I've given some consideration to what I believe is an appropriate framework for believers in a house church setting who are serious about fulfilling the Great Commission. I'm talking about people who are serious about preaching the Gospel to all people, and making disciples, who choose to embrace a church life that is closer in form and hopefully in power to that of the early Christian church.
It can be argued that the Early Church had a primary emphasis on home based meetings and a secondary emphasis on larger meetings which were conducted if and when public forums such as the temple were available (see Acts 2, Acts 4). Large meetings are ideal for many people to be “hearers of the Word” given by an anointed preacher, while smaller meetings are ideal for people to be “doers of the Word” - in particular obeying all the “one another” Scriptures in the New Testament – love one another, exhort one another, receive one another, honor one another, serve one another and so on. Large meetings presuppose a dichotomy between ministers and consumers of spiritual ministry, in smaller meetings, all believers might be able to minister – or at least all can reveal what is in their hearts and appropriate ministry can happen for individuals.
The New Testament, while emphasising the hearing of the Word preached, and its many benefits, such as producing FAITH (see Romans 10:17), puts and even HIGHER emphasis on DOING the Word, as this can be the expression of LOVE. The Word can also be preached in smaller church settings, producing faith in the hearers, and this opens up the practical possibility of TRAINING new preachers. Hearing only does not produce lasting faith – we must give legs to our convictions, as it is good if this can also be done as part of church life together, rather than only when we are “out there” in the world as salt and light hopefully demonstrating the character and power of God.
Here then, are some of the key elements I believe are important for a house church
1. Weekly home meetings
In my understanding, every believer should ideally be involved in a number of WEEKLY meetings in which we EXHORT ONE ANOTHER.
Heb 10:25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
Heb 3:13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called "TODAY," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
This is really different to the conept of "connect groups", "life groups" etc that generally meet fortnightly so as to accommodate people's "busy schedules". How can a fortnightly meeting, possibly orientated around something besides discipleship in Christ truly be helpful in producing committed disciples?
They might be helpful in keeping some superficial relationships vaguely alive, providing relational glue to keep people coming to the "main event" of a Sunday "celebration", but they cannot adequately serve the purpose of producing red-hot disciples of Jesus. Disciples of Jesus who passionately love one another and love God will want to meet MORE often, not less often. People who want a church life with a low level of commitment will always have plenty of options. But we are in a spiritual warfare, with life or death consequences of an eternal nature, and we need all the help we can get. The love we have for Jesus cannot be correctly measured by the loudness of our music or the "radical" nature of the professions we make while singing to God. The love we have for Jesus can be more accurately measured by our willingness to give up our most precious asset, OUR TIME, in activities that are geared to helping others and building them up in faith.
The Scriptures urge us:
"but exhort one another DAILY, while it is called "TODAY," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. " (Hebrews 3:13)
If the Scripture says "daily" I don't think fortnightly fellowship meetings around common interests will cut it. Not for a serious house church movement anyway. Such meetings are more like a "vaccination" against real church life. It is a very watered down weakened version of what we are looking for, which might be enough for people who don't really want to get down to business with God quite yet.
2. A Believer's Meeting Where All Come Prepared
1Co 14:26 How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.
According to this verse, when believers come together everyone has something to give. We have to LET all these things be done. If leaders don't LET them happen, they won't happen, and the leaders are in disobedience to God's Word here.
In discussing the various gifts and ministries that should be operating in the Body of Christ, the Bible speaks in Romans 12:8 of "he who leads" and so there IS a gift of leadership in the Body of Christ. God has always worked through leaders and ministries which don't want human leadership never go anywhere. A believer's meeting should therefore have a God-appointed human leader whose goal is to get everyone to bring forth that which the Holy Spirit is giving through them.
In order for this to work, believers should come to meetings prepared. We must walk with God throughout the day, we must seek God's anointing privately before we can minister something life-giving in the power of the Holy Spirit at a home meeting. God is not in favour of having spiritually lazy people take up time in the meetings with things that don't edify - things of "flesh". Jesus said in John 6, "The words that I speak to you are spirit and life" and also, "the flesh profits nothing". Therefore, people who seek to follow Jesus and be imitators of God should seek God before the meeting so that they have something from the Spirit to give. If they are giving a teaching, it is often a good thing for them to have prepared notes. They should at least have an idea of what they are going to say.
Also, everyone should understand that they should be aiming for high impact ministry in a small time period. If 20 people come together and minister for an average of 6 minutes each, we already have 120 minutes - 2 hours - that will be used in this kind of ministry. And realistically, other things such as comments by the leader will increase the time that this kind of meeting will take.
Everyone should be part of a believer's meeting, so that they can receive from the Body of Christ, and also supply something to the Body of Christ.
3. A Prayer Meeting
We need strong united prayer meetings once a week if we are serious about seeing God's blessing. There should be a meeting entirely devoted to prayer. We can't just fit prayer snippets into a believer's meeting and call that effective united prayer.
From time to time corporate fasting would be encouraged in order to strengthen and intensify the prayer of the believers towards achieving certain goals in prayer. The main idea is to weaken the flesh and open the door for God's correction to come so that all roadblocks to effective prevailing prayer are removed. Fasting for the purpose of self-humbling can be a useful means by which sin which was previously unrecognised can be exposed.
