Note: This is a new category of articles that I am writing to encourage and resource those who have been facilitating/leading house churches. The entire series of articles is entitled: "Making Good House Churches Better." I want this to be useful (tools) as well as encouraging (inspiration). If you have suggestions for this series, please comment!
When People or Churches Feel Bogged Down
Sooner or later some, most, or all of the members of a house church will become dissatisfied with the gathering.
“It’s not worshipful enough.” “We seem to be in a rut.” “The needs of my children aren’t being met.” “We are not reaching out.” “We need to be more open with each other and closer.” “We don’t seem to be going anywhere.”
Sometimes, just verbalizing the longings or dissatisfactions are enough to catalyze the church to move in some new directions or make new commitments. The beauty of house church is that we can change course nearly instantaneously. We want to reach out more? Let’s plan something for next week! We want to focus more on the children? Let’s do it today!
Most house churches will benefit by simply making space for conversations about what is working and what is not working. Adjustments can be made and God will bring greater fruitfulness as a result.
Sometimes it requires digging deeper. There are times, though, when a church can benefit by taking a step back and asking itself, as a group, some good questions.
A Tool for Digging Deeper
Following is a church conversation that we find is useful to do regularly, sometimes as frequent as every six months:
1. We begin by reminding ourselves that “church” is about lifestyle. The normal Christian life is about everyday, 24/7, living and walking with Jesus. The gathering times are simply meant to support the lifestyle.
2. Secondly, we remind each other that no gathering is going to provide everything that we need to sustain our spiritual life. In fact, we each are responsible to determine what feeds and nurtures our relationship with God and seek multiple avenues to stay refreshed and grow. Sometimes our regular gatherings with our house church will meet many of those needs and sometimes only a few. We can find other avenues for refreshment and life!
3. Thirdly, we ask each person in the group to describe what need they would most want their gatherings to meet. It is good to make a list of everything that is shared and encourage people to really brainstorm. The list will include things like: prayer, prolonged worship, a safe place to be vulnerable and connect, bible study, a place to be with friends, a time where children are included. Hopefully everyone gets the chance to express what they most want out of their time together as a church family.
4. Finally, the group needs to work together at prioritizing this list. Obviously every gathering cannot meet the needs of every item on the list. A good question to ask is: “If we can only accomplish only one of these things on the list, what would we want it to be?” Hopefully, the church can come up with the top two or three.
5. Finally, the group can talk about how to best accomplish the top couple of priorities.
Important Note: These priorities will shift over time… sometimes quickly. This is one of the ways the Holy Spirit leads. Thus it can be so important and helpful for churches to update this entire process on a regular basis.
Comments
6 responses to “Making Good House Churches Better”
This is a good post. The small group I lead has gone through a bit of a dry time. This is just the stuff I needed to read.
I like the statement about lifestyle. I think that is very true. Every community has to be a lifestyle in order to maintain that bond of friendship.
I really enjoyed reading this. It is refreshing to hear the thoughts and experiences of others who are wrestling with the unique dynamics of a house church. Recently our church had a cookout at my house and one of my family members who was visiting commented on how very close our church friends were with one another; something they missed about their “traditional” church. I’m glad I found this blog. I look forward to reading through it and watching how things go along your journey. Grace & Peace – Jeff
This is fantastic! I’m so glad you’re here writing about these issues and giving this advice. We’re about to have one of this discussions tomorrow but this gives it extra shape and quality!
I agree that all of this is good information and is beneficial in saturating our cities with “a church on every block,” as I heard someone once say. I have also heard one person’s vision was to “have a church body within walking distance of every person on earth.” What a great vision! I believe house churches are the way to go to make this vision a reality. But, we still need to agree that the traditional church does function to benefit society and to grow the body of Christ for works of service. As long as we remember not to bad mouth our traditional churches but recognize that they are another venue where the body of Christ meets weekly, then we can work together to reach our world for Christ. Otherwise, the world will perceive that we cannot even love one another, much less sinners. So, lets celebrate house churches while still loving the brethren that meet in traditional settings. God Bless.
