Talk:House church

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Contents 1 Should Simple Church be Merged? 2 Appropriate category? 3 Home Church Month 4 Major Edits 5 Link Cleanup 6 2007 First Annual International House Church Convention, Long Beach, CA (Jan. 26-28) Update 7 Added correlations 8 Chinese "house church" leaders arrested 9 Problems with this article 10 Baptist Home Churches

[edit] Should Simple Church be Merged?

I would not like to see this article merged, at least not at this point. Right now, the term "simple church" is used in some cricles instead of or in opposition to "house church" for several reasons that I've heard. First, some want a new name because they want to emphasize the missional component of simple church that has not always been present in some house church stereotypes. Second, some wish to distance themselves from the "grumpy" stereotype some have of the house church movement as being a movement of regular church drop-outs. Third, there is a significant group of practioners who do not plant churches exclusively in houses, so they find the term "house church" as referring to place, while simple church refers to ecclesiological values. While I use the terms as synonoyms to a certain extent, I am very aware that not all of those who prefer "simple church" would be happy with that. I think of all the reasons I've heard, the biggest reason why not to merge is that the difference in names reflects a difference in values for some.

Until the useage becomes synonomous and the newer "simple church" movement works out its identity in relation to the older and more established house church movement, merger would be premature. Oakiebsc 22:54, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

I attend a "house church" and I would also not like to see a merging of the articles of "house church" and "simple church" The message of the two kinds of churches are different. The house churches have a scriptural backing for their actions and it is not just about making church simpler. It is about a restoration and an advancement in the blue print of the Master Planner. User: Mecartz

Thanks, Mecartz. You bring up a good point. Many feel references to meeting in houses in the Bible is linked strongly to the practice of "House Church". No such connection could be attached to "simple church". It fits the category of missional or ecclesiological method, not scriptural directive. I talked with a Missiologist and college professor who has studied house church, simple church, and similar movements this past week about the difference in the labels, and he seemed to agree. Based on this feedback, I've taken Alphachimp's advice and removed the merge request from "Simple Church". Oakiebsc 01:34, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Appropriate category?

Should this article really be part of the Pentecostal and charismatic category? Do all or most house churches fit this description? I'm not really familiar w/the movement (otherwise I wouldn't be asking this ;) Gwimpey 05:27, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

No, House Churches can come from any Christian tradition whatsoever.--Lance W. Haverkamp 01:43, 22 April 2006 (UTC) Doctorate in Ministry student.

Some house churches (note small letter) are beginning to go 'post-Pentecost'. See Lev 23 where the feasts of the Lord, symbolic of New Testament worship, are enumerated. The constant truths of Passover and Pentecost (salvation and baptism of the Holy Spirit) still remain a foundation to be built upon in coming into the 'fullness' of Christ. Mecartz.

[edit] Home Church Month

IMHO, this section is just an announcement, and not worth including in a Wikipedia article, except possibly as a link. I hate to make such a major edit without discussion, though. --Hooponopono 19:52, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Absolutely; somebody ought to just take it off — especially since it's already past — and put in some meaningful information. Like some stuff about the Barna surveys, Revolution, and the like. The house church movement is too important to have such a small page. --God's Webmaster 23:23, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Major Edits

I agree. This article used to have a lot more information in it about "house church" and its origins but it appears that most of it has been removed. The whole article has changed to match the views of what some people who do house church want it to be. The announcment about House Church Month and the inclusion of what large organizations are supporting it now. These modifications seem to try to argue/prove the "credibility" of the house church movement rather than providing real information on a topic. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.116.125.25 (talk • contribs) 15:41, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, I did some work on this page. Is that better? I went ahead and removed the cleanup tag; feel free to re-post it if you feel that this page needs more cleanup.--God's Webmaster 23:19, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Link Cleanup

1/4/2008: Based upon the recent edit history, there seem to be those who want to delete the links. There are also those who would like a large list of links. Yes ... I know Wikipedia is not a list of links, but I found most of them to be quite useful. I was sorry to see the link section bluntly cut to virtually nothing at the beginning of 2008. I will review the various Wikipedia policies and recommendations and try to come up with a viable and useful list. Perhaps I will create my own web page for the other links and then create an "other potential links of interest" link. As always, everyone else has a say in this. In the interest of full disclosure, I recorded the "sample house church interest meeting" when I could not find one anywhere on the web prior to our new house church having one. The link was quite popular with roughly 15 downloads per week. -MSchwab

I cleaned up and organized the "external links" section - it was getting to be a mess. In the interest of full disclosure, I am the webmaster of Free House Church Resources. I tried, however, not to vaunt our website over others.

Please note that the lists are alphabetized. Let's try to keep them that way. It is much more professional.--God's Webmaster 20:00, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] 2007 First Annual International House Church Convention, Long Beach, CA (Jan. 26-28) Update

I bumped onto a House2House web page promoting a conference about house churches in Long Beach and signed up. My wife and I attended as observers just looking into the topic/movement. We learned many things, and wanted a way to share back. One of the presenters (Ori Brafman) illustrated his presentation by citing Wikipedia and comparing/contrasting it to the house church movement. The conference was the first of its kind for me, complete with first time errors, foibles and wonders. What I noticed there, and in research later, there is a lack of information/research/publication on the topics of legal, political, foci, sociological, alignment and conflict in favor of presenting only a few basic, easy to agree to points and views. That brought me to this article which I found very well written. It too, lacked or limited the topics mentioned above. Because this is the first time I have written anything in Wikipedia, I assume I am doing this completely incorrectly but with the intent to learn, understand, and contribute. Help nicely, please. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Jerryocesq (talk • contribs) 21:45, 18 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Added correlations

I've added some correlations between the house church movement and other parachurch movements to the 'relation to' section. If anyone disagrees, I am happy to discuss. I want to demonstrate that I have been a part of several house churches, and am thrilled about Christ's work in individual lives. In an intellectual sense, though, I want to make sure we connect to the world around us and discover if and how the house church phenomenon is a part of a large momentum... and I believe God is intentional, so I think it's worth looking at. Thanks! Jwiley80 04:59, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Chinese "house church" leaders arrested

Should the news story about house church leaders being arrested in China be mentioned in this article? It seems relevant, since it is relevant to the perception of house churches in China. ~MDD4696 23:48, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Isn't there a separate articel on house churches in China? 68.39.174.238 (talk) 00:32, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Problems with this article

I think this article has some serious problems. First, it's very lightly referenced at best. Second, parts of it seem to be more of an essay than an encyclopedia article -- in particular, Scriptural basis and Structure and organization. Third, the External Links and the Recommended Books section are way out of hand -- there should be just a few carefully chosen external links instead of the current 50 or so, and from the books section, perhaps some could be used as references, and the most of the rest should probably be removed. I'm going to let this sit for a few days and collect comments, and then start doing some referencing and trimming of the article. -- ArglebargleIV 14:33, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Get rid of that giant pile of links and books. Let's get that down to maybe 3 or 4 links, and a book or two. I added a reference, but we need more for the article.GusChiggins21 (talk) 21:18, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

The EL section is now just the DMOZ category (Which should prevent people adding their own site for no reason). 68.39.174.238 (talk) 00:33, 31 December 2007 (UTC) PS. Those books are extremely under cited: An author and title only, not even a publisher. I would recommend dropping that entire section and letting the references section do the book and site recommending.

[edit] Baptist Home Churches

Home church and simple church seem like the same except the simple church is even more flexible to meeting places. Other than this a variety of names can be attached for doctrinal distinctives. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Samuraibill (talk • contribs) 06:56, 15 November 2007 (UTC)