Personal Growth - In Church, Home Church

[ninelives]

Hi,

I am curious about others who have been in both settings, church and home church. How has your spiritual and mental wellbeing been effected.

:preach: :groupray:

Everyone's experience is different I'm sure. Some may like a community church while others like home church.

Having said that, I can say that I have seen a huge growth in my own Biblical learning and understanding since doing the home thing. My relationship with God is much better. I have noticed that church community members in my area seem to look down on anyone not in a church, thus I've received a lot of negative attitude from them.

I would like to hear from you. :)

[watchman7]

My experience has been very similar. Home church has less distractions which contributes to a close walk with Christ. I have received many negative responses from the "churched" Christians for 17 years. We should pray for them and we should pray for the those of the home church. We should not return negative reaction to the "churched". The experience of home church has overwhelming outweighed the negative responses. I believe we learn to seek God's will instead the will of a person or group in an organization that may have other agendas. I had been a past member of the "churched " for 14 years. I know how it is. I believe this forum gives us an opportunity to explain and answer questions of the "churched". I have stated in other threads that I do not like the term given us "unchurched". We are Christ's Church.

[Johnnz]

We have been part of a home church for sevral years. It's great. The degree of relationship, the relevance to daily living in what we work through as Christians, the support and friendship we provide is far in excess of what any of us received in a traditional church setting.

I have looked at church history, and the way the church began evolving into the patterns we have today is interesting. The NT church was far more organic than our religious institutions.

John
NZ

[ninelives]

It's true, any advancement with Him far outweighs any negativity one could receive. It bothers me that Christians tend to put 'the body' into a box. I have been guilty of that myself, but the way things happened for me was a real eye opener. A little study into church history blew me away.

I am apparently the type of person who is too complacent when in a community setting.

[watchman7]

In my experience, I have found many Christians in the traditional church to be suspicious of what they do not understand and to disregard what they have not experienced. All they know and all they have been accustomed to is the traditional church setting and what someone has told them what to believe. This results in their errant response to those of the home church. They do not understand the reason they feel threatened by fellow Christians who choose a different form of assmbly.
Much spiritual growth in Christ is sacrificed in the distractions of the traditional church setting. The home church is much more personal and relaxed.
Regardless of the place of assembly, we as the Body of Christ should pray, study the Bible and seek to make application of His Life within us.
We should reach out to the "churched" and pray for unity within the Body. The home church is not going away except when Christ returns to take us up.