Liturgical House Church?

It looks like most of the house / cell churches are not liturgically oriented.

Anyone seen a liturgical house church service, or have any theories on how it would work?

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No one?

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It's an idea I've toyed with but I'm a church of one with it at the moment. I'd posit the Didache as a good starting point. The idea of a house church seems to be very much about about paring accretions of the century and getting back to the original form. So getting back to the spartan liturgy of the original church seems to gel with that quite well.

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Well if you ever put it into practice, let me know how it goes.

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What would liturgy add to a home group? I'm curious. How would things be altered? Would attire matter? Would there be formal rituals?

Dave

I was thinking something specifically along the lines of the Didache. Perhaps even bringing back the original Agape meal. Something like that.

As for attire, I wouldn't think it necessary unless one's church dictated specific attire. In my own tradition, that would be limited to the Priest who should have cassock, alb and chasuble.

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Lots of churches that meet in homes have a set order of doing things. Its just usually not very formalized and not written down. But in a lot of these churches the same thing happens in the same order most weeks.

As far as formal liturgy goes, Dan Hubbell said once he was invited to speak once to a house church. Hhe heard their conversation before they got started and everyone was talking about the church fathers. He asked about it and someone told him that they believed that the ideal form of the church was what the church arrived at in the second century. They considere dthe Biblical age church to be immature. All his teachings about church were based on the New Testament, and he did not know if they would receive it well.

I don't know if they were liturgical or not. They had an Anglican background apparently.

I was in a home group that took on some ceremonial activities, even though the group was very casual. We did Seder once, tried the Agape meal, held communion and repentance service on New Year's, fasted together. Very nice.

I would think using a prayer book, and hymnal recitations would be an easy addition.

Yes, I've been involved in using liturgy in the house church. How it works depends on how people conceive of liturgy. The house church is much more prominent amongst Protestants, who for the most part depend much less on liturgy, and who often have a negative attitude about what the use of liturgy means.

However, many Catholics who come over to Protestantism often have difficulty giving up all of their Catholic ways, and they may desire to use liturgy in house church settings. I say then go for it. Much of the Bible is written in liturgical form, obviously with the intention for use in a service. Many Protestants think of liturgy negatively, as some kind of Catholic distortion for services, which merely is a device for creating a false sense of authority among the clergy. But no, liturgy does not have to be about that.

Most people, even most churches, do not really understand liturgy and how it can be used as a most beautiful form of worship. I think that is because liturgy really has often been distorted for creating false senses on authority. But if one looks at Biblical examples of liturgy and takes a fresh look at how it can be used creatively as a community expression of worship, then it can be a very beautiful and meaningful experience -- however, I would not let it become some rigid form of ritual -- that is what destroys it, and I don't think it should be used that often, as that also changes it into something less than vibrant.

I would not try using liturgy in a house church setting without preparing the people for it first over time. Find out what their preconceptions about it are, and review what liturgy really can and should be.

Then, I would approach it as a natural and unified expression of communicating to God. The rhythm of the liturgy is extremely important -- it should be an expression of the soul. It's like the KJV compared to modern versions -- the KJV has a different kind of English that expresses the soul as the Hebrew and Greek of Scripture does. I think coming to this realization is a good place to start for trying to understand how to begin with liturgy.

Greetings

There are many liturgically based home churches all around the world. Here are a few places where you can get into this part of the home church movement:

1) Many of the Independent Catholic Churches are home based. Just Google "Independent Catholic Churches" and you'll be led to a site that lists a bunch of them, most of which meet in homes.

2) My Godson, Father Greg Blevins is a priest in the Antiochian Church which centers around home church ministry. His bishop Mar Michael has organized churches in the home for many years, ACCA Home - Antiochian Catholic Church in America[/url])

3) We have a separate jurisdiction in Communion with the Christian Anglican Missionary Communion that is Home Church based called Christ Charismatic Liturgical Recovery Churches Inc. We are Christians who are in recovery through the 12 Christian Recovery Steps who center our sobriety around the Sacraments, prophetic prayer, service to the community and the family.

Because we have such a strong emphasis on family and traditional stability we see the liturgically based home as the best example of the Domestic Church in action. If you are interested in who we are and what we stand for, please go to our website at CHRIST CHARISMATIC LITURGICAL RECOVERY CHURCHES INTERNATIONAL

God bless you!

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