There's a movement a'brewin and nobody is talking about it. This is what I am seeing . . .
The house church movement seems to be finding more leadership from medical doctors than ministry professionals.
Case in point: I was in Cambridge a few days ago with my good friend Dr Phuoc-Tan Diep. and his wife, Maggie. They have a house church-type meeting each week which is moving to the house of another doctor named Chris. While I was there, Phuoc-Tan introduced me to Jim who is now part of this group - and yes, he is also a medical doctor, about to study for his PhD on white cells.
This is not atypical.
- In USA, Tony and Felicity Dale (both MD's) have given fuel to the house church movement through events and their magazine House2House.
- A church planter from India told me that she and her husband (who is a MD) have started 14,000 churches in the past decade.
- I was talking to another pioneer in the Indian house church movement, (a doctor from Oregon who i will not name) about this phenomenon and why it was so. He said it was because doctors, unlike professional ministers, are more able to face the truth. If you make a mistake as a doctor, someone dies and you do not make the mistake again. Ministers, however, tend to be more nostalgic and continue on making the same mistakes, even if it doesn't work.
- Also, Derek Chapman told me last week that his sister and her husband have recently found themselves in the house church movement in USA (North Carolina) and are suddenly interested in the same books and resources that we have been talking about for a decade. Both Derek's sister and her husband are medical doctors.
Anyone see a pattern here?
Related: Thoughts on House Church
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