Taken 4 Granted

My dad has been blogging for a number of months now, often focusing on how the institution of Sunday Services and the local church building actually inhibits and restricts real growth and life in the Christian body. Given my experience over the years, I am increasingly persuaded to agree with this idea. I want to summarize a few of his key points to save y'all the trouble of reading his stuff.

Persecuted For...
If the Christian church is actually persecuted, as it is now in Russia, the simplest solution is to go underground and only have small groups. There is no need for formal church congregations and buildings.

The Cycle of Church Life
Small groups of Christians will thrive and grow, become larger, slowly stop growing and eventually fade away or split. And then this cycle repeats itself...why not stay small and multiply the groups instead? Why repeat this pattern of slow decay?

Why Do You?
Why do we go to a local church? Because the church tells us we should, not because the Bible does. It's a teaching that feeds on itself.

Bill Hybels and I Agree
Willowcreek, the megachurch, did surveys and found no correlation between the church programs and long-term growth and discipleship for Christians. The local church congregation is not as useful as we like to think.

Aftermath!
If we lead only one person to Christ every four years, and those people do the same, we will see explosive growth. It's not too hard to do, and it's way more effective than the statistical growth of the local church.

Is Christ Divided?
Why does the local church need a name, or a building? That ain't in the Bible.

Scattered
In the Old Testament, people demand a king. In modern times, people demand a pastor. Missionaries get by just fine without a pastor.

Empowerment?
We say that we want people to be active as Christians, but if they contradict the ideas of the local church body they'll find that they eventually have to leave the group. The group itself is more important than individuals.

Living Relationally
An oxymoron: The Relational Church. Wayne Jocobsen has a story that illustrates how poorly the local church does in teaching and developing individuals.

Jesus Plus
Why do we feel the need for a local church congregation? Why do we add so much to Jesus, when Jesus himself is enough?

Hmm. Perhaps I will follow this up soon with a Top Ten list of the best reaons to not have a local church congregation...