Here's the latest from the weekly meetings that Pastor Rodney has been having with our house church leaders- and potential house church leaders. Cutting-and-pasting from his ultra-secret email here:
We began by talking about your perception of what the house churches are supposed to be doing, which was:
* Fellowship
* Deeper Bible study following the sermons on Sunday
* Outlet for Ministry
* Neighborhood Outreach
* Prayer
* Community Building
You said that they should be organic with natural seasons and change.
We moved then into talking about the Biblical outline for house churches- everything that you see happening in "church" in Acts would have been in houses. We talked about the nature of the Church being naturally relationship-driven. The early Church was called Followers of the Way because lived a certain way, not because they worshiped in a building on Sundays.
Wolfgang Simpson defines the nature of the Church this way: "...the prophetic way followers of Christ live their everyday life in spiritual extended families as a vivid answer to the questions that society asks, and in the place it counts the most- in their homes.
We moved then into talking about the Biblical outline for house churches- everything that you see happening in "church" in Acts would have been in houses. We talked about the nature of the Church being naturally relationship-driven. The early Church was called Followers of the Way because lived a certain way, not because they worshiped in a building on Sundays.
Wolfgang Simpson defines the nature of the Church this way: "...the prophetic way followers of Christ live their everyday life in spiritual extended families as a vivid answer to the questions that society asks, and in the place it counts the most- in their homes.
He also makes this statement in Houses that Change the World: "The Church must become small to grow big."
If we hold to that kind of definition of church, then our house churches will necessarily become much more of a crux of ministry around which the rest of the church is built. Jesus said in Matthew 28 that our singular purpose is to make disciples of people. The responsibility for disciple-making then falls on the house churches, not on "big church". We don't expect that one worship service a week will produce naturally reproductive followers of the Way. That only comes through deeper relationships built in small groups of people walking in the powerful gifting God gives.
We talked about the 3 main modes by which we will build the house churches and in effect, disciples of Christ.
* Hospitality
* Evangelism
* Discipleship
We talked about each of these individually, spending a great deal of time developing the idea of evangelism within the house church, placing much emphasis on spending time building relationships within neighborhoods and communities over time. There is still room for events- cookouts, parties, etc..., but the greater amount of emphasis should be placed on simply knowing people and being known (obviously including your faith). We talked about the idea that most often people turn to Christ out of desperation or through some crisis event when they realize that they need someone. As Christ has given us the authority to carry the Gospel into our neighborhoods and the ends of the earth, it is then there already when they are faced with their moment of crisis. So, the house churches must become oriented around getting into relationships within the communities in which they live and taking the Gospel to people. Again, the large worship service cannot be the vehicle for creating disciples. The weight of that falls on the individual relationships formed through the church being active in its own neighborhoods.
Finally, we spent a bit of time talking about how to connect house churches back to a larger church of house churches with a vision for Birmingham. We talked about the ability of a small house church to connect with people in a way that a larger group cannot and the inability of that same small group to accomplish some of the larger goals and ministry opportunities it comes across. Therein lies the place for connection of house churches into one larger church- to accomplish goals as a unit that individually we cannot, as well as to celebrate the change we see in smaller house church groups as a whole. So, the connecting points for all of the house churches then come in corporate worship and joint ministry under one vision for the same city.
We talked about each of these individually, spending a great deal of time developing the idea of evangelism within the house church, placing much emphasis on spending time building relationships within neighborhoods and communities over time. There is still room for events- cookouts, parties, etc..., but the greater amount of emphasis should be placed on simply knowing people and being known (obviously including your faith). We talked about the idea that most often people turn to Christ out of desperation or through some crisis event when they realize that they need someone. As Christ has given us the authority to carry the Gospel into our neighborhoods and the ends of the earth, it is then there already when they are faced with their moment of crisis. So, the house churches must become oriented around getting into relationships within the communities in which they live and taking the Gospel to people. Again, the large worship service cannot be the vehicle for creating disciples. The weight of that falls on the individual relationships formed through the church being active in its own neighborhoods.
Finally, we spent a bit of time talking about how to connect house churches back to a larger church of house churches with a vision for Birmingham. We talked about the ability of a small house church to connect with people in a way that a larger group cannot and the inability of that same small group to accomplish some of the larger goals and ministry opportunities it comes across. Therein lies the place for connection of house churches into one larger church- to accomplish goals as a unit that individually we cannot, as well as to celebrate the change we see in smaller house church groups as a whole. So, the connecting points for all of the house churches then come in corporate worship and joint ministry under one vision for the same city.
Actually, this has been updated into an even more secret email that hasn't been released yet (to the "general" public)...I can let you in on one portion: "Evangelism" on the list above, has been changed to "Missions"
Posted by: Sasha | June 09, 2009 at 06:37 PM