461. No Need to Reinvent Church

I just attended HC conference for pastors in Vancouver. Because there was no single church that had a building to host 120 pastors/wives/missionaries, three churches collaborated to host this conference by renting a church. It is not easy to prepare a big conference like this as multiple churches but it was well-run and members served with joy.

One ESC (English Speaking Congregation) pastor shared the opening symposium and it was the highlight for me. He leads a pretty big ESC (a few hundred) and he did implement house church about 11 years ago in his own style. But because he didn't do it with a conviction of his own, he shared that he never felt fulfilled as a pastor, as he was busy managing members who only wanted to attend Sunday service and leave right after for the last 10 years, without many vips. But after recently re-attending the hc seminar with his key leaders, he relaunched hc ministry according to the principles based on house church spirit, he now confesses that he is so much fulfilled as he witnessed dramatic increase of vips getting baptized and members engaging in their house churches. And what he said in his conclusion really hit me. He said he learned through the painful 10 years that we don't have to reinvent the church of Jesus. Because it is so clearly written in the book of Acts, chapter 2.

Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. (Acts 2:46-47 CSB)

If this is the church Jesus died to give, and grew without extensive programming or cool events, we have no reason to reinvent how church is done, or make it better. Church we see in the New Testament is a group of people (both believers and non-believers), sharing meals and lives in people's homes. It was a great reminder that growth without lost souls being saved and people becoming disciples is not a joy but pain. I was grateful that I'm deeply fulfilled doing church the way Jesus envisioned and reminded that we are on the right track.