A couple of years ago, my father was experiencing some disillusionment with the local church. I was living in Maryland at the time, while he was in his native Port Arthur, TX. We had tried virtual studies before, with varying degrees of success. I wasn't sure what to do. I decided to look for books about why church is the way it is, and alternative models. The two books I ended up with were Simply Church by Tony and Felicity Dale, and Pagan Christianity, by Frank Viola and George Barna. The latter book was pretty provocative. It talked of how Christianity was altered by the its "legitimatization" from the Roman Empire to become something completely different, and not necessarily better.
At the time I was really pro small group, and had been feeling particularly critical of the fact that the generic modern church model is so different from what Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 14. I was thinking home church was the way to go. I don't know if my father mentioned it at the time, but one of the problems with the model is the potential lack of accountability and training, which can lead to serious abuse. My friend Leticia has told me that she has heard so many horror stories during her time as a counselor about small churches that twist the scriptures to impose their will on well-meaning but gullible parishioners. Home churches would probably be worse. How do you find that happy medium between large institutions and small bodies of believers?
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