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I was told that to start I should just find one other person whose top priority is to cultivate an "intimacy with Jesus and spiritual communion with other brothers.
"The only other criteria is to be where God wants you to be. We must be where He is working and moving. If we are in a place where there is little or no interest in a complete surrender to Jesus, then the true church cannot appear. It is only when each one is completely committed to Him and He can live and move among us.
"If serving others in His name is not our goal but only a secondary possibility, then other interests will prevail over time and the fullness of His church will not be known.
"If you can find one or two others who have this attitude and cultivate spiritual relationships with them, then the first beginnings of the true church will be seen."
This is not as easy as it at first sounded.
The first thing one of my friends asked was "Who is going to preach." I wasn't quick enough to say "Whoever Jesus tells us to have preach, or no one."
All the Christians we know seem to be happy in their denominations. How do we find fellowship to come to our home or to rotate between homes. It is so hard to break out of the pattern.
What has been your experience?
-------------------- Christ has set us free...Do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)
Our experience has been pretty family focused, just the three of us. That hasn't been because we haven't made our home church known, it's just that that's the way it has been.
But let me pass along this encouragement to you, that was given to me. A week ago, the Lord put something on my heart to share. And He put in on my heart not for my family...it was for the church in my house. And that's how He gave it to me to give out. It was not just an encouraging word but carried with it the admonition to take our assembling together seriously - because He does!
Brother, we are called to share the gospel, and to be salt and light. We have never been commissioned to make people hungry. If you do today what you know to do - what more can be asked of you? It is the Lord who adds to His church -not us. Sometimes solo is the way it goes (Elijah in the desert, Paul in prison, John on Patmos). Take this time, even by yourself seriously. Jesus does! May you be blessed and encouraged beyond measure for your faithfulness.
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It has only been the 3 of us in our family for years. It use to be 5 of us but 2 of my children have left home now. I've always taken our time together seriously. I've tried to find other fellowship around us (people that are near). Asking a neighbor once in a while, seeking those on the internet close to me, looking on websites such as meetup.com (and believe you me I've tried a lot) but as far as what I know there isn't even a group that meets in our large city and it has been like that for years now. I can't seem to find others that want the fellowship like they had in the early church that meets from house to house and breaks bread. I don't know if that should surprise us considering the kind of days that we live in. To me the commandment to assemble together even as we see the day approaching doesn't mean that we are to find a "church" to go to. It means that we continue to seek likeminded people in which to share with. There aren't that many people today that desire the true fellowship like the early church had and if that is what we are seeking after, I'm afraid we may not find THAT. We need to find the fellowship for OUR DAY. We need to seek the fellowship of those who have come out of the church system and who are surviving out there. We are to help one another in the situations that we are in. We should be finding them on the internet, while being wise and not let anyone decieve us by any means anymore.
I've just come to the conclusion that I may not find others to come into my home to worship with. I have to take the 3 that we have here seriously because that is all that I have. I don't know if I truly want some of the struggles I've run into out there to actually come INTO MY HOME quite frankly. We all argue on the internet about "doctrines", I wouldn't really want that to actually happen in person, in my home!!!
God hasn't even given me a house big enough to have people over, so I guess that should tell me something. LOL, Let God lead and just follow what happens, that's the best thing I've learned and I don't feel guilty because I'm not doing things a certain way.
This has been encouraging. My spouse has said, "This is what I want, even if it is only the two of us."
I started a Yahoo! discussion group for my family and I to bounce ideas around and I invited some people in our town to join the discussion, if not our fellowhip, just to share their ideas and critique ours. I also invited some other friends from the internet who have either experienced home-based fellowships or are also thinking about it. So far I've got two posts, both of them are my own. (Do I hear an echo? Hello? Anybody home?)
-------------------- Christ has set us free...Do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)
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