More and more Americans are now embracing non-traditional expressions of religious life. In a Barna Update entitled "Americans Embrace Various Alternatives to a Conventional Church Experience as Being Fully Biblical," Barna states:
For decades, American Christians, who comprise more than four of our every five adults, assumed they had one legitimate way to practice their faith: through involvement in a conventional church. But new research shows that this mind set is no longer prevalent in the U.S. The latest Barna study shows that a majority of adults now believe that there are various biblically legitimate alternatives to participation in a conventional church.
Many People (and many pastors) seem to be embracing the concept of home churches (among other things) as legitimate expressions of the body of Christ.
This is a trend which should not be surprising and is not necessarily bad.
For decades, church leaders such as Paul Yongi Cho have been promoting the concept of cell groups or small groups as a key to:
- Evangelism
- Personal relationship development
- Accountability
- personal discipleship
- personal ministry
- in short, practically living out the Christian Life and ministry
The fastest growing churches in the world are the home churches in China.
Most growing churches actively seek to involve their people in some sort or small group ministry, without which, traditional "church" can become merely a spectator sport.
It should not be surprising that some conclude that they can enjoy the small group ministry without having to deal with all the politics, overhead and extra-biblical trappings associates with many traditional churches.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment