Out of Ur, the blog of Leadership Journal, has a really interesting post on House Churches, which are often just small groups with no real pastor, who don’t have an affiliation with a larger church. It seems that mega churches that employ small groups may inadvertently be birthing groups that break away and find little or less need for the big meeting.
I totally agree that being a member of a small group is more important in one’s spiritual community life than the big meeting, and I think we should have the big meeting less often, like once or twice a month so that people could spend more time with their small group and/or family in meaningful, spiritual activities like prayer, study, fellowship, and service. But the bigger meetings with a trained teacher and corporate worship are also essential, it seems to me.
It seems the mega-facilities the modern church has used to attract “danielgs” may no longer be a draw for spiritually hungry Americans. The grassroots activism of house churches combined with their minimal institutional overhead may prove enticing to a new generation of socially active Christians.