First Online Mentoring Session
On that same day, I'm excited to say, we also saw a new house church birthed here in the Seattle area - Kent, actually. The house church had been conceived some time ago as a Bible Study for those in "recovery." Last night the group decided to go ahead and become a house church, which is pretty huge given that the founding members were all long-time out of church and wanted nuttin' to do with church (I'd call them somewhere between wanderers and nomads). In any event, it was an excellent day.
I received a very interesting article about house church yesterday that I want to share a part of. It was an article about the movement in India and I thought it was inspiring. Hopefully, you will too:
In 2003, I received training from an IMB [International Mission Board] missionary who told us how he used this technique to see incredible response where there was no response before,” Hunter said. “In little more than a year, 30 believers in an area with no churches became 10,000 new believers and 906 small groups.
“Since that time, we have been seeing many Hindus come to Christ and new house churches started by new believers. The new believer is transformed into a multiplying trainer by using very simple concepts that can be passed on from new believer to new believer.”
I find it amazing what can happen in one short year when people are discipled [trained] as opposed to "educated" [filled with theology and other "knowledge" about God, rather than in obedience to God]. If you want to read the whole article (and it's pretty fascinating) go to: http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=22193.
2 Comments:
Today is the first day of the new House Church. What are we going to do differently than we have been? I expect only a few tonight, for various reasons. I thought we might start a prayer journal. I also want to know how the finances work. My husband and I have a commitment to tithe and we are still trying to identify appropriate avenues that honor God and Jesus Christ. JS
JoAnne, I've been to your home church and the fact is, there's not much to do differently. It's not like there's a "formula" or a "program" that makes a house church legitimate. House Church is more about being than about doing.
Financially, some house churches put an offering basket out and use the offerings for whatever need is pressing whenever there is a need (see Acts 4:34 for an example of how finances were used in the early church). We put our funds in the bank and use them for a variety of purposes - we help each other, we help others in our house church network, we support a couple of missions in Africa, and we do benevolent work in our community (help the indigent, but always in the name of Jesus - never anonymously: it's about giving God the glory, not just being nice).
If you're going to tithe, use your money to do good things in Jesus' name. Get involved in some ministry, whether through your business or with another organization including your own house church (and remember, your business is a ministry - ask yourselves how you can tweak it to be a Christian testimony).
Post a Comment
<< Home