I think that, sociologically, these house churches will eventually form themselves into "regular" churches. The human tendency toward organization is just too strong. The real test is whether they will remain in their current state across generations. Super-loose structures don't tend to keep people committed very well.
Such an interesting article. I think it captures the classic American approach to Christianity quite well in that it completely focused on externals (where you meet, the numbers involved, etc.), and has yet more possibility for rivalry and factionalism.
I have a friend in law school who talked to me along very similar lines. He was also interested in Orthodoxy, so we decided to trade books to critique from the others' viewpoint. He gave me one that makes outrageous claims like, "why are Christians praying the Psalms when these are clearly prayers of people who are not on Christian ground," and "what authority do we have from Scripture to meet in buildings which are often modeled after old testament ritualism, with altars and crosses?" yeeeaaah. So I wrote him about all that.
I gave him Pomazansky's Orthodox Dogmatic Theology. I am still awaiting his response.
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I have a friend in law school who talked to me along very similar lines. He was also interested in Orthodoxy, so we decided to trade books to critique from the others' viewpoint. He gave me one that makes outrageous claims like, "why are Christians praying the Psalms when these are clearly prayers of people who are not on Christian ground," and "what authority do we have from Scripture to meet in buildings which are often modeled after old testament ritualism, with altars and crosses?" yeeeaaah. So I wrote him about all that.
I gave him Pomazansky's Orthodox Dogmatic Theology. I am still awaiting his response.
Pray for him. His name is Jason.
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