WPHC
WPHC stands for Walden Park House Church. It's more of a memory than a reality these days.
When I moved my family into a new neighborhood named Walden Park back in 2007 I believed that every neighborhood should have at least one home that opened its door to Christ-centered fellowship. The builder built 120 homes and although some of the familes that moved in around us expressed some dissatisfaction with their church shopping, ultimately it seemed that i was the only one in the neighborhood who had a preference for unconventional house church.
So we opened our home to others from Rock Hill, SC, Tega Cay, SC, and Charlotte, NC. Most of us were disenchanted with the conventional church and had found some hope for a type of church life that was more authentic, more simple, dynamic, unpredictable, relational, and organic. Most of us had read books like Pagan Christianity, Reimagining the Church, and So You Don't Want to go to Church Anymore. We all had fresh wounds inflicted by the machinery of various conventional churches and we all were able to help one another heal those wounds into scars. Our meetings went on for a year or more, served some very good purposes, and ended in Spring 2010. When we were faced with the choice over taking the next step from a totally informal fellowship to something more closely resembling a New Testament ekklesia, the consensus of the group was to disband amicably.
For now we're finding fellowship twenty miles away from our home with a few other families who are evangelical in their views and keen on homeschooling.
I miss much of the dynamic of the three house churches we've been a part of over the years. Honestly there are some serious challenges that I don't miss struggling with too. However, I still like the idea of enjoying an unconventional, New-Testament styled fellowship that recaptures *some* of Acts 2, 1 Thess 1, and 1 Cor 11-14, for example. If you like that idea too and live around Fort Mill, SC, perhaps strike up a conversation with me. Email Chris at:
cthaun[at-symbol]hotmail[dot]com.
You can read some of my old thoughts on trying to recover some of the New Testament characteristics of ekklesia at http://rethinker.net/ekklesia. And although I disagree with a few minor points, here is a FREE book on house church that I have high regards for:
House Church: Simple, Strategic, Scriptural
Key search words:
Fort Mill SC Fort Mill South Carolina Rock Hill Tega Cay Charlotte North Carolina