Welcome to the House Church Interchange! Praise God for what He is doing IN you!

I hope we mght be of mutual help and encouragement one to another (the kind of relationship that God desires we have have with other saints on a DAILY basis!

Could I offer a suggestion relative to your desire to start up a house church?

"Church", as God intends it, is something that He has already started up! It is not something which we can start, but it is something that we can guard, protect, nurture, build etc.

The Lord gave my wife and I the opportunity to be part of a house church gathering for about two years which He had started. But because those of us who gathered thought of it as something which we had to organize, schedule, regulate, facilitate, and then determine who could and who could not be part of it...it flew apart and most returned to "business as usual" in institutional churches like we had all left!

For the last two years, we have been struggling, pleading with God, strategizing and getting absolutely nowhere as far as seeing another Sunday morning house church gathering in our home. But slowly and very patiently the Lord has been reminding us that church, as He intends, is not a weekly Sunday gathering, but rather the fostering of real relationships with others for mutual encouragement on a daily basis! Heb.3:13 & 10:24,25

The scriptural emphasis on churches in houses is simply the result of people spending a high percentage of their time in homes (their own and homes of friends, neighbours, acquaintances etc.)
But the Lord Jesus "did church", the apostles "did church" where ever they happened to be! In homes, walking along the road with others, in boats, in prisons, in market places, schools, etc and we ought to do the same!

My wife and I have just recently been watching and becoming aware of contacts with believers and unbelievers throughout the course of our daily lives. Especially whenever we meet other saints, at work, on the phone, when someone stops by for a visit etc we are beginning to recognize these as opportunities for ministry, encouragement, prayer for needs or difficulties, breaking bread (i.e. eating meals together etc.

Last night we were talking about this and have started to pray that the Lord would help us to look at every such opportunity as "church", i.e. assembling together to exhort one another and stir each other up unto love and good works! That is precisely what scripture teaches is to be the agenda when we "assemble together"! (Heb.10:24,25) Many people have been conditioned by religious systems to think that if they don't "attend church" they are forsaking the assembling of themselves together! However, very few people who "go to church" ever have the opportunity to participate in "exhorting one another" and "provoking (stirring up) one another to love and good works"!!!

So if you have the heart desire to lead a life that glorifies the Lord, and a desire to use your home as a center for such an occupation, I would personally plead with you not to envision a gathering in your living room for an hour or two on a particular day of the week, but rather to ask the Lord to simply use you as a vessel in His hand to minister to anyone that He brings your way 24/7!

The Lord answered our prayer of last night in a couple of very encouraging ways today: When I got home today, my wife was telling about a conversation she had on the phone today with a sister in the Lord who called and was in need of encouragement. She also is "out of church" as far as religious observances go. But at the conclusion of their conversation, this sister said to Judy, "Every time I talk to you, it's just as if we've "had church" together!"

The man with whom I've been working the last few months has a lot of problems in his life, a growing interest to read his Bible, and almost daily comes to work asking questions about life in general and specificly about what he's been reading in the scriptures the night before. Just today, he said to me, "I am so glad I have this job, so I can come to work and learn more about the Bible and God!"

I'm convinced that the "genius" of the new covenant is that we are called to lives of holiness (i.e. being set apart unto God)24/7 in everything that we do. I am a member of the the Woodford family 24/7 and everything I do and say reflects on the Woodfords. But even more importantly, I am a member in the church which is Christ's Body 24/7 and everything that I do and say reflects for good or evil on the Christ whom I profess to be my Lord!

So I would encourage you to daily and moment by moment look to the Lord and take your place as a vessel in His hand. Don't try to schedule the times you'll be available to Him to be useable, but just remain in His hand to be useable whenever He has an assignment for you!

I'm just slowly learning that such a perspective takes off so much pressure to try to organize or control some "ministry of mine" and leaves me with such liberty to get involved where ever and with whom ever God is working right next to me! I'm finding He's at work ALL the time!

So regarding your home, give it over to God (you don't own it anyway, He does!) And just take your rightful place as His steward to use the home which He has entrusted to you as a ministry/hospitality/prayer/fellowship center and sit back and watch Him start to use you and it in ways you never dreamed were possible!

As you give yourself, your time, your home, your possessions, your reputation etc over to Him, keep us posted on how He uses them all for the church which He is building!