Alliejames's Journal

Back when I first started working, I rented a room from a young couple at my church.  I lived with them for a year and a half and left on very good terms.  The congregation we all attended went through a split about two years after I got there and the majority of us went into independent house churches.  The head minister at our church was the person who suggested the house church alternative because he'd come to the conclusion that the Bible didn't authorize meeting in a building the way we were doing. 

I lasted in the house church movement five years and finally told my husband that it was time to leave because the house churches were not working for me.  That's the number one reason we moved to where we are now. 

Recently I started corresponding with an old member of my former church and I learned that a lot of heartache has happened since the split and since I left.  The couple that I lived with is now divorced.  I knew that they were separated because the last time I spoke with the wife, she told me so. 

In my Facebook correspondence, I learned that the reason they got divorced was because he was gay.

I lived with them and I NEVER picked up on anything odd about the man's behavior!  I mean, they at least acted like they loved each other.  They even had a child together!

The woman has since remarried, but I understand that she and her new husband aren't going to church anywhere.  Not only that, a former lead couple at my church aren't going anywhere either. 

The leader that started the whole house church movement is still leading a house church group.  The person I've been chatting with did attend for many years; she's no longer there but her husband is.  Bascially, the people in the group believe that any form of organized religion is wrong because it's a man-made attempt to give power and money to people.  I can't even begin to tell you what they believe about the gospel; the leader is a very good scholar but even when he was preaching, much of his stuff went way over my head. 

I feel betrayed, in one sense, because the reason I moved to that preacher's church was because I'd heard that he taught grace, and I wasn't getting it in the church I was going to at the time.  I was desperate to get there.  And for a while, I found freedom.  But the group, in their reaction against control and legalism, went all the way to the other extreme, which was pretty much, you can believe whatever it is you want to. 

In another sense, I feel a lot of sorrow.  The person I was chatting with said that the people in the group deserved better and should have gotten better.  I agree.  I've long thought that we did not have the maturity to do the independent house church thing.  We did it as a reaction to control and to legalism, not as something that was well thought out and Biblically based. 

In yet another sense, I'm thinking, "So he really DID say some of the things I thought he said.  I wasn't nuts!"  We did the right thing by leaving, because had we not left when we did, it's very possible that neither Frank nor I would be going anywhere.  Or we'd still be there and believing what the leader was telling us.

Sadly, the leader of that group and his wife have been separated for about a year.  She even said that she wasn't sure what she believed anymore. 

I fear that the leader of this group may have a lot to answer for on Judgment Day.  I feel terribly sorry for those who have been affected!