About CFH

About CFH

  Hello, my name is Monty Dicksion.  I have started this project which I am calling “Church for Homebounds.” (CFH)

  I first began constructing the blog site that is currently being used for this project in May of 2018.  Its first day of being “on-the-air,” you might say, was June 3, 2018.  But the first idea for this project had its original beginning as far back as the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008.

  I want to keep this description of Church for Homebounds as brief as possible and not overwhelm the reader with an avalanche of words.  But the possibilities that this project opens up are amazingly vast, and difficult, if not impossible, to convey in a few brief words.

  From the very start, I must say this:

  I am a firm believer that a true Christian will genuinely and longingly want to attend a local church and, more than that, will have a strong desire to become a member of a local congregation.  That is one of the chief marks of a true Christian.  True Christianity is not something that the true Christian will want to do all alone and in isolation.  In fact, the Bible definitely does not endorse what is often described as “Lone Ranger Christianity.”

  This project does not intend to promote church non-attendance in any way.  As a matter of fact, one of the practices of this project is to highlight announcements that we find of people becoming members of various local congregations, in order to celebrate their incorporation into the church of their choice.

  All the same, this project recognizes that there will always be a segment of the Christian population who are not attending a local church for any number of reasons.

  What are those reasons?

  I spent easily a year researching the reasons people have for not attending church.  We can all know that many of those reasons are poor excuses and are not valid.

  At the same time, there are also many people who have perfectly valid reasons why they are not attending a local church.  There are a whole lot of reasons why someone might be just plain unable to attend a church.  One of the ways I know that is because I am one of those people.

  When someone who is a Christian is unable to attend a local church, the overwhelming tendency is for churches to neglect them.  Even worse, churches are far too often prone to lay the blame on the non-attendee, and to make the charge that the person is wrongly trying to do Christianity solo.

  However, in many cases, the truth is that there are many people who are not attending a church for perfectly valid reasons through no fault of their own.

  This, then, is the main reason that I started this project, and I sum it up by saying again that, despite our feelings about church non-attendance, there are Christians out there in the world who, for whatever reason, are not attending church, even though they would dearly love to.  Church for Homebounds is intended to minister to the needs of just such people.

  The possibilities for this project – which is intended to serve as a ministry to Christians not attending a local church – are too numerous for me to list here.  But this is where I need to describe another resource that this project uses:

  It is one of the main complaints made by many – if not most – church leaders that many people think that true Christianity can be done by simply watching a church service on TV or online.  And I wholeheartedly agree that such a practice is not true Christianity IF that is the extent of the person’s participation.  BUT, merely viewing a church service does not have to be all there is to it.  More than that, it does not have to be a solo event.

  Let me explain:

  The complaint many church leaders make is that people are just watching a church service alone in isolation, and not attending a church even though they could.  And to a large extent, it’s true.  People do do that.  I have known people who do that.  Therefore, the complaint is that the lone Christians have no accountability to any church at all.

  Well – it doesn’t have to be that way.

  First, people can gather in groups to watch a church service.  In fact, people are already doing that with the full endorsement of the church itself.  What do I mean?  Well, there are many churches that transmit their services to other locations on their campus or to satellite campuses.  In just the same way, individuals could gather together to share in the viewing of a church service – if they wanted to.

  But, if they could do that, why would they not simply gather together at the church itself?  One or two possible scenarios why they wouldn’t are conceivable.  But still, the situation this project hopes to address is to serve the people who cannot get together with others.

  So the second thing is that there is a way to do that.  This project has been utilizing Skype as the means to do that.  Likely, in the future, Zoom will be used instead.  With this videoconferencing app, people can talk to each other and see one another live and in real time.  In this way, we can become acquainted.  We can study the Bible together.  We can look forward to seeing each other each week.  AND we can organize plans for serving the community in which each of us happens to live.

  Best of all, we can have an outreach impact that is truly worldwide, much further beyond what is possible for the isolated local churches.

  Lastly, and probably most importantly, those Christians who are otherwise stranded as shut-ins or homebounds, will no longer be neglected.

  There are drawbacks, of course.  For example, as it is often said, “you can’t download the Lord’s Supper.”  That’s a big drawback, to be sure, and it is a legitimate one.  Plus, there are many others, ranging from baptisms to hugs.  Are there solutions to these sorts of drawbacks?  Who knows?  We can work together to see if we can solve these obstacles.

  So then – How to use Church for Homebounds:

  The Skype (or Zoom) sessions are intended to serve the same function as the pre-worship-service small group meetings/Bible study/Sunday School classes that are held in virtually all churches each and every Sunday.  I act as the moderator.  Instructions on how to join in on the sessions are on the home page of this blog.

  Make the most of these videoconferencing sessions.  I realize that people have privacy concerns.  But, just as it would be if we were all meeting together at one location, no private information needs to be revealed.  However, the goal is to achieve the highest degree of fellowship possible while minimizing anonymity.  Anonymity is contrary to the goals of this project, just as it is of true Christianity itself.

  Next, when I originally started this project, I was constructing videos which were intended to simulate typical live Protestant church services, consisting of pre-recorded choir performances, congregational hymn singing, scripture reading and even worship service organ preludes and postludes.

  The highlight of the simulated services were videos I put together using the audio of sermons delivered by the late Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, which are available from the Martyn Lloyd-Jones Trust website.  My desire for the worship service videos was for them to seem as real as possible to a homebound viewer.  Indeed, even singing along with the hymns is perfectly possible.

  In addition, I was transcribing each of the sermons.

  Then I posted the videos at two different times of the day on Sundays so that homebound viewers could watch them in exactly the same way that they would attend morning and evening worship services if they had the ability to get out and actually attend a church of their choice.

  I would interject this:  I recognize that a person might have a particular church broadcast that they like to watch.  But I also know this:  I’ve done that myself.  As much as I have liked doing that, it always falls short in terms of putting the viewer in actual real contact with the church itself.  The Church for Homebounds project overcomes that shortfall.

  I was forced to discontinue both the constructing of the videos and the transcribing of the sermons due to the fact that they took far more time for me to create than I was able to devote.

  Nevertheless, I feel strongly that Church for Homebounds is desperately needed.  In the event that this project gains popularity, I would be more than happy to resume constructing the videos and transcribing the sermons.

  Meanwhile, in lieu of the worship service videos, I am providing a link to each relevant Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermon.  Thanks to the extensive efforts of the Martyn Lloyd-Jones Trust, it is possible to exactly coordinate the current date with the historic date on which the sermon was actually delivered.  As Dr. Lloyd-Jones was one of the outstanding preachers/teachers of our time, I highly encourage anyone to still avail themselves of his sermons, which are still as relevant today as they were when he delivered them.

  At the same time, I am pleased to say, that we are still able to join together for live discussion and Bible study sessions via the videoconferencing software mentioned above.  For anyone who is interested in joining these sessions, I provide a link on the Home Page.  The sessions are each Sunday, just as they would be at a local church.

  Now, with Church for Homebounds, no longer are the homebounds and the shut-ins of the Body of Christ neglected or without a means to fellowship with one another.

  I apologize for the length of this overview of Church for Homebounds.  But I think you can see, it is a very complex and very ambitious project.

  I hope you will find this project to be useful.  And I hope that it will at least partly be personally fulfilling to anyone who chooses to join in.

  Thank you for reading.