Guest writer Tracy Close answers the question, “What’s So Important About Having a Home Church?” She shares the importance and benefits of belonging to a local body of believers and what should keep us together.

Many Christians have become disillusioned with the idea of organized religion. Through dissatisfaction, for one reason or another, their unrest leads them to the point of abandoning their home church. This can begin a process of church hopping or a belief develops that they can subsist on their own, avoiding involvement in any church body. However, this is not what Jesus intended for His disciples, His plan was always to establish and build a body of believers that would spread the good news and support one another. Had He wanted people to fly solo, He would have walked alone Himself instead of enlisting disciples.

So we understand that through Jesus’ plan the church was conceived, but that does not tell us why we need to be rooted in one church. Why not just attend whatever flavor service suits our needs or mood at the moment?

First, we need to understand that the church discovered quite early that organization was imperative to function and survival. In Acts we read that the believers came together sharing belongings, money and food. They supported one another and had fellowship and “did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” People witnessed the community that the believers had, something that they lacked in their own lives, but longed to experience. That longing opened their hearts to salvation.

In the Great Commission, Jesus challenges believers to go out and make disciples of all nations. It is a fact that we are capable of solo evangelism, but how effective can we truly be on our own? Moreover, how long can one fly solo? When we have the support and resource of a church body unified and committed to that purpose we have the power to not only minister on one street corner, but as many corners as the body contains individuals called to that task. Furthermore, a group will certainly have more endurance than one individual without support.

The church is a place of safe haven and through the body flows the power of prayer. In a healthy church the congregants are nurtured and tended. In times of strife they are supported with prayer “Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him” (Acts 12:5). Those of us that are rooted in a home church enjoy the comfort and security of the knowledge that we have a host of saints interceding on our behalf, all we need do is simply ask and we shall receive.

The church is organized with the purpose of providing for ministry, evangelism, teaching and worship. If you are not participating in that you are not only missing out on the blessings that God has intended for you, but you are truly turning your back on God saying “I can do it better myself.” This, we know is false. Scripture states clearly that we can do all things through Him who strengthens us, not on our own. Jesus did not walk alone, nor should we.

A home church should be sought through prayer. It should be a place that an individual feels called to, a place where one feels compelled to serve and to become rooted therein. In order to fully experience what God has for us we must be in fellowship, must be grafted into the vine through the church. If we remain alone, we are merely adrift in stormy seas destined only to sink.

An interview with Andrew Schmutzer about The Long Journey Home: Understanding and Ministering to the Sexually Abused, and part 1 of his chapter, “A Theology of Sexuality and its Abuse: Creation, Evil, and the Relational Ecosystem” as appearing in Pneuma Review Summer 2013.

 
A Theology of Sexuality and its Abuse—Part 1 A Theology of Sexuality and its Abuse—Part 2

Interview 2 Interview 3

Note from the Editors: Beginning a conversation about sexual abuse is uncomfortable, but we feel strongly that this topic is something the church needs to address. We believe the testimonies of authentic recovery can help us embrace the pain of the hurting and make openings for God to bring healing.

Pneuma Review: Are seminaries preparing church leaders to deal with sexual abuse?

Andrew Schmutzer:

Andrew J. Schmutzer discussing The Long Journey Home in 2011, by Lulu Hé. Courtesy of Moody Bible Institute.

Historically, no; but some are now trying. Abuse trauma is not simple and trying to train for the complexity of abuse—something that wasn’t even discussed in churches 15 years ago—begins to show the magnitude of this challenge. Seminaries need to start offering (requiring?) courses on a theology of sexuality and its legal and pastoral implications. Academic programs need far more team-teaching from different professionals. Just bringing in a survivor for the class to interact with would make a serious contribution toward pastoral preparation. Issues in sexuality are utterly exploding on so many fronts today: from gender-bending among youth and same-sex “rights” to the ever-present plague of sexual abuse. There are many expectations on our seminaries, and pastors are pulled in so many directions already, I understand that. But sexual abuse is a bleeder that must be tied off immediately. To be ill-equipped and ignorant of sexual abuse today is like living in tornado alley with no alarm system. It’s unacceptable. It’s a disaster itself.

