First House Church
Posted by Chris
It's 6:23 am. This is a time that I usually either try to read a little and spend some time focusing on God before the day starts, or I gather things and collect my thoughts on what needs to happen throughout the day. This morning I felt like I needed to write this. Not sure why. I know many of you have been wondering what house church looks like. We haven't been able to answer that much as we, until last night, had not been a part of a house church.
Part of me wanted to write this post just to share a little of how church went last night & what it looks like from the inside. The other part of me woke up this morning with a heavy heart. Not heavy in the sense of sadness, but heavy with thoughts swirling around in my head. Have you ever woke up from a dream and it takes you awhile to realize that your dreamstate is no longer reality? It feels kind of like that, but the thoughts are lingering instead of going away. I dreamed that a huge storm system was coming into the metro area and we were rushing around trying to get our things together to head to Shawnee to escape the storm. Woke up in the midst of the storm and it has felt weird to not hear the rain outside since I have been awake. Not going to try and spiritualize it. If the feeling remains and the dream was supposed to show me something I'm sure God will open my eyes to that later. For now just know I am sitting here in a midly disoriented, just-woke-up, not sure what is going to come out as I type kind of state. House church was good. We arrived at Ryan & Carmel's house around 6:00p. Each week the church shares a meal together. Tonight they were grilling hot dogs & steaks, so we brought some of Andrea's cookie dough brownies to share for dessert. They spend about 45 minutes to an hour visiting & eating together. The kids played outside & inside when they were finished eating. There were 11 adults (including one who comes to help with the kids each week) total last night & 13 kids! I believe Josiah was the oldest in the bunch as well. Three babies, if I remember right. The church is made up of couples who are around 28-34 with 1-3 kids each. Most all are in the same life position as we and facing many of the same life struggles as we. After our eating time we gathered everyone together in the living room. Because of the grilling time for dinner we were running a bit behind schedule so instead of having worship for all of us we gathered the kids in a circle on the floor and sang several children's songs (that they picked out) together. Someone prayed over the children and they headed down to the park at the end of the street to play. The college student (Amanda, I think) and one adult from the group (rotates each week) take care of the children each week. Sometimes they play games, have teaching time, misc stuff (kind of like VBS, from what I've been told). The rest of the evening we spent talking about what it meant for God to give us the 'desires of our hearts' (Isaiah). We shared scripture, confessed to one another things that we desire (both good & bad) in our lives, and thoughts on what each of the scriptures said. We prayed together for a prayer concern someone in the group had for someone in their family. At the conclusion of the time together they like to have ministry time. This might revolve around praying for each other when there are concerns voiced. It might mean giving words of encouragement to someone else's life. There is no set plan - only allowing the Holy Spirit to lead in ministering & building one another up. Last night we had such good discussion that we didn't have time for this at the end. We prayed together, spent another 10-15 minutes visiting, and then gathered up the kids and headed home.
It was good - if for no other reason than to be in the place that God has been calling us toward for so long. I'm looking forward to getting to know these other couples & share life together. It won't be easy - last night wasn't completely easy. It is hard coming in from the outside, being the 'newcomer,' not really knowing anyone really well. The transparency within house church is going to be an adjustment as well. I think we are prone (people in general) to only allow people into a portion of who we are in an effort to avoid being hurt/burned by others. There is a level of intimacy that accompanies community, though. It is not an easy level to allow ourselves into, but it is a necessary level.
I think too many of us want the latter without the former. We want a sense of community, of friendship, of 'life on life' (as Bridgeway puts it) without giving up who we are. We want to somehow share this level with others without becoming vulnerable to others at the same time. I'm not sure that this is possible. If we try we may only wind up with pseudo-community, an outward form without an inward power. To really experience community as God intended it to be, we must lay ourselves down, sacrificing our pride in order to open our lives up to others. I'm not saying that we have to air our dirty laundry or tell our inmost struggles to anyone who asks. I am saying that we must be willing to allow others to bear our burdens and maintain a level of transparency in order for those relationships to become rooted in a healthy place.
