How To Empower Believers?

How To Empower Believers?

I really respect what Francis Chan did, to step down from the pulpit and returned to the book of Acts ----- house churches where it is not led by one-man leadership, but the authority of the Scriptures through fellow believers' togetherness and deeper study of the Word through discussion. This results in TRUE empowerment of the New Covenant ----- where believers stop looking to the preacher or the man of God, but they turn to the God of Man and grow in the Word.

Therein lies a difficult question:

How can a non-house church produce the same outcome ----- empowering believers to look to Christ and have the deep hunger to go after truth in the Word?

1) Don't tell me about Christ-centred preaching. I've been attending a Christ-centred preaching church, but though the preacher always said "Look to Jesus alone!", the majority still looks to the preacher as though his preaching is the Word of God.

2) Don't tell me about having a team of preachers and having them in rotation. Because one or two preachers will definitely stand out better than the rest, and the same history will repeat itself.

3) Don't tell me about teaching the people to study the Word on their own, because this has been taught since donkey years, but people will still look to the preacher for the interpretation of the Word.

4) I thought of how preachers can open up for anyone to scrutinize and challenge what is preached by the healthy discussion of the Word, but as good Singaporeans, this can hardly take place because we don't dare to challenge authority.

I know it is easy to just say, "Stop the institutional church and go back to house churches in the book of Acts." But I really wonder how we can do it in a non-house church setting, since God can still use/redeem that.

This is a genuine post, because I have been discussing with others how we can truly empower believers in the New Covenant.

P.S: It is not a house church just because covid-19 is here and a few church members gather at a home (before CB was introduced) to watch a church service with someone preaching. That's not the definition of a true house church, in case some are confused with the term. For I have heard and read that some churches said, "We are returning to the book of Acts' kind of house churches". That is not the same by the way.

P.P.S: I think this is needed because worse events than covid-19 will take place and we need to be ready for what is to come, including persecution.