More particularly, we’re going to have to network more between organizations, and frankly, embrace a more holistic anthropology that moves beyond the protracted gender wars and fear of therapy. More aggressive study of relational patterns (e.g., Family Systems Theory) and how power is heard and felt by victims is a practical issue that will have to be woven into standard leadership training and core curriculum—internships may need to become more apprentice-like. There is a complexity to the human-induced trauma of sexual abuse we’re only beginning to face. Unlike some addictions, one doesn’t choose to be a victim of sexual abuse, but the way we process this has not caught up to the complexities we’re now learning about how complex PTSD and mental health affect the entire person. Pastors need to understand: (1) the multi-factorial backdrop of sexual abuse (e.g., beliefs about sex, toxic family traditions, superficial healing rituals, cultural modes of thinking, etc.), (2) and the complex reasons that victims often go on to abuse others (i.e., trans-generational sexual abuse). Specialized training might need to look like continuing education classes or periodic seminars. It should go without saying, but church leaders need to stop avoiding passages in Scripture that address sexual perversion, rape, and standard biblical ethics.

An excerpt from The Long Journey Home: Understanding and Ministering to the Sexually Abused, edited by Andrew J. Schmutzer.

Several terms, prompted by an asterisk (*) in the chapters appearing in Pneuma Review, have been defined by pastors, therapists, and theologians that contributed to the book and are included in a select glossary. Please also continue the conversation with Andrew Schmutzer as he answers questions throughout this series.

Chiastic Structure. Derived from the Greek letter chi (X), it is a literary device employing words and poetic lines that are inversely repeated for rhetorical effect. Chiastic structures shape episodes, speeches, or entire stories (e.g., Amos 5:4b–6a).

Community Consultation. The coordinated integration of various community agencies and organizations to help provide for the best level of care and support for targeted individuals and groups. Such usually involves a collaborative relationship among hospitals, mental health and substance abuse treatment agencies, as well as other supportive organizations.

Conspiracy of Silence. Having to do with a condition or matter which is known to exist in a family or other social group but which, by implied or unspoken agreement, is not talked about or acknowledged. Such matters are typically considered to be shameful or taboo (e.g., of a family regarding their abusing member). (See also Taboo)

Corrective Rape. A criminal practice where men rape lesbian women, purportedly as a means of “curing” the woman of her sexual orientation.

Domestic Violence. Any pattern of violence or abuse (e.g., physical, sexual, emotional) that occurs within the context of the home or other intimate relationships. (See also Sexual Abuse)

Dualism. The concept that the world is ruled by opposing realities, whether visible and invisible or forces of good and evil; the concept that humans have two basic natures, the physical and the spiritual, body and soul or mind and matter. Most dualistic philosophies celebrate the soul or spirit while denigrating flesh, bodies, and material creation.

Family Dysfunction. Family dysfunction is any interactive process in the family that limits the effective and healthy development of family members. Such processes may include things like poor communication patterns, enmeshed relationships, poor boundaries between members, unclear roles, spiritual chaos, and poor problem-solving.

Fertility Cult. In general, fertility cults have believed there is a causal connection between the fertility and blessing of the cropland, herds, and other such forms of prosperity to the sexual relations enacted by the “divine couple,” priests and priest­esses, or by cult prostitutes. Such activity is viewed as an act of worship intended to emulate the gods’ creative abilities, or seen as an act of imitative magic by which the gods are then compelled to preserve the earth’s fertility.

Forgiveness. Forgiveness extends grace to the offender for a relationship that has been ruptured due to the violation or sin of one party against the other. Forgiveness does not cancel any legal verdict, nor does it dismiss, minimize, ignore, or forget the pain. In forgiveness, the offended party relinquishes the right to vengeance, thus often called the act of forgiveness.

