I’ve woken up with a burning message in me today after the housechurches’ leadership discussion the other night. Some of the people in housechurches feel disconnected from the larger whole; they also feel lacking in certain areas and have been going to other churches to get more teaching, more corporate worship, etc. This is said with some sadness and guilt.

This morning as I pondered these things, very real issues and disappointments for these people, I started to think about Scripture. When Paul goes on some preaching and prayer rampages he tends to talk about specific churches in specific cities. In some of his letters, he ends with some messages for smaller groups meeting in someone’s home. However, the sense is that these smaller groups are still seen as part of the larger “Church of Ephesus” or “Church of Philadelphia”. The glorified Jesus, in the first few chapters of Revelation, also refers to these city churches. Churches made up of all the believers in a city; churches that when connected become the entire Body of Christ.

What would it be like for our housechurches to truly understand that they are members of the church of Cincinnati? If Jesus Christ sees them as members in the church of Cincinnati, not just a part of a housechurch, isn’t there freedom in that?

To me, it feels like the door is wide open to attend every and any gathering of believers in Cincinnati; they are all my brothers, all my sisters, all my family, all my church. We all as believers in this geographic location have responsibility according to how the church in Cincinnati lives out Christ’s commands (at least that’s how I interpret the Revelation passages). But how can I be responsible for the church of Cincinnati if I don’t know who the church is? The only way to share in the life of the church of Cincinnati is to begin to make relationships with the church of Cincinnati. As Andrew Jones has said of Deep Ecclesiology – “let us honor the church in all her forms”. In two or three. In our homes. At our work. At corporate worship services. Over coffee. At the pub. In the stadium. At any place where there are other believers.

There is real intimacy and relationships and discipleship and worship that can be experienced and lived in a housechurch. But hey, maybe that’s NOT the end of the story!!!