There seems to be a gaping hole in the church technology realm. I found doing a little googling to find ways to use the 27 hour service to benefit house churches. Where is the house church technology?
When I googled "house church technology" the results returned sites like www.shepherdsstaff.org and www.volunteerministers.org. Neither of these sites has to do with technology in house churches. I guessed that a house churches technology needs would center around communication over the Internet and media. After doing some searching with these key words I came up empty.
I'm a little surprised at the lack of house church media. The large criticism of house churches is the lack of expert teaching. It just doesn't work logistically to have a pastor trained in theology, the original languages, and who has the time to prep to teach in each house church. Expert teaching via video is something I assumed I would find, but I didn't.
Am I missing something or is there a gaping hole in technology for house churches?
Who needs it?
Wow. I've never even considered that there was a place for technology in house churches. I'll attribute that to the fact that I know little about and have never participated in a house church. In fact, the whole concept of house church has rang archaic to me. Everyone I know who has participated in house church is approaching or over 50 years old and I certainly don't see them embracing technology any faster than the rest of the Church.
I realize I'm making a huge generalization here. But perhaps I am not alone in my thinking. If so, then it is no wonder that the technology and media producers and advocates so easily forget house churches. At best, there is a need and demand for tech and media in house churches, we just don't know what those needs are or how to approach them.
Are you missing something? If you are, I'm right there with you. Please keep us posted on any new insights. I'm intensely curious.
Different Perspective
I find it interesting that you see people around 50 year old (the boomer generation) being the proponents of house churches. That generation is known for mega churches. I'd really be curious for a demographic report on house churches.
All that said, the boomer generation is into technology, especially audio and video (just go look at the mega churches they run or your typical Americans entertainment center). In a home setting this would be very different from that of a medium sized or mega church and these organizations are the ones that produce a bulk of the media out there.
Imagine a house church that had a regular (weekly) teaching they could show on their TVs. Something from an expert that they aren't able to have. Whether you are 60 or 20 this is a good thing.
Some stats I found interesting are that there are well over 40 million Americans who are part of a house church. It's somewhere around 1/7th of the US population attends a house church in a given month.
Are you asking...
...why aren't there any house church resources
or
why hasn't anyone compiled a list of resources that would be good for house churches?
If you're looking for expert teaching on video, I think it's there... it's just not tied in to house churches.
Worship's another issue that I have a few ideas about, but I don't want to go all commercial in a comment. :D
--Patrick
Complie Away
If you know of a bunch of good resources by all means compile and share it. I'm sure there are a lot of people who could really benefit from it.
The Church Without Walls
A house church(es) mission outreach is
http://www.thechurchwithoutwalls.info/
I am not certain how much technology is involved. I think being face to face in a small group is one of the advantages. (Note this is a LCMS mission too.)
Also I ran across this article
http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2008/04/14/values/doc4803900c493f9851...
where a mega-church has several house churches and they send out DVDs of the pastor's message to the house churches. Not cutting edge technology but it is a way to support the house churches. I can see that the 27 hour service could be a benefit to those house churches without that support.
I forgot about that
I forgot about http://www.thechurchwithoutwalls.info/. I know it's an lcms mission... I wrote the javascript menu on the left. Thanks for pointing that out.
The Rocky Mountain District that is behind this is, also, the part of the lcms that is the most behind the fshbwl at this point.
I wonder if there is a way to tie the two together?
Small Group Resources
If you tried your search with "small groups" or "home fellowship groups" I'm sure you'd come up with all kinds of resources. There's no practical difference between an independent "House Church" and a home small group affiliated with a local congregation. Their needs would be identical, with the possible exception of serving communion, I'd think. The major christian publishers aren't really in the habit of marketing to house churches, since they're in the business of making money.