Thanks for visiting the former home of interchurch.net.
Late in 2003 our "house church" ceased to exist as a viable fellowship group. After four years, I'd have to say the experiment was something of a failure, at least by any measure of "success" so deeply valued by "church" in the modern sense of the word. (You know: Growth in numbers, facilities, programs, staff, budget.)
There are a lot of reasons for the dissolution--but none that I am ever going to elaborate upon in this public forum. Perhaps it was simply a matter of the wrong people, the wrong timing, or (most probably). the wrong leader. My own inabilities and shortcomings--strongly influenced by a series of personal difficulties and losses--are most likely to have been the main cause of the group's failure.
But in my estimation, the current context of "church" in the western world--and most especially in the south-eastern United States--makes it virtually impossible to build a home-based fellowship that can set aside the prejudices, mannerisms, expectations, demands, priorities, and values of the good ol' church-as-business-organization we all know so well. (Some will just say I screwed it up myself. "If Dave had only been a better _________, things would have been different." Believe me, I'm convinced this may be correct! But then again, this is just the same thing people always say in the "regular" church. When things go wrong, it's the leader-pastor-elder's fault, right?)
The fact is, the chains of the IC are strong--stronger than I ever expected. They reach deep into the lives of believers in ways that few of us can comprehend. To adapt a cliché, "You can take the believer out of the "Church," but you can't take the "Church" out of the believer."
[NOTICE: I have to use quotation marks around the word "church." That's because it is a word crammed with totally non-Scriptural connotations. Is it really possible that when Jesus said, "I will build my church," he meant the buildings/programs/services that surround us? Is this the hell-busting church our Messiah was talking about? I just wish there was a different word than "church" to use for that which, by Jesus' definition, most certainly is NOT church. Wait. I take that back. He did talk about it... ]
So where do we go from here?
Honestly, I have NO idea. We are simply "floating" around, occasionally getting together with another family or two, but have not returned to "real church" again. Frankly, the idea of returning to church-business-as-usual fills us with a kind of sick dread. Even the idea of "shopping" for "a church" characterizes the dangerous view people today have of the Body of Christ. That the church is just another organization or business! That I should choose some local congregation which meets my family's needs! That I should visit around till I find one that I like! All this is a sickness and a disease, and even speaking this way reveals the tragic failure that is at the heart of what passes for "church" in this world... (Behold! he ranteth!)
To twist yet another popular cliché: WWJD ("Where Would Jesus Drop-in?").
I'd ask for prayer or advice, but it's just a little game of mine to think that anyone will ever read these words. This little page is just here to satisfy some vague personal vanity--an exercise in private reflection...
Cheers,
David Reitmeyer
dreitmeyer AT nc DOT rr DOT com (this confuses the spammers...)