 |
What is a Home Church?
Aside from the obvious—meeting in homes—a home church is an
assembly of believers that covenant to meet together weekly to worship,
fellowship, study the Bible, preach the gospel, minister to one another
and pray. In this day and age of home-based businesses, home-school and
home-healthcare, this may seem like a new concept that is jumping on the
home-based bandwagon. However, this concept is quite old—in fact,
almost 2000 years old. The early churches of the New Testament started
out meeting in homes.
1 Corinthians 16:19
The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much
in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.
Colossians 4:15
Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church
which is in his house.
Philemon 1:2
And to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellowsoldier, and to the
church in thy house.
Today, there are many local churches that meet in homes. These believers
also hold each other mutually accountable for living the Christian life.
Within the home setting there is a strong sense of family, as well as
an opportunity for people to share their testimony, their joy, their sorrows
and even their needs. It's a safe place where you can open up and reveal
your true self. It's here that you'll find a special kind of Christian
fellowship that many have never known. This smaller, more intimate setting
promotes active participation on each person's part, encouraging all to
use their God-given gifts for the edification of the body (Ephesians 4:11-16,
1 Corinthians 14). It transforms spectators into participants, and hearers
into doers.
James 1:22
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your
own selves.
Anyone who has been in a healthy home church can attest to the intimacy
there and the closeness one feels to God and other believers. This is
no small matter, because it is often difficult for those of us who were
brought up with American traditions that are steeped in rugged individualism,
independence and pride to think of ourselves as a mere parts of a corporate
body (1 Corinthians 12:14-27). To admit dependence on someone other than
one's own self and resources is often viewed as a sign of weakness through
the world's eyes.
Please understand, and this can't be stressed enough, this is not to
say that large churches with buildings are wrong or somehow out of touch
with God, but simply that that was not the way it was at the beginning
of the Church. We believe that the Body of Christ is made up of believers
in churches with a variety of shapes and sizes, that are as diverse as
the individual believers that are in them. God wants unity, not uniformity
(1 Corinthians 12:4-6).
Not having a building, along with the mortgage, rent and/or maintenance
that goes with it, can actually been a blessing—both to the church
and to the ministries and people supported by it. This also means we have
no minimum membership requirement other than the "two or three and
Jesus". Imagine a handful of people and Jesus—that's something
to get out bed for on Sunday morning.
Matthew 18:20
"For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there
I am in their midst."
Home churches, as well as small (or cell) groups can provide the ideal
setting to:
- Bear one another's burdens. (Galations 6:2)
- Teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
(Colossians 3:16)
- Encourage and edify one another. (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
- Warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient
with everyone. (1 Thessalonians 5:14)
- Stimulate one another to love and good deeds. (Hebrews 10:24)
- Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that
you may be healed. (James 5:16)
|
