Houses of Fire (a.k.a. House Churches) in 2022

I've blogged and podcasted about how God began to speak to us about house churches (what I refer to as "Houses of Fire") back in 2020 during Covid. Leave aside the fact that we had been leading essentially a house church for many years in the Middle East which was our preparation for what we are now doing. 

Interestingly, it was during Covid that we had to shift from our 'church building'. Ironically the 'church building' was a modified large 'home' that was being used by several churches in a Muslim country. And why were we forced to shift back into our own house and out of our rented 'church building'? Because the oversight/leadership of the church who managed the 'church building' that we rented space from for our meetings, refused to gather in person during Covid and would NOT let us use the meeting space either!  In short, Covid took them out in fear and most likely a total misuse of Romans 13 believing they were obeying the government. We continued meeting but after that in our actual house.

NOTE: My earlier blog posts and podcasts are linked below which show a "progression" in my thinking and convictions about house churches. (by 'progression', don't mistake that to mean "progressive" as I am as conservative as they come!)

PREVIOUS THINKING 

To be honest, before Covid, I had had a level of long-term exposure to the house church movement in the West. I'd read some of the movement's most definitive works by its leaders (at least those writing in English). In recent years, I had followed "The God Journey" podcast which was largely critical of traditional churches. Most recently, I've followed Francis Chan's progression from a megachurch pastor to an advocate of house churches. 

But to be honest, for the most part, I was put off by the attitudes and/or the reasons many migrated to or were advocating the house church movement - Chan being the refreshing exception! The attitude I didn't like was the "elite spirit" that some of the advocates communicated with and there were just too many who had been 'burned' by the church who seemingly got into house churches from a place of their own woundedness and/or bitterness. Instead of being "led" there, most seemed to have gotten into house churches by being "driven" there.

2020 REVELATIONS

It was in 2020 during Covid that God spoke to me (as He has spoken to many others similarly) that His strategy during Covid was to shift things into homes. Churches that were ready for that, did well. 

I know one men's ministry that had shifted their entire focus to forming groups of 4 just a few months before Covid and it made all the difference. God had given them a strategy to do well during Covid. Some churches weren't ready in early 2020 but were hearing God and were able to make quick adjustments to shift their churches into homes. This recent article documents some of the positive ways churches responded by breaking into their homes entitled "The New House Church Movement" (https://www.acstechnologies.com/church-growth/the-new-house-church-movement/)

The churches that shut down and only shifted into Zoom meetings with no in-person meetings, for the most part, did not do well. They will claim otherwise, but my pastoral observation was that it has been a colossal disaster for millions of Christians globally. The deception was that they believed they were fulfilling the Scriptural mandate to be gathering. I've said it this way...if Zoom meetings were sufficient, then Jesus wouldn't have needed to incarnate and come to the planet. In other words, remote communication (via OT prophets) wasn't enough for God's people. God canceled the "OT Zoom model" and met His creation IN PERSON. 

The picture the Lord gave me recently that underscores what I've just described is the image of the nuclear submarine. The main reason that the United States is the most powerful nation on earth is due to its nuclear submarine fleet. What can they do?  They can surface and be visible in times of peace and safety but can submerge for as long as 6 months at a time as needed during times of conflict. I see now that even the visible, traditional church needs to change its wineskin or focus to be able to do what nuclear submarines can do. Instead of defaulting back into the virtual Zoom meetings, churches must be ready to shift into the homes when future troubles force them to close their public doors. 

A second insight was understanding the role house churches will play in bringing in a worldwide, global harvest. A blog post and podcast below speak in detail about how the Lord spoke this so clearly to us. And in my own trial and error experimentation during Covid, I found that no one ever came to any of our house church meetings when I would invite the people I was meeting and ministering to on the streets during Covid. And then an important shift in my thinking took place as I realized the "House of Cornelius" provided a missing piece to the puzzle. Instead of inviting unbelievers to our house churches, I asked if we could go to their house where they would bring their unbelieving friends. To confirm this, we saw with my own eyes one of the greatest nights of ministry we'd ever had with total strangers, one of whom had been healed in a restaurant when my wife prayed for her. They were then willing to gather their friends IN THEIR OWN house for us to come. Many were healed and lots of prophetic ministry took place. I truly believe the greatest harvest will come IN HOMES but in the homes of the lost who invite us to come and bring the Kingdom.

