46. The first house church multiplication in The Seed
Lampang House Church is multiplying next Sunday. It began in 2013, January 13th. During that period of time of serving as a shepherd, I had two simple prayer requests: To witness one VIP getting baptized and multiplication. The reason was when we first started, I was doubtful any VIP would come to the house church, let alone come to church and get baptized. Though I learned about house church ministry through seminars and conferences, I felt like I needed to experience the power of house church myself. After about 4 years, God not only has faithfully answered both of my prayer requests but also has given me assurance that house church is the church Jesus imagined from the very beginning. I’m convinced that God wanted to give us spiritual “family” through house church, where we can grow together and love one another, so we can be truly happy.
Usually, once a house church has close to 12 people, it needs to multiply. We’ve had close to 16 people almost every week for the past few months, sometimes even more. Initially, this growth gave us a lot of energy but as the attendance continued to rise, it became difficult to share deeply. We all felt the need to multiply but since most of us are college/university students, it didn’t look possible. But by God’s grace (no pun intended), Grace has volunteered to serve as a shepherd at just the right time. After a vote, now the house church placement is finished and we will be having the multiplication ceremony next Sunday. Since it is the first house church multiplication in the Seed, we decided to celebrate it with KSC as well.
Since we view house church as a “church”, multiplication is the new church plant. So the reason for multiplication is simple: To regain a sense of urgency of God’s mission. One pastor said default mode of any organization is “complacency”, not urgency. A church is a missional community. People do need care and support but if church loses its sense of urgency in the mission of God, it becomes complacent and loses its influence in the world. When the house church gets too big, people instinctively don’t want to bring in more people and get too comfortable with current people. Though multiplication brings temporary sadness, it puts house church back in the “urgent mode” and begins to look for VIPs to bring them back to the loving arms of God. After the multiplication, the meeting might feel a little awkward with fewer people, but it is good for the better of both house churches.