Hendiadys. A figure of speech using two parts (noun or verb), connected by a conjunction, to express a single idea (e.g., “pain and trembling” = “labor pains” [Gen 3:16a]; “full of grace and truth” = “God’s gracious truth” [John 1:17]).

Imago Dei. Latin, “image of God.” Image of God is a phrase used in theology to describe the uniqueness of humankind among God’s creatures (Gen 1:26–27). Theologians differ on what the “image of God” actually refers to, but there seems to be some combination of internal and external aspects, though reason, will, and relationality have traditionally received greater emphasis. Whether or not the image of God was actually damaged in the Fall is also debated (cf. Gen 9:6; Jam 3:9).

Galaxy NGC 6744.
Source: ESO. eso.org

I always enjoy reading contemporary articles that offer fresh evidence for faith in the God of the Bible, even if such “evidence” is somewhat indirect. I found this recently in a well-written summary and critique of another “faith,” the predominantly non-Christian belief in extra-terrestrial life. Science journalist Fred Heeren summarizes the search for intelligent life in the universe and focuses on why no such life has yet been found.

Despite what popular culture in America has been led to believe about “the awful waste of space” if aliens are not out there, most extra-terrestrial intelligence believers are unaware of recent evidence for and against ETI. “If the public knows little about the best reasons to believe in intelligent extraterrestrials, it knows even less about the reasons to doubt” (p. 42).

Perhaps you have never heard of Fermi’s Paradox, but it is still one of the strongest arguments against the existence of intelligent life anywhere but Earth.

It all happened over a Los Alamos lab lunch in the summer of 1950, when renowned Italian physicist Enrico Fermi had one of those napkin-scribbling epiphanies. His conclusion stemmed from the indisputable premise that there are billions of stars in our galaxy that are older than our sun, and that life routinely develops under favorable conditions.

Exhausted planet resources and dying stars would provide good motives for exploration and homesteading. Some cultures, like our own, would find other motives for colonizing, and it would only take one enterprising population to begin exponential expansion. Fermi showed that, even assuming modest speeds, every habitable star system in the galaxy should have been colonized within mere millions, not billions, of years. Complete colonization could take place in the relative twinkling of a cosmic eye, many times over, in a ten-billion-year-old galaxy like the Milky Way. “So,” asked Fermi, “where are they?”

It is not a stretch to say that since no satisfactory answer has yet been given, perhaps some of those “indisputable” premises are, in fact, rather disputable. However, evidences against believing in extra terrestrial intelligence do not stop here. Heeren goes on to list some other significant reasons to show how unique and unlikely Earth is: its large moon, its “main sequence” Sun, special gas giant neighbors like Jupiter, location in the galaxy, and just the right amount of radioactive elements in the just-right crust. Then there are all of the “coincidences” biological evolution (if one believes in it) required for the development of human intelligence. Improbable events that Darwinian evolution could not predict had to have occurred according to today’s evolutionary biologists. Two of these they claim must have taken place to make way for man were something to wipe out dinosaur life (I believe the flood of Noah is the best explanation) and the “Cambrian explosion” without the evolutionary development of any major animal groups (called phyla) since then (supposedly 530 million years ago).

British astronomer John Barrow is quoted as saying that “there has developed a general consensus among evolutionists that the evolution of intelligent life, comparable in information-processing ability to that of Homo sapiens, is so improbable that it is unlikely to have occurred on any other planet in the entire visible universe” (p. 44). This leads Heeren to affirm that the laws of nature seem stacked against intelligent life developing, “Neither biologists nor astronomers see anything imperative about the many contingencies that had to be met, against all odds, for us to be here” (p. 45). Therefore, the idea that the universe is teeming with intelligent life, or even life, is not a presupposition supported by science.