There's no place like home, these Christians say
Small gatherings in believers' houses are attended by 1 in 11 U.S. adults, a survey finds. Compared with huge church services, it's 'like a conversation. It's somebody talking to you,' one devotee say
By David Haldane
Times Staff Writer
July 23, 2007

Jason Kilp had a short commute to church one recent Sunday. He walked about 15 feet from the bedroom of his Anaheim apartment to a small worship service in the living room.

"It's intimate," the 24-year-old graphic design student said. Unlike gatherings he and his wife have attended at a 4,000-member mega-church in Irvine, Kilp said, "this is like a conversation. It's somebody talking to you."

The couple are part of a growing movement, mostly among evangelical and born-again Christians, that, depending on who's talking, represents either a second Protestant reformation or a sellout of biblical principles.

The trend goes by several names: house churches, living-room churches, the underground church, the organic church, the simple church, church without walls. Although they disagree on whether it's a good thing, proponents and detractors say that going to church in a home has the potential of forever changing the way Christians worship. the rest