Return to Simplicity: The "House-church"

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The house-church could help the poor, who would not be crushed with the giant burden and additional expenses of a new church-building. The first, and earliest, Christians met in house-churches, which indicates that this was the way that the Holy Spirit (Love) guided them. They had regular gatherings of the spiritual family in homes and yards.

This they did, in fact, for the first four centuries of Christianity. It was only after the Great Corruption, in the fourth century-- after the Church had ceased to be a warm, loving family, and evolved instead into a cold, impersonal "institution" of wealth and politics-- that the first "church-building" was constructed. This was a purely human, organizational decision, not a spiritual one. It was utilitarian and corporat, almost in the modern sense, and was not guided or suggested by the original Spirit of Love. It involved huge sums of money, and pieces of real estate owned by the Church. Nowhere in history did it receive the blessings of God (Love). In fact, it was antiagapic, because it added to the pressure exerted against simple and poor people, placing a crushing burden on the poor, to have to pay for a church-building. Clearly, in countries with extreme poverty, such as India, the only Way that makes any sense is the one that takes burdens from the backs of the utterly poor. This makes the Way of Jesus easy, and his burden light, as he said. This implies a return to the original guidance given by the Holy Spirit-- coming together in humble homes. This prohibits the purchase of real estate by the official Church. For that inevitably creates a "political" structure within the Church, and that leads to handling of large sums of money, and to unavoidable dishonesties and corruption. The church of the Spirit of Love should be a warm family, not a corporation or cold institution. The guidance and bright ideals of the Spirit of Love have never changed, and will never change! These fine, noble ideals have been sadly neglected by the official organized Church, which as plunged the Church into economic disaster and moral catastrophe. Returning to these ideals of simplicity is the goal of the Pneumarium-movement among honest, simple people. Let us return to the original simplicity of our Lord, who taught on mountains, among fields of flowers, and beneath blue skies.
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