4. Evangelistic Meetings or House Church Plant Meetings
Everyone who desires to be a leader whose life is conforming to the qualifications for eldership can have a platform to do so. In addition to being part of a believer's meeting, most everyone should be involved in helping plant a new home church meeting. The "planter" or "evangelist" becomes the leader of this new meeting, which should evolve into a a new "believer's meeting" over time. It might begin as a Bible study in the house of a new believer or enquirer, and evolve from there. Obviously, the evangelist/planter will need the support of the "mother group" and possibly the leader of that mother group will assist the new leader in getting the group started, as required. Otherwise, perhaps another person or couple from the group could assist in the outreach plan. So a group of 25 adult Christians might have 4 to 6 daughter groups being worked on at any time.
This is really an exercise in church planting, and requires a commitment to evangelism as the Spirit of God leads. And the Spirit of God IS leading us to preach the gospel and make disciples if we have repented of our sins, what is not always certain is whether we are hearing God.
The evangelist should prepare himself for this ministry with MUCH PRAYER and be ready to cast out demons, heal the sick and lead people to Christ in Jesus' name.
From the initial evangelism phase the meeting will develop into a meeting for encouragement and consolidation of the new believers. As these new believers are baptized, filled with the Holy Spirit and taught how to hear God's voice, they themselves will become ready for training in evangelism.
5. Children's Ministry
Pro 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Deu 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Deu 6:6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
Deu 6:7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Gen 18:19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.
Special care and attention should be given to the needs of children. Parents have a primary role in the training of their own children, but the whole church really will be needed to give the best possible teaching and training for the children. The responsibility should be shared between as many people as possible, so that no one person is overburdened.
At times, children over the age of 12 can join in at time with the adults, while at other times special meetings andprogrammes would be arranged for them which could run in parallel with home church meetings. Different programs are needed for infants and young children, and every group needs to be flexible and adapt to the needs.
There should be a place for fun and there should be a place for seriously doing business with God. Christian videos, activities of various kind, and games all can have their place.
Every group of home churches should be free to develop their own strategy for ministering to children and free to borrow from other sources. Combined events for congregations of children and combined events for congregations of youth should be organised as the Lord leads.
6. Large Combined Meetings
Large meetings and combined meetings have a place, but should never become a substitute for the kind of church life that is only possible in a smaller meeting, one with say up to 40 people involved. Sometimes a special speaker comes through and many house churches can come together to hear that speaker. We see this in Acts 20:7
Act 20:7 And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.
We know on this occasion Paul preached for such a long time through the night that one man fell asleep and out of the window. So there are occasions when we need to give significant times to a preacher. Sometimes it is needed in order to achieve certain kinds of spiritual results.
Some home groups could develop into larger meetings as well, depending on the suitability of the venue, and the ability to avoid trouble with local councils and so on.
Large meetings might be held fortnightly or more often depending on the way the Spirit of God is moving. At large meetings various home church leaders could also give reports.
The weekly prayer meetings would hopefully become large meetings. Multiple house churches could combine for the prayer meetings also.
The Use of Money
One of the main advatantages of this model is that is does not really require much money for the propagation and multiplication of church meetings.
However Christians should still be encouraged to give. Paul encouraged the Corinthians to put aside some money every Sunday for a gift to be made to the poor brethren in Jerusalem.
Biblically, money should be collected for:
Poor Brethren.
Mat 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
This is the most biblical way of giving to Jesus.
Orphans / widows
Jas 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Travelling ministries (Send them on their way in a manner worthy of the Lord)
3Jn 1:5 Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers,
3Jn 1:6 who have borne witness of your love before the church. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well,
3Jn 1:7 because they went forth for His name's sake, taking nothing from the Gentiles.
3Jn 1:8 We therefore ought to receive such, that we may become fellow workers for the truth.
Elders – especially preaching and teaching elders (1 Timothy 5:17)
Ruling elders who teach and preach are often called “senior pastors” today , though “Chief Shepherd” is actually a title reserved for the Lord Jesus Christ. .
1Ti 5:17 Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.
Foreign missionary efforts.
Mark 16:15 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
One of the most cost effective ways of doing this is through television.
Features of House Church I'd Like to See
1. Passion to know God's voice and presence
2. Loving neighbours expressed through a call to daily soulwinning activity - we grow towards this
- "foundation of evangelism" as mentioned by Dennis Balcombe concerning the Chinese House Church movement needs to be a core value of this movement - or it is nothing new in Australia.
"Who is my neighbour?" He is the one we see that is in trouble.
3. Training and exhortation re: meditating on the Word of God
4. Pursuit of purity and holiness and abiding in Christ
5. Helping the poor, the homeless, the stressed
6. Supporting missions locally and abroad
7. Media savvy - internet, TV, radio
8. Weekly prayer meeting in addition to house meeting. "My house a house of prayer".
9. Giving to support local ministries. Collections in meetings.
10. Embracing LEADERSHIP. Not shunning human leadership. Multiplying it.
11. Not critical of other churches or church styles.
12. Excellent but playable music - Scriptural lyrics.
13. Freedom to organise big events or congregational meetings if the Lord so leads - even regularly, but the home churches are the core.
14. As point 1 should imply, encouragement of the practice of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.