Any lover of scripture will see that the traditional church today in America has little to no resemblance to the forms and structures present in the New Testament church. That’s no bad or horrible; it’s just unfortunate that traditional church-attenders in the South won’t extend the same grace to other structures and forms.

Elton’s last blog post..Another Hillbilly President

I must say that twice I’ve been asked, “You’re going to Journey? The cult church?” In a joking way… and I actually mentioned this at our last Bible Study session. I think people think this way b/c, in general, there is something different about the people that attend Journey. That’s what finally drew us there after 3 years of refusing to visit because it was just “too different.” Wow, different is what is needed, in my opinion! I’ve had a major soul shake up since that first visit, that is only strengthened by small groups. I really wish more churches operated this way. I agree that with small groups and worshipping in each other’s homes, it’s much more like what would have gone on in biblical times. And I like it!

Mandy’s last blog post..Thank you!

As you probably know, I’ve had a very keen interest in the house church movement, which I’ve come to believe best mirrors what the early church looked like, and also offers the best opportunity for low administrative costs, allowing for more resources to be dedicated to ministry in the community. I’m with you on that whole thing about church starts discouraging bi-vocational models, which is another area (staff salaries) where I believe church resources get pinched pretty badly, leaving few resources for ministry and missions… especially so for a new church plant. I was recently made aware, much to my delight, that we actually have a house church starting up here in Monticello. I hope to be able to check it out at some point as my work schedule allows. I think it’s exciting!

If a high church-per-1,000 figure would keep churches out of the mind-set that they need to build a monstrous physical plant (and incur a monstrous debt to go along with it), I’m all for it.

Interesting that you mentioned the “unintentional” church starts in the rural south… it’s my understanding that both Immanuel Baptist and Serenity Baptist have recently been referred to as “church plants” of Second Baptist and Immanuel Baptist, respectively (anyone who is not aware should realize that both of these churches were the results of church splits). I’d be interested in knowing if there are any figures out there that indicate how many new Christian converts are drawn to such church “plants.”

dean’s last blog post..don?t buck the huck

I’ll see if I can find that video and post it…

According to Local.Arkansas.gov, Drew County’s population is 18,723. Just in Monticello (in the yellow pages, which did not have a listing for Northside Baptist Church which caught my attention right off the bat, so you can be pretty certain there are more that aren’t listed, especially if they don’t have a phone), there are 23 churches. I’m sure there’s a website somewhere that has county-wide statistics regarding number of churches. But for Monticello, with a population of 9,146, and the 24 churches that we know of (the 23 in the phone book plus Northside… no wait, make that TWENTY-FIVE churches…forgot about Serenity Baptist), that comes pretty close to that 1920 stat quoted in #5 above.

dean’s last blog post..don?t buck the huck