A further reflection upon this also underscores the wisdom of God emphasizing house churches in this hour which has to do with the fear so many globally have been and are still under. Do pastors and Christian leaders really think that the lost want to come to their large gatherings, to their conferences (where most are now unmasked) at this point??? If they do, they are entirely out of touch with where millions of people are globally still at. And God's solution...??? We can invite them either to host or to attend a house meeting where they will be far more comfortable and far less anxious than so many are going to be in large gatherings in public settings. Houses will be far preferable to the large church meetings for countless millions of the lost for the foreseeable future. 

2021 REVELATION

I am sure there are more "revelations" to come as to WHY God wants His church to be meeting in homes, but this past year it became abundantly clear that many larger churches were opting to avoid talking about the critical issues of the day. The irrelevance of such an approach boggles the mind. The entire world was talking about the political dynamics, about Covid, about the so-called 'vaccines' and many in the larger churches decided..."Hey, we just won't talk about those 'divisive' issues"? "We'll just focus on the Gospel" many are reasoning.

As more and more of the false narratives fall apart, as more corruption and evil are exposed, as the evidence AGAINST the 'vaccines' being "safe & effective" is becoming clearer and clearer, how is it serving the church to continue to avoid the obvious, to steer clear of the truth that is emerging? Countless millions are now vaccine-injured and millions have died from the "safe" shots...how can pastors continue to avoid speaking about the most important issues of our generation? Far too much of the church has avoided these topics like the plague! "We just don't want to be divisive...", they think. All the while, millions of their sheep continue to get their "info" from fake news sources that are Anti-Christ in every possible way. 

The house church in this hour has become almost the only place (with rare exceptions, as I have just been invited to speak in a traditional church that has fearlessly stood for the truth on all of the aforementioned issues) where Christians who are aware can speak with boldness and clarity about all of the current issues that so many pulpits won't touch.

I am rejoicing that it is in these 'Houses of Fire' that we can warn people about the lack of efficacy, the dangers, deadliness, and the demonic/spiritual aspects of ALL of the current so-called 'Covid vaccines'. 

Houses are the perfect context wherein we can and will speak about any and all of the critical issues that the traditional churches are unwilling to address.

NOW TO BE BRUTALLY HONEST

I don't want to end up with EITHER the elite spirit that I described before and/or any toxic attitudes toward the rest of the church. I am admittedly extremely disappointed with many who I'd so admired and respected who ended up on the wrong side of just about every issue over the past few years. I am horrified how so many Christian leaders are still almost entirely ignorant about the dangers of the so-called 'vaccines'. Discernment is so lacking! 

I am keenly aware that due to my disappointment, my anger, and my frustration with so much of the church, I am now vulnerable to slip into the very same type of place I believed the historic house church movement to be - wounded, angry, bitter and tempted toward elitism! I need to be diligently guarding my heart and making sure that I don't become the very thing that I was so put off by for so many years. I don't want to find myself ultimately disqualified in a future that many believe will be the Church's finest hour!

I will continue to PROTEST many things, but I want to continue that PROTEST in a healthy way, an undefiled way. It may be a subtle distinction, but I want to end up advocating a direction, values, a model, etc. that are 'PRO-' rather than 'ANTI-'. In other words, I need to be PRO-HOUSES OF FIRE rather than ANTI-TRADITIONAL CHURCH because... 

1) Houses are something that God has clearly spoken about it in this hour 

2) Houses are the wisest place to be gathering as we discern the times especially when we are required to shift into 'nuclear submarine' mode.

3) Houses are the context where we can speak about EVERYTHING with clarity and boldness.

4) Houses are the best place to be known, to grow, to be held accountable, to be challenged, etc. 

5) Houses will be a key to bringing in an incredible harvest.

If I can focus on all of these "PROs" about the house church model instead of whatever "CONs" there may or may not be about the traditional church model, I can keep myself from the toxicity that is bred when we live in an "ANTI" something else place.

PREVIOUS PODCAST & BLOG POSTS

Podcast #1 - https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/joel2generation/episodes/2020-05-07T14_22_36-07_00

Podcast #2 - https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/joel2generation/episodes/2020-06-01T21_20_26-07_00

Podcast #3 -https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/joel2generation/episodes/2020-06-14T14_28_19-07_00

Blog post #1 - https://joel2generation.blogspot.com/2020/06/houses-of-fire-strategy-to-bring-in.html 

Blog post #2 - https://joel2generation.blogspot.com/2020/05/homes-firstchurches-second.html 

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