For two long Christianity has been too intellectual and rational. Paul warns all believers that knowledge puffs up but that love builds up. (1 Corinthians 8:1) No wonder Paul exhorted people to follow the path of love and to pursue the path of love.
Most denominations stress right belief and each denomination thinks they have cornered the market on right beliefs. This extends all the way from Catholic, to Baptist, to Pentecostal, to Orthodox, to Methodist, to Lutheran, to Presbyterian and to independent churches.
House churches like the early church gatherings stress right beliefs and right behaviors but also the importance of right relationships. The way believers interact with one another is equally as important as what believers believe.
One of the great concerns is that when meetings are open to everyone participating unchristian ideas and unscriptural ideas will get expressed. That is absolutely correct! They will and they should.
The church since 300 AD has said that this should not occur and that is why professional clergy, who have that have the right knowledge, have been put in charge of Christian gatherings to prevent these very things. The assumption is that right knowledge will result in right moral behavioral. This is a Greek/Roman philosophy concept. The Christian message is that those who trust in Jesus and rely on his spirit will live abundantly. (John 10:10)
What made the early church so powerful was the ability to accept people. When you are not allowed to share your ideas you really aren’t accepted. It is only in having the chance to openly dialogue that one can be known and know others. Almost all traditional churches function by monologue and not dialogical meetings. One person is telling all the rest what to think and do.
Open meetings trust the Holy Scriptures, the Holy Spirit and the Holy Body of Christ to bring about right beliefs and right behaviors from Christians. Most churches sadly believe the preacher, the priest and right teaching will transform Christians into Christ likeness. If the Holy things of God, His Holy Scripture, His Holy Spirit and His Body of Christ cannot bring about Christlikeness in believers then one man or a denomination with its specific beliefs will not get the job done.
Transformation of the believer (sanctification) comes from God, through His Holy Scriptures, his Holy Spirit and His Holy Body the Church. The scriptures help educate the mind to what it means to be a follower of Christ. The Holy Spirit helps empower the heart to love God and God’s ways and convicts believers when they are not following Jesus. The Body of Christ is to model and provide examples of what it means to be a Christian. Believers are to be little Christs to one another. Open participatory meetings allow for this to happen.
Participatory meetings that house churches use can make people uncomfortable. People share things that a person may not agree with but the body of Christ loves them anyway. People talk about their concerns and life that may make others feel uncomfortable but the body of Christ loves them anyway. Love and acceptance are given to one and all. The meeting itself becomes a demonstration of the Christian way of life. The meeting becomes a laboratory to practice the Christian way of life, of loving one another as Christ has loved us. (John 13:34)
How many of us had all the right beliefs when Christ started to love on us. How many of us had all the right behaviors when Christ began to love on us. The truth is none of us did. Jesus loved on us anyway. He loves us not because we deserve his love but because we need his love. (Romans 5:8)
Thus the accepting meetings that the early Christians used and house churches should use create safe places where people are loved just the way they are, faults included. The open meeting becomes a place of grace giving and grace receiving. People are valued so they can express their opinions, they can share their burdens and they can share their joys. They can become known and they can get to know others.It is only when a person knows they are loved and accepted can they consider growing and changing. House churches provide that safe place to become like Christ.
The open meetings are safe places where core beliefs and core behaviors become challenged and changed by the Holy Scriptures, the Holy Spirit and the Holy Body of Christ. The early church was so close to one another that they knew when a brother or sister had become entangled in sin and they took steps to restore them. Every Christian should read 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians and specifically about the brother who begins to live in sin with his mother-in-law. The church at Corinth learned to confront the man and restore the man and it all flowed out of their love for him.
The question one should ask oneself is, “Do I have brothers and sisters in Christ that care enough about me, know enough about me and love me enough that they would intervene on my behalf.” If a Christian can’t say yes, then it is time to get busy creating that kind of Christian fellowship. Your spiritual wellbeing and other’s wellbeing depends on it.