Bless This House

Did it start with Christian community groups in Latin America? Or the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church, which utilized the concept to make it one of the fastest growing religious organizations in the world? “Home churching”--holding religious services in people’s houses--is coming to L.A. “People today want to be more intimately involved in their spiritual growth,” says Rev. Michael Beckwith of the Culver City-based Agape Church of Religious Science. “Folks are craving a sense of intimacy and community that’s hard to experience while worshiping in a crowd of 800.” In June, Beckwith, who started his 5,000-active member-church in his living room 12 years ago, will launch a series of home-based “cell group” services. Composed of 10 to 20 congregants, the groups will gather on their own once a month to share insights on recent Sunday sermons. And while discussing Deuteronomy in a den may appeal to some, don’t look for a rash of religious groups encouraging such higher power house calls. Says Beckwith: “It’s a little threatening for many churches to admit that God can still be found, even when a minister or a stained-glass building can’t be.”