Revolution, chapter 6

Barna writes about his observations of where and how God is working in people’s lives, identifying mini-movements as the prime source of transformation, including house churches in his list. In my opinion, most house churches do not share one of the five characteristics he attributes to these mini-movements.

Chapter 6 of Revolution is titled “God is active today”. Barna writes about his observations of where and how God is working in people’s lives. He starts out with the comment “There is nothing more affirming than knowing that God is active in the lives of those who seek His touch, and nothing more exciting than seeing the passion and enthusiasm of those people for the God who has revealed Himself in such personal and restorative ways.”. He searched for examples of such activity in local churches, but he was “stunned – and deeply disappointed – at how rare such instances were.”
He found more evidence of such examples in what he calls mini-movements, which include “simple church fellowships (house churches), biblical worldview groups, various marketplace ministries, several spiritual disciplines networks, the Christian creative arts guilds, and others.”
He describes why these mini-movements go mostly unnoticed, and in doing so starts to touch on the questioning and struggles which I missed in the earlier chapters. He then lists five aspects which make them effective in producing transformed lives:

  1. The mini-movements are generally working with people who are predisposed to focusing on their faith in God;
  2. The mini-movement emerges as a prime candidate for engendering such growth because it becomes an individual’s primary source of relationships;
  3. The intimacy experienced within the mini-movement facilitates a sense of exhilaration over the transformation.
  4. Clear group goals. Since these entities exist to encourage positive spiritual growth, their planned activities center on such results.
  5. Each of the mini-movements establishes its place in a person’s life through a very narrow focus – prayer, worship, worldview, musical expression, or whatever. However, that focus typically serves primarily as an entryway into the mind and heart of the individual. Often, once the person becomes immersed in the activity of the mini-movement, he or she is presented with a variety of spiritual challenges and opportunities that get blended into transformational activities.


In my opinion, house church or simple church does not fit this fifth observation; the aim is generally to be a holistic spiritual community encompassing many if not all aspects required for spiritual growth and maturity. As such, most have a very broad focus.