A "fear" concerning house churches

I need to make the following clear before I say anything in order to avoid unnecessary debate in the wrong direction:

I am not against house churches, so please do not read what I am saying through that lense.

I have felt for a long time that something is, indeed, terribly wrong with my church that I am currently going to. It is the same thing that I felt was wrong with the last church I went to: Where is the Gospel? What is this thing that I am hearing being preached that seems so foreign from what Jesus, Paul, and others said in the Scriptures?

It bothers me. It bothers me so bad that I have had several brothers come up to me and say, "Nathaniel, something is really wrong. I can tell." However I won't say what I am feeling for fear that by bringing this complaint before members of the congregation I will cause people to stumble and create division among a congregation that God is relaly working in, but I am too blind to see it. I really am afraid of that.

I am not Elijah--I am not some prophet whome God has spoken to but has failed to speak to every single other person in my church. But I know that the Gospel HAS to be preached. So what do I do? Do I leave my church? Or do I stay and fight tooth and nail for an accurate proclamation of the Gospel?

This is my fear: That all the Christians who realize that there is a problem will leave the church and get together and leave everyone else in the dust.

Are we not called to lift on another up? To push one another toward godliness? These are not lost, wicked people that I am talking about. These are our other brothers and sisters! How could we think to just leave them and say, "Well, I guess the Lord has something better for me"???? I think Martin Luther, if he had it his way, would have just reformed the Catholic church. I don't think He intended to help create protestantism, but I think the intention of a lot of well-meaning Christians is INDEED to create ANOTHER denominationless denomination, except even more disjunct than the others.

Wouldn't it be better to labor for reformation of our churches rather than shake the dust from our feet? Again, these aren't lost people. These are brothers. I am no better than they. Maybe the Lord has shown me and you these things so that we can fulfill our part as a membmer of our church.

I am not talking about staying in a big church building and just dealing with that. I am talking about laboring for reformation so that everyone in our local congregations comes with. I am not talking about being divisive. I am talking about laboring within the churches to move it more and more toward 1) Submission to Jesus Christ. 2) An accurate proclamation of the Gospel. 3) A Biblical structure in the church and in the families within. Shouldn't we do this "until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness"? Isn't that the goal? Not to ditch the institutional church and leave other brothers and sisters in the dust, but to labor until either 1) reformation occurs or 2) you get kicked out.

There is such a strange idea going around that is a marriage between 2-tiered Christianity and covenantism. It yields this: "There are some Christians, who either by grace or because they are particularly more faithful than everyone else (whatever is their thought for this), whom God has shown the great problems of the churches of America and they are a special remnant within the church. They should all leave those congregations and come together and for new, more biblical congregations."

Any thoughts. I know I am a little all over the place with this, but it is what it is. I am more than willing to be wrong about this, but it is a fear I have concerning leaving my church.

A body of Christ is formed only by committed people. Same as how our human body functions only because of committed organs. A group of people who go to denominational churches for worship but only gather with a local group in their free time cannot be considered as a body of Christ. It can be a prayer group that may in future lead to body.

Now answering the question posted here, I would advise you to pray about it. Approach your church leadership in private and discuss your views. Again discuss only with your elders or pastor and not with members. If you Are right and if the elders are humble then there will be a revival or reformation. It is the responsibility of the elders to bring reformation and not the individual members.

If it does not happen and your views are simply ignored then leave the church instead of worrying about other members. Apart from being part of a body, every member in church is individually a bride of Christ. If the groom is absent in a place then why should the bride stay there? A true bride will always follow the groom and will never stay in a chur h where Jesus is standing outside and knocking the door.

Why do I suspect there are many posters here who find themselves uncomfortable in most churches? For one thing, most church goers are relatively content with the form and function of their weekly meeting, and prefer the comfort of a fairly predictable weekly experience. At some point most of them probably accepted Christ according to the formula, now they are just living out their lives and dreams as best they can, expecting their committment to land them in heaven some day.

Well and good.

Then there are those who hunger and thirst for His righteousness, and cannot be satisfied with church as usual. They question God- "Is this all there is?"

Something tells them there is more, something mighty, something full of more life than they can even believe, rich, valuable, stronger than the pull of fleshly desires.

And these people often find themselves estranged from that first bunch. This cannot be cured by finding the "right church" or even the "right small group" because this is a call to find Christ Himself. Nothing else will work.

The bright side of this, maybe, is that an individual may find himself called and content to remain in his original church, leading others to a similar pursuit of God, and being in a place where one can pray in earnest for people he is connected to in the fellowship. Some who do this genuinely lay themselves and their own desires aside for the greater good of ministry inside the church, and others find they just cannot stay. There is probably no right or wrong formula for this decision.

I keep going back to Christ's judgement of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25. A couple things stand out, He does not ask the people about their church affiliation, or even about the day they "accepted Christ." Rather he looks for how they treated the people they encountered with needs. Did they feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison- deeds that evidenced the reality of their faith?

And the other part is that there was a certain unawareness of doing these things, or that what they had either done or not done was equivalent to serving Christ Himself! "When did I see you hungry?" They didn't know!

Maybe it doesn't matter whether you are in a mega church or a home fellowship?

Maybe it all just needs to follow a prayer like, "God put me where I can do the best for Your kingdom?"

Then just keep your eyes open for needs you can meet. Jesus may just be there looking nothing like the Sunday School art you think of.