392. House Church Lay Leader Seminar
The lay-leader seminar is happening this weekend (10/11-13) at Houston hosted by New Life Fellowship (NLF). I was told that there are 120 participants. I am amazed how there are constant interests in house church but not surprised.
At a recent 4th Lausanne Congress (A global movement that mobilizes Christian leaders to collaborate for world evangelization), Pastor Rick Warrant mentioned 10 “musts” for global evangelization and mission. Interestingly, they were all centred on going back to the New Testament Church. His main point is quoted here: “The church at its birth was the church at its best!”
On the “7th Must”, he said “We must return to using homes”, based on the fact that New Testament churches gathered at each other homes for fellowship.
Man’s wisdom always searches for the newest, coolest things, only to realize the greatest wisdom comes from submitting to God’s wisdom. There is nothing new under the sun. (Ecc 1:9) Many pastors try to make worship so great but realize disciples are not made. So they turn to bible studies but still recognize that no disciples are made. So they finally conclude that no disciples are made without small groups (or communities). But if you look at the Bible, the very first church was the mega-church and they met at each other’s home for church! Too many churches try everything except going back to the New Testament church, only to circle back to it.
Too many Christians still believe they can thrive in their faith without a small community. In their imagination of a “great church” and discipleship, small groups are often missing. They want a “family-like” church but still gravitate toward traditional churches based on North American heritage. Either many of them are satisfied with superficial chit-chat on Sunday as enough dose of fellowship, or too many small groups are focused on talking about the Bible, instead of what is happening in each others’ lives. The great command from Jesus is to love each other. We cannot love when we don’t know what is happening in each other’s lives. House Church provides the field where we can fulfill the great command of Jesus. Above all, the church Jesus had in mind was a “house church” where people gathered as a family, eating together and sharing their real lives.
It is very encouraging to see an increased number of participants in house church seminars, and also other English-speaking churches will be offering house church seminars next year as well. We don’t do house church just so we can build a New Testament church well. We do it to create a “one wave” with churches all over the world, so we can build it together with one heart and one mind.
Here are the prayer requests from Pastor Eric who is the senior pastor at NLF. Please pray for the following prayer topics during this weekend.
- Pray that all 120 participants will be moved and convinced by the beautiful, biblical model of the church presented at the seminar and that they will return to their respective churches with a commitment to wholeheartedly support their senior pastors and become workers who build the church that the Lord desires.
- Pray that all the church members who are serving in preparation for the seminar will serve with joy and that afterward, they will testify that they received the greatest blessing through their service.
- Pray that through this lay-leader seminar, house churches will spread more actively among the English-speaking churches in North America.
