I probably don't have this quite right (someone can straighten me out), but I understand that one of the questions that Lou Holtz (former coack of Notre Dame) would ask people who would be part of his team or staff is: "Are you only interested in what I can do for you, or are you interested in being concerned about me as a person?"
I think this is a reality for check in everything that we are doing. Are we interested in developing our program, or our house church, or our ministry, or our agenda? Or have we genuinely developed a concern for people? Just people!
I have discovered that motivation is everything! If my concern is not genuinely about the welfare and interests of individual people, then I am already headed down the road of control or manipulation. I will use people for my interests rather than be availabe for whatever is of most value to them.
The church, of course, is traditionally guilty of asserting the corporate vision and then assuming that what is in the best interest of each person is to help fulfill that corporate vision. In the process, we miss the individual beauty and uniqueness of each of God's children. We marginalize those who do not quite fit the "mold" of what "our church" values or esteems.
However, lest we throw stones, I do not want to assert the new "house church vision" and miss the point. It's not about starting house churches, developing a network of churches, or planting yet more house churches. It's about people. A person, whoever he or she is, that I am called to minister to. Whatever is best for that person's calling and community life is what God is into. Not my agenda but His agenda in and through that person.
Church communities do develop in order to support people in what God is doing in and through them. These communities and gatherings are important and necessary. But our motivation in our approach to these communities is everything. Are we building communities, churches, or house churches? Or are we laying down our life to build people. Maybe just one person. Because that one person matters!
Are we interested in people because of how they might facilitate our vision? Or are we simply, genuinely interested in people?
