20. Belonging to a “home group”

 

 

Acts 5: 42  -   Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.

 

Sunday morning services are congregational meetings, where a large crowd gathers to worship God and be ministered to by the leaders / elders  -  Acts 20: 7-8.

This type of meeting serves a definite purpose, but is by far the least effective way of working out our covenant relationships and maturing practically in our faith.

 

A major part of Jesus’ ministry was conducted in homes:

                Mk.1: 29-34  -  healing and delivering many;

                Luke 10: 38-42  -  teaching;

                John 12:1-3  -  socialising with believers;

                Matt. 9:10-13  -  evangelising;

                Matt.13: 36  -  discipling;

                Matt. 26:17-30  -  worshipping.

 

The church (consisting of Christians, not a building) meeting in homes is the most practical and functional representation of  Christianity. There are many references to the “church that meets in homes”:

                  Lydia, Acts 16:14-15;

                  Priscilla and Aquila, Acts 18: 26, Rom.16: 3-5, 1Cor.16:19;

                  Philemon, Philem. 2;

                  Nympha, Col. 4:15.

 

In the book of  Acts (the record of the birth of the church) the home was the most commonly referred to gathering of the church:

                Acts 2:2  -  the day of Pentecost;

                Acts 5: 42  -  teaching and evangelising;

                Acts 8: 3  -  an attempt to destroy the church, not going to a central location, but going from house to house;

                Acts 10: 33, 43-48  -  the conversion of the first gentiles;

                Acts 20: 20  -  Paul’s ministry was conducted publicly and in houses.

 

It is only in a home group meeting that we can:

                  properly work out and grow in our relationships with each other;

                  find our place in the Body, as we discover and use the gifts and ministries God anoints us with;

                  practise Body ministry  -  1Cor.14: 26, Col. 3:16-17.

 

In our church we place a high value on home group meeting. Our vision is, that each person in the church would be a part of a home group. We see some groups as a place where:

                caring and shepherding takes place;

                maturing in God occurs;

                the community is impacted with the gospel;

                each group has a vision to multiply by dividing into two groups, and in so doing new leaders are raised up and new groups can care for more people; the optimum size of a group is 12 – 15 people; thereafter, multiplication is imminent.