In rediscovering the gospel of salvation by faith and grace alone, Luther started to reform the Church through a reformation of theology. In the 18th century through movements like the Moravians there was a recovery of a new intimacy with God, which led to a reformation of spirituality, the Second Reformation. Now God is touching the wineskins themselves, initiating a Third Reformation, a reformation of structure.
4. From Church-Houses to house-churches
Since New Testament times, there is no such thing as "a house of God". At the cost of his life, Stephen reminded unequivocally: God does not live in temples made by human hands. The Church is the people of God. The Church, therefore, was and is at home where people are at home: in ordinary houses. There, the people of God:
- Share their lives in the power of the Holy Spirit,
- Have "meatings," that is, they eat when they meet,
- They often do not even hesitate to sell private property and share material and spiritual blessings,
- Teach each other in real-life situations how to obey God's word, dialogue, not professor-style,
- Pray and prophesy with each other, baptize, `lose their face' and their ego by confessing their sins,
- Regaining a new corporate identity by experiencing love, acceptance and forgiveness.
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