Are YOU a Good Person? · · ·
Click the million dollar bill and take the test!
Middle Peninsula House Church
Why a House Church?...
...Because that is where the Church met in the New Testament!
| Philemon 2 - to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier and to the church that meets in your home: | 1 Corinthians 16:19 - The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house |
| Romans 16:5 - Greet also the church that meets at their house. Greet my dear friend Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia. | Colossians 4:15 - Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. |
We meet at 10:45 am on Sundays, with a meal to follow.
For more information and location email: Info@MidPenHC.org
or call: 694-5027
We are non-charismatic, dispensational, and hold to the doctrines of grace.
Our emphasis is on the edification of the body of believers through the doctrine (teachings) of Jesus Christ.
2 John 9 - "Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ
does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son."
New Testament Church Characteristics
Churches that meet in homes rather than in specially designed buildings:
· Met in Homes: Philemon 2, Romans 16:5, 1 Corinthians 16:19, Colossians 4:15.
· This is the way the New Testament church met together. God has chosen "weak things" as the means of accomplishing His
purpose (1Co 1:27-29) and does not equate bigness with ability.
· The church is to operate as a family, not a business.
· The instructions given by the apostles on how to do church were given with house churches in mind; consequently, they work well in
house churches, but not as well in large churches.
· Meeting in the home fosters community, intimacy and accountability among the members of the body.
· With no overhead expenses (such as the construction and upkeep of a building), finances are directed toward the needs of the poor and
the sending of missionaries.
· The church and the family unit are to be integrated, not segregated. Churches are to be family-friendly.
Church meetings that are informal and interactive:
· Everyone of the brothers is to participate in the meeting for the building up of the body as a whole (1Co 14). Open participation is to
be the rule, not the exception.
· The only definitive statement of a first-century church meeting is found in 1Co 14. There it indicates that "everyone" (14:26) has
something to contribute, and that the result is to be the edification of the body. 45 minute sermons by one man while all others silently
listen were absent from the New Testament church meetings.
· The objective of the church meeting in the New Testament is mutual edification, not corporate worship (although worship is
one means whereby the church can be edified).
The Lord’s Supper celebrated weekly, as a full fellowship meal, using one loaf and one cup:
· The Lord’s Supper was the primary purpose of the church meeting together in the New Testament (Ac 20:7; 1Co 11:18-20, 11:33).
· The Lord’s Supper consisted of a full meal, not a piece of cracker and a thimble of grape juice (1Co 11:21; Ac 2:46; Jude 12).
· In the midst of the meal there is to be one loaf of bread and a single cup (1Co 10:16-17). This singularity, Paul tells us, causes
unity in the body.
· The mood of the Lord’s Supper is "joy" (Ac 2:46) not solemn reflection, because the focus of the Lord’s Supper is the excitement
of the second coming, not the unworthiness of the participants.
Church Government By Corporate Consensus:
· Church government is to be according to the consensus of the whole church. This is not the same as majority rule, but rather unity rule!
The Bible is our ultimate and final authority on the Doctrine of Jesus Christ - NOT consensus. Consensus is limited to administrative issues.
· Churches are to be elder-led more than elder-ruled.
· Authority lies with the church corporately, not its elders.
· The titles "elder," "overseer [bishop]," and "pastor-teacher" in the New Testament are inter-changeable terms that refer to the same person.
Elders (pastors) of the church are to be home-grown, and ideally cultivated and trained by other leaders within the church, not by
seminary professors (2Ti 2:2).
· Elders (pastors) of the church must meet primarily moral qualifications, not primarily academic qualifications (1Ti 3; Tit 1:5-9).
· Elders (pastors) of the church primarily "watch over" the flock, instead of delivering 45 minute sermons. Theirs is primarily
a "background" role.
The Institutional Paradigm The Biblical Paradigm
- is sustained by a clergy system - knows nothing of a clergy system
- seeks to energize the laity - doesn’t recognize a separate class called laity
- renders the bulk of its congregants - makes all members functioning priests
passive-in-their-pews
- associates church with a building or a - affirms that people do not go to church nor
denomination that one “joins” join the church…affirms that they are the church
- is rooted in unifying those who share - is rooted in unreserved fellowship with all Christians
a special set of customs or doctrines based on Christ alone
- thrusts “ordinary” Christians out of the - liberates all believers to serve as ministers in the
holy of holies and chains them to a pew context of a non-clerical, decentralized form of
church leadership
- places its priority on religious programs - places its priority on face-to-face, shared relationships,
and keeps its congregants at arms-length, mutual submission, openness, freedom, mutual service,
insulating them from one another and spiritual reality—the very elements that were built
into the fabric of the NT church
- spends most of its resources on building - spends most of its resources on “the poor among you”
expenditures and pastor-staff salaries and apostolic workers
- operates on the basis that the pastor/priest - operates on the basis that Christ is the functional head
is the functional head (while Christ is the through the invisible guidance of the Holy Spirit though
nominal head) the believing community
- enshrines and protects the clergy-dominated, - shows a revulsion for the clergy system because it
program-centered system that serves as the quenches the sovereign exercise of the Holy Spirit (yet
driving machine of the organized church lovingly embraces every Christian within that system)
- builds programs to fuel the church; views - builds people together with Christ to provide the
people as cogs in the machine momentum for the church
- encourages believers to participate - invites believers to participate relationally and spiritually
institutionally and hierarchically
- separates church (ecclesiology) from personal - forges no link between personal salvation and the church;
salvation (soteriology); views the former as a sees the two as inextricably intertwined. (Scripture has it
mere appendage to the latter that when people were saved, they simultaneously became
part of the church and immediately met together.)
The Biblical paradigm represents
“the winning back to God of things ordinary and the desacralisation
of things made sacred by human hands.”
Interesting articles and information:
New Testament Restoration Foundation
Proofs for a Pre-Tribulation Rapture
For more information and location email: Info@MidPenHC.org