It will be difficult, but I am at a point in my life where I want to become more transparent with others & be a part of such a community. We'll see what God has in store ...
Part of me wanted to write this post just to share a little of how church went last night & what it looks like from the inside. The other part of me woke up this morning with a heavy heart. Not heavy in the sense of sadness, but heavy with thoughts swirling around in my head. Have you ever woke up from a dream and it takes you awhile to realize that your dreamstate is no longer reality? It feels kind of like that, but the thoughts are lingering instead of going away. I dreamed that a huge storm system was coming into the metro area and we were rushing around trying to get our things together to head to Shawnee to escape the storm. Woke up in the midst of the storm and it has felt weird to not hear the rain outside since I have been awake. Not going to try and spiritualize it. If the feeling remains and the dream was supposed to show me something I'm sure God will open my eyes to that later. For now just know I am sitting here in a midly disoriented, just-woke-up, not sure what is going to come out as I type kind of state. House church was good. We arrived at Ryan & Carmel's house around 6:00p. Each week the church shares a meal together. Tonight they were grilling hot dogs & steaks, so we brought some of Andrea's cookie dough brownies to share for dessert. They spend about 45 minutes to an hour visiting & eating together. The kids played outside & inside when they were finished eating. There were 11 adults (including one who comes to help with the kids each week) total last night & 13 kids! I believe Josiah was the oldest in the bunch as well. Three babies, if I remember right. The church is made up of couples who are around 28-34 with 1-3 kids each. Most all are in the same life position as we and facing many of the same life struggles as we. After our eating time we gathered everyone together in the living room. Because of the grilling time for dinner we were running a bit behind schedule so instead of having worship for all of us we gathered the kids in a circle on the floor and sang several children's songs (that they picked out) together. Someone prayed over the children and they headed down to the park at the end of the street to play. The college student (Amanda, I think) and one adult from the group (rotates each week) take care of the children each week. Sometimes they play games, have teaching time, misc stuff (kind of like VBS, from what I've been told). The rest of the evening we spent talking about what it meant for God to give us the 'desires of our hearts' (Isaiah). We shared scripture, confessed to one another things that we desire (both good & bad) in our lives, and thoughts on what each of the scriptures said. We prayed together for a prayer concern someone in the group had for someone in their family. At the conclusion of the time together they like to have ministry time. This might revolve around praying for each other when there are concerns voiced. It might mean giving words of encouragement to someone else's life. There is no set plan - only allowing the Holy Spirit to lead in ministering & building one another up. Last night we had such good discussion that we didn't have time for this at the end. We prayed together, spent another 10-15 minutes visiting, and then gathered up the kids and headed home.
It was good - if for no other reason than to be in the place that God has been calling us toward for so long. I'm looking forward to getting to know these other couples & share life together. It won't be easy - last night wasn't completely easy. It is hard coming in from the outside, being the 'newcomer,' not really knowing anyone really well. The transparency within house church is going to be an adjustment as well. I think we are prone (people in general) to only allow people into a portion of who we are in an effort to avoid being hurt/burned by others. There is a level of intimacy that accompanies community, though. It is not an easy level to allow ourselves into, but it is a necessary level.
I think too many of us want the latter without the former. We want a sense of community, of friendship, of 'life on life' (as Bridgeway puts it) without giving up who we are. We want to somehow share this level with others without becoming vulnerable to others at the same time. I'm not sure that this is possible. If we try we may only wind up with pseudo-community, an outward form without an inward power. To really experience community as God intended it to be, we must lay ourselves down, sacrificing our pride in order to open our lives up to others. I'm not saying that we have to air our dirty laundry or tell our inmost struggles to anyone who asks. I am saying that we must be willing to allow others to bear our burdens and maintain a level of transparency in order for those relationships to become rooted in a healthy place.
It will be difficult, but I am at a point in my life where I want to become more transparent with others & be a part of such a community. We'll see what God has in store ...
Comments