I've felt a growing desire to fellowship at home with other believers. I envision gatherings over nourishing meals where we share the word, study, and support one another. I won't call it a house church per se, but its been on my heart for two years now.
I'd like to hear your stories.
What led to you to join or form a house church?
What are the benefits of worshiping in an intimate setting?
What challenges have you faced thus far?
Do you miss traditional church?
For those who've lead a group, what would you recommend for first timers?
Thank you for sharing.
Yours in His Service,
~bella
Hi Bella,
I do oversee a Home Fellowship / Bible Study for over 12 years now.
Just thought I'd throw in my two cents and answer your questions.
I was asked by my Pastor at the time to teach a class, and when asked, I decided to do it out of my home instead of at the Church. The reason I did this, was it gave me some measure of insulation and autonomy from the establishment Church structure, while still providing a Church based supplement to the greater Church body, both the congregation I was with at the time and the entire Body of Christ. Since then it has grown and has members from three different local congregations plus an online following since we livestream our sessions now, as of late 2019.
The benefits of worshipping and studying together in an intimate setting are many. People grow much faster in smaller fellowships. We've grown very close in our prayer support and love for one another, and people are really invested and paying attention to the teaching and preaching. The closeness we have for one another can't be beat.
Challenges are few, because it is out of a home, financial needs are essentially eliminated, but one serious challenge was we had an infiltration by some people who came initially it seemed to be blessed and to bless the fellowship, but ended up being disruptive and very hurtful and wanted to take over the direction and everything else. Dis-fellowshipping them from us was a painful growing pain, and a lesson learned about who gets invited.
As to your question about missing traditional Church, no not at all, because every single person in our Fellowship is still an active and fruitful member of established congregations, in fact three different Churches, so we all go to a brick and mortar establishment Church, and we all come together in our house Church on Monday as well. My Scripture for the theme of our attitude towards it is
Acts 5:42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and preaching the good news of Jesus as the Christ.
So we all still go to Church, including myself, and we meet in my house on Mondays. Some of the group also meets in other home fellowships on different days of the week. This way, our Church culture is our life, and our lives are Church culture. Very little room for the world that way.
I would say to your point about not wanting a Bible Study might be challenged by Acts 5:42 above. The purpose for the meeting should be to teach and/or preach Jesus as the Christ.
We do a little praise and/or worship with some short praise or worship songs, pray, have Bible Study, occasionally we share communion with each other, and also, we do prayer requests. Then after it is over we have time for sharing and Fellowship and usually share a Fellowship snack, or in some instances share a Fellowship meal with one another. Everything except the sharing / fellowship meal is live streamed on our YouTube channel, if you want to ever check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DustinBlystone
God Bless you on your progress and your research and your pursuit of this unction, and that it would manifest into the beautiful group you are looking to gather and facilitate.
Your brother in Christ,
Dustin