quote for today

okay, pet issue of the day: small groups and the church. over on the left there, under the "links" section, you'll see a couple of interesting things, including connections to Mark Palmer's blog and Kevin Raines' blog, and a link to Quest Columbus (not qwest the communications company gone belly-up). These are good people doing and reporting on amazing things happening for the Kingdom through small groups of believers who, like the believers in Acts, are committed to sharing life together, not just getting together for a meeting. And here are some good quotes: "It is interesting, however, that the church was in their home. Lightfoot says that there were no church buildings as such before the third century. Since Lightfoot made that statement, however, archaeologists found a most interesting place in Rome. Roman houses--unless they were the great mansions--were relatively small. What archaeologists found was a place with the facade of two houses still untouched, but with the internal walls torn out to make a larger room. And from everything that was found there, the archaeologists believe that this was a church building. This structure is dated at the end of the second century. But whether one accepts Lightfoot's starting point in the third century, or whether one dates it at the end of the second century, it really makes no difference. There is no biblical norm as to where, and where not, the church should meet. The central fact is that the early concept of the church had no connection with a church building. The church was something else: a group of Christians drawn together by the Holy Spirit in a place where they worked together in a certain form..." --Francis Schaeffer, The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century "If you had asked, 'Where is the church?' in any important city of the ancient world where Christianity had penetrated in the first century, you would have been directed to a group of worshiping people gathered in a house. There was no special building or other tangible wealth with which to associate 'church', only people!" --Walter Oetting, The Church of the Catacombs "You mistakenly think we conceal what we worship since we have no temples or altars. Yet how can anyone make an image of God? Man himself is the image of God. How can anyone build a temple to Him, when the whole world can't contain Him? Even I, a mere human, travel far and wide. So how can anyone shut up the majesty of so great a Person within one small building? Isn't it better for Him to be dedicated in our minds and consecrated in our innermost hearts--rather than in a building?" --Marcus Felix, as quoted in Octavius from the 2nd Century A.D.