Worshipping at home

According to admittedly biased new research conducted by The Barna Group, up to 50 million Americans are worshipping in home-based churches, rather than the traditional neighborhood corner church. With a population of slightly less than 300 million, this means that approximately one out of every six Americans attends a home church. While this number seems ridiculously high to me, I think the trend that analyst George Barna has identified is valid.

So I wonder- what is it that the traditional setting is lacking, and, conversely, what is it that home churches are providing that a traditional setting can't? From information taken from personal interviews, Barna suggests that one reason is the intimacy, informality and group atmosphere. Rather than sitting in a pew amongst many and listening to a preacher, there is oppotunity for shared insights among the group.

This explanation, however, falls short. What he describes is bascially a Bible study group that most churches supplement their Sunday services with. There must be more to it than that.

I suggest that this shift towards home-based Christianity is reflective of a larger national trend towards personalized religion in the United States. Gone are the days of unquestioning and unwavering faith and adherence to the group mold. We Americans embody a captialistic, individualized, pioneer drive in our secular life, and this spills over to our spiritual lives as well. Aesthetic and environmental arguments aside, what need is there to settle for a VW bug when we could drive a hummer?

It is the backdrop of our larger cultural schema, I suggest, which encourages instant gratification, individual economics and goals, that allows us to turn inward and look to ourselves for religious guidance.