Be sure to visit my blog at http://www.anonymousdiscipleship.blogspot.com
Thank-you.
Maybe we need to look at what we are calling house church. We are still retaining the word “church.” The house is not the church. The ingredient of the early church was not based on where they met, but who they were in their relationship to Jesus.
Jesus forbid the early disciples to start without power. Whenever we don’t have power and life, we are forced to turn to form and the traditions of men. To have power is costly; to do so we must shun many things that threaten both the house church and the institutional church.
The early church understood the cross and how it affected their walk (Romans 5,6,7,8,) with Jesus and the body. They lost their lives, died to self, and died to sin. They lived a Christ-life and were thus called Christ-ians.
We have a sinner’s prayer instead of repentance and live out most of our lives out of self: self-interest, self-pity and selfish ambition.
Second, the early believers didn’t have all the division we see today. We have denomination, non-denominations, networks and streams… all taking the initiative to label Christ’s body with their own work. Such labeling has entrenched division rather than destroying it. Whenever we make a move without power, we must come up with something that can be accomplished without power… the works of men.
Today we raise up leaders from form and methods. The early church looked out for men and women with those who were filled with power and wisdom… I am not talking about a one time experience of speaking in tongues, I am talking about maturity, revelation and life coming from those bondslave-leaders who led and laid their lives down for the believers under their care.
Life begets life, while form begets form.
We come with the enticing words of wisdom; they came with power and life. We have meetings of sharing out of our experience; they came in the gifting and anointing of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 14:26; Rom 12:4-8; Eph 4:14-16). It was God building in the supernatural, not man building out of successful methods and agendas divorced from the rest of the body. Unity is costly! It cost us our place of authority, recognition, etc. in “our” group. In order to dodge the unity issue all we have to do is make it so abstract that it is impossible to find a beginning, thus leaving us to build under our unique names. What is wrong with starting with repentance and prayer?
Read the 7 letters to the church in Revelation and where do you think we are? At least they were one in the city. The scripture says, “where 2 or 3 are gathered in MY NAME…) not in the name of Baptist or Dove ministries or House church.
What is coming is something that man can not capitalize on. Something from the cry of the heart of men to God to build His called-out-ones so we can be one as He is one.
How dare we defy the prayer of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ?
“Now I plead with you, brethren, BY THE NAME OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be NO DIVISIONS among you…” 1 Cor 1:10
Can one find a stronger exhortation than a plea in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ?
Without God’s presence and power we are only going through various forms from men’s ideas on “how-to.”
If we don’t repent from our million ideas of restoration orchestrated by sincere men that are following the past patterns of men’s traditions and forms, we will wake up with more divisions and more competions.
While I was a institutional pastor we would get together and ask “how many in your church?” Today it is “How many churches have you raised up?”
Let’s admit were we are and repent and weep for Him!!! Let’s quit our false starts and wait on Him. Let’s rid ourselves of our labels and recognize there is only one name that will be lifted up… Jesus!
“Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes; let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, and the bride from her dressing room. Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar; let them say, “Spare Your people [many are sick and dying and in bondage], O Lord, and do not give Your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” Joel 2:15-17
We lost the name “Christian” from the world and the world now calls us hypocrites. The next movement will be a movement of the Holy Spirit in power and life coming from those weeping for the restoration of His body… it is called the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days. Let’s make sure we have oil.
Hi Andy,
I love having your prophetic challenges here. I have an Andy Z quote (don’t know where I got it) that I make use of frequently:
“We have an obsession for form. We find some new truth and we quickly create a form. In the past 41 years I have experienced every form possible, all of which is designed to replace the life and power of God…
If there is a method in the NT church, it would be one based on life: humility, brokenness, love and faith.
Paul didn’t build… churches… He built a Jesus movement.”
Wholeheartedly agree, roger