I recently obtained a review copy of a new book on planting house churches, by Larry Kreider and Floyd McClung. Many people will be familiar with Kreider's name, since he serves as the International Director of DOVE Christian Fellowship International, a network of cell-based and house (micro) churches scattered through five continents. Floyd McClung recently stepped down as the senior pastor of Metro Fellowship in Kansas City, Missouri, to lead All Nations, an international network of church-planting teams and partner churches based in Cape Town, South Africa. Here's an excerpt from the book:
It’s time we read the book of Acts with new eyes. We invite you to read it and to dream about what the Church could be today. When we read the book of Acts, we read about a church that shared their possessions with one another. We see, in our mind’s eye, a community of people who were generous, vibrant, growing and courageous. It was a community of people who were wildly in love with Jesus, not an institution devoted to buildings and programs. In Acts, we see friends in one another’s homes, remembering the Lord’s death by celebrating communion as they eat together. We see them worshipping with whatever musical instruments they can find, making joyful sounds as they praise God for sending Jesus. We try to imagine the small communities of Jesus followers spontaneously multiplying all over Jerusalem—the teachers, prophets and evangelists moving between the groups of believers, making sure they stay connected to one another. The Church in the book of Acts functioned as a vibrant community, not a weekly meeting. They were certainly not a megachurch as we understand it today. Instead, they were a dynamic movement of small communities, spontaneously breaking out all over the city. They occasionally met together in big celebrations on the porch of Solomon’s temple. They gathered in each other’s homes, crowding into living rooms and gardens and workshops—wherever they could find space to gather and worship and pray for their friends and family. They infiltrated every part of the city and every sphere of society. Think about the power of what was happening: They often spent time fasting, worshiping and speaking words of encouragement to one another. They preached boldly about Jesus. Common people were discovering their abilities to teach, pray for the sick, serve and organize. Everyone was involved, thanks to the simple model of gathering in small communities. The whole Church was actively engaged, not just a few. Their way of life was attractive to those with whom they came in contact—which makes sense, since what the people had known for years was the impersonal and oppressive authority of the Pharisees. God breathed on the dry bones of Judaism, and an army of ordinary people came to life. It was an army of the ordinary called out by the stirring of God in their hearts. ((1 Larry Kreider and Floyd McClung, Starting a House Church: A New Model for Living Out Your Faith (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 2007), 63-64.))
The book is endorsed by Wolfgang Simson and C. Peter Wagner, and includes information on:
- How to start your own house church
- Best practice models for planting and leading house churches
- The differences between a small group or cell group and a house church
- Current and future trends in the house-church movement
- How to work together with local, traditional and mega-churches
You can click the image of the book cover for more information, or to order through Amazon.
