding the riches of theological reflection in favor of “every man and his Bible” has led to a shallow ecclesiology. New, untaught believers, reading the Bible without the benefit of past reflection, cannot be expected to unearth a full-fledged, Biblical ecclesiology.”

And…
“In the DMM model, discovery Bible studies morph into house churches without the high bar of ordination. According to 1 Timothy 3:6, elders should not be new believers, ‘lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.’ But disciple-making movements rely on new believers effectively becoming elders in independent house churches.”

I would add that you can’t not have a theology. In this case, their program is their their theology. That, combined with a fundamentalism that assumes we all know exactly what the Bible says and what is basic Christian doctrine. Those are some big assumptions.

WenatcheeTheHatchet says:

The 1990s era house church scene in Oregon was pretty lame in my experience. Lots of old guys rambling for hours on black UN helicopters and Clintonian executive tyranny around the corner stuff. I remember hearing a so-called prophet predict that California was going to sink into the Pacific. The anointing teddy bears stuff on the surmise that it would heal people also stuck with me (not for any good reasons).

I have to remind myself that the 1990s Oregon house church scene was so absurd it was part of why early Mars Hill, if only by comparison, seemed like a better option. Not that it was in the long run but it’s easy to assume Jeroboam was bad from the start if you only look at the end, it can be easy to forget that Rehoboam being so bad as Solomon’s heir was how the divided kingdom even got started.

WenatcheeTheHatchet says:

Terry, a la Frank Viola and the Pagan Christianity fad? Some former MH folks I know got onto that bandwagon for a while.

The house church newbies are certainly not going to do what Paul did in Athens according to Acts and quote Aratus’ hymn to Zeus as a springboard from the altar to the unknown god to a presentation of the Gospel.

The New Victor says:

The new documentary about Scientology is wild. I remember a lot of the scandals, but it goes into details. They also interview many former long term and high ranking members including Hollywood director Paul Haggis. There was a small segment on travaolta and more material on Tom Cruise. What was most interesting was the first 40 mins which focused on LRH’s personal history (including being an incompetent navy skipper), and post war, briefly being the assistant to a Santanic Mini church. This was long before LaVey, but of the Alistair Crowley tradition: real Satanists. The leader was one of the founders of JPL (!). He left and then wrote Dianetics. The history of SeaOrg was fascinating as well. I didn’t remember how they defeated the IRS but it was brilliant in its simplicity.