I agree especially with number 7. Our congregations need to be more participatory, but I don’t think you need to leave the building to do that. It is the job of the leadership of the church to educate and prepare the body of the church to do the work of the church by developing mission minded people that have a heart to share the good news of Jesus Christ and then disciple them to make them strong in the Lord.

Number 3 talks about daily informal gatherings, but that should be in addition to, not instead of, Sunday Services. We need to earnestly pray for God to instill in His people a hunger for His Word so they may have the desire to gather and discuss all things biblical and remain intimate with our Lord. Christians should already be doing that on their own, but young Christians need good instruction that comes from gathering with mature believers. I don’t think that God would be pleased if a bunch of immature believers got together with a false understanding of scripture and started teaching what they think they know, therby perpetuating false premises.

My two cents.

This is the kind of thing I have been thinking about and studying for a long time. I don’t know what the answer is, but I know that I can’t see much in todays church that resembles the church of the new testament. I’m sure changes like this will never come from most pastors and other church leaders because it would cut their purse strings and upset their entire way of life.

I am uncomfortable with the word “replace” in many of those.

I like the word “augment” in its place in several of them.

Interesting comments from your readers. I wish more would engage in struggling through these kinds of issues like those above are doing. 

Thanks for linking to my blog. You must have a lot of readers, because the past couple of days about half of those clicking are coming over from here. Gracias!

“Replace loud music with speaking to each other in psalms and spiritual songs making melody in your heart. “ - sounds like this post was written by an old person. The elderly conveniently forget Psalm 33:3: “Sing unto him a new song; Play skilfully with a loud noise.”

The ‘new testament’ church is really a marketing fiction akin to characterizing 20th century Christianity by looking only at the closing service of a 1908 tent revival somewhere in Texas.

If one takes off the rose-colored glasses and reads the New Testament, one sees a remarkable story of how the Gospel somehow wasn’t stillborn in its first generation.

When I see preachers attacking other preachers and the saints bickering over trivialities, I say that the so-called New Testament church is alive and well.

I’ve studied the house-church movement quite a bit, and my main issue with it is its lack of leadership and teaching. Jerry is dead on with the statement about God not being pleased with immature believers getting together and teaching what they think they know. I agree wholeheartedly that every believer should use his or her spiritual gift, but let’s not forget that one gift is that of pastor-teacher (Ephesians 4:11). Another one is teaching (Romans 12:7). Another one is leading (Romans 12:8). Three New Testament books are letters to pastors. Paul left Titus in Crete to appoint elders (pastors) for the local churches because things were lacking in those churches. Hebrews 13:7,17, and 24 promote the idea of pastoral authority. Certainly 1 Peter 5:1-4 forbids the idea of a dictatorial pastor, but let’s not wreck in the other ditch and think of the pastor as just one more voice in a forum discussion of opinions on church matters. And, just to put it bluntly, if we are going to obsess over making our churches exactly like those of the New Testament, don’t we have to keep the women folk quiet? (1 Timothy 2:11-12, 1 Corinthians 14:34-35).