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I've shared elsewhere our general use of Acts 2:42 as our "format" for gatherings of saints or seekers. We don't sit people down in a circle of folding chairs and have a teacher, but rather have a Family Reunion type of gathering.
That has resulted in quite a bit of trying to unpack the full, literal meaning of "devoting ourselves to prayer, to fellowship, to breaking of bread and to the apostle's teaching..."
My next question is, "What is implied by the use of the phrase 'devoted themselves... to the apostle's teaching?'"
Does that mean, "Listening to the apostles while they are teaching"? - which would imply teacher oriented meeting?
Or does it mean "discussion" of the Bible, particularly the words of Jesus and letters of Paul? Or does it mean discussing how to apply what Jesus told the apostles to do? Or perhaps acting on the apostle's teaching, which would mean that they were actually feeding the poor, healing the sick, raising the dead, and so on, DURING the meeting?
My general feeling is that the Temple meetings were primarily for evangelism, and that house meetings were for discipleship. But examples like the meeting at Cornelius' house show that even house meetings could be evangelistic, and the complete account of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount indicates he "discipled" the 12 even in public venues, just turning aside and explaining more deeply.
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What is so cool about letting the Lord lead in a simple spontaneous way is that there is always something new to experience. It's never the same. Some meetings never leave the dinner table. Some never make it there. Sometimes a guest comes and shares something for the better part of an evening. Other times there is need of prayer. As long as the Lord is in it, I welcome and love the variety. Bring it on Lord!
The believers met at Solomon's Porch in the court of the Temple to hear the Apostle's teaching. This was a very Jewish thing to do as many rabbis did the same. There was a strong tendency toward oral tradition and communication of matters of the faith. They had none of the media we have in our day...plus in the early times not even a written NT. Everything was so fresh. It must have been quite an exciting time.
The home meetings were probably centered on a meal and sharing with prayer. That's my take on it.
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So what do you think those large group meetings looked like? Is there room for large group meetings in the house church philosophy? What should they look like?
I agree with you all on the house meetings. Acts 2:42 is a good basic guide, with spontenaity in how those functions are played out.
I think probably a major key is making sure there is interaction amoung all believers present. Every person has been given gifts of the Spirit and all are needed to build the church up for works of service.
Honestly, I have been a little frusterated lately. We have been part of a house church for going on 2 years this summer. The first year or so was mostly a fun adventure- figuring out how to do church interactively, watching myself, and others grow spiritualy in the process, seeing a couple neighbors come to the Lord. But recently, it seems we have been struggling more- some have moved back to big church for different reasons, the new believers amoung us split their time between big church and house church for different reasons. I guess I had envisioned that by this time we would be looking at multiplication rather than the current reality. The good part about it is that it has begun to drive me to my knees. Prayer has never been a strength of mine, but is starting to become more of one.
What you are experiencing is normal....if you don't have a close relationship with other HC's. We must network! Water that isn't flowing soon stagnates into a marsh; even a swamp!
We must flow! Constant visiting...sharing with others, celebrating the feast of God with other churches...etc
We have found that after 2 years, or even less in many cases, an isolated group gets stagnant. Joining with one or more other house churches, goes a long way in adding more gifts and keeping things flowing. I stress this for any people interested or already involved in HC. We, for example, are looking at a 4th church joining our network here in the south-west region of Quebec near Montreal. It is a French group. We operate totally bi-lingually because of the nature of our region.
We run a cafe outreach once a month in the city. We speak in French but sing mainly in English. We are at capacity seating there. The last cafe, we had 75 guests. We actually had people turn away due to lack of seating. We are working on this as it was rather unexpected! We are moving forward here on all fronts. Praise the Lord.
Large group get-togethers are great for the church. This should be done once or twice a year if possible. Like at the Feast of Pentecost and Feast of Tabernacles for instance. Passover is nearly upon us. I am involved in 3 different seders this year, two of which we are hosting. One of our houses has room for 40 per meeting....and they're both full! One is for our network and the other for friends we maintain in the IC church plus even some non-Christians. Having guests from out of town is very helpful as well. We recently put up 11 members of a travelling team called "Absolute" for a whole week. What a blessing it was! They visit schools with a positive message up here in Canada. It is run by Christians, but appeals to High School students on their level. There was a non-Christian rock band with them. So we got to be a light for them. It was a lot of work for the food and all, but it brought joy to all involved. Travelling brethren are great to take in as well. Hospitality is necessary for church life. That has been our experience.
It keeps the river flowing. As we move and have our being in Christ we are daily renewed...now apply that to the group dynamic...and voila! Church life!
What do your monthly cafe meetings look like? Are they mostly for non-believers? Do they also function to gather together the churches you network with? How do you get the word out to those not in your nrtwork, and to unbelievers? Is it all word of mouth?
THANK YOU for your advice- it makes so much sense, and again for sharing from your experience!
Glad to help in any way. We have received permission to use a church group's storefront meeting hall near the downtown area. It is owned by the Methodists. It looks like a store, and that is why I approached them. I met with their elders and convinced them to turn the "sanctuary" area over to us for an outreach. We take over now, so to speak, once a month. My wife is very involved as well, plus a few others in our group. There is a Christian group that advertises for us, plus there are posters sent out. We have a Christian newsletter here in Montreal where all activities are posted. It is called Direction Chrétienne. The Methodistes advertise for us. A radio announcer recently told me that she mentions our cafe on the radio. It was the first I heard of it. Jeanne, it gets to the point where others kick in so that it gets quite bewildering. Our cafe is called "Café D'en Haut." Basically this means "cafe from above." Like the upper room except it's firmly planted on the ground floor. People also walk in off the street since there is a huge street-level window and we have regulars from the area that come now. This is crucial...to make people feel welcome. I tell our guest artists (I have a group and we are the house-band, plus we have an invited musical guest each cafe)to keep it low key message wise at first. Thus we set the mood...actually the mood sets itself. There is also background music between sets...mainly jazz... and candle-lighting at the tables. People dance and sing along. We play many styles including reggae. You should see it. The place really rocks. But we also have intimate singer-guitar times à la Québec chansonnier (folk). By the end of the evening we are usually into open worship. We all get up, us and the guest artist usually, and do a final spontaneous set together.
What blows me away is that our brothers from the network love the cafe so much. It encourages them as well. This is one of the ways that we network. Some of the people in the other groups have begun volunteering for work in the cafe. We have been doing the cafe for 2 1/2 years now, but we have only really taken off, so to speak, in the last 2 months. The timing coincides with the network coming into existence. God had been preparing us for this. There may be a problem since more and more people want to get involved and participate. We are out of room! I hope to have a weekly cafe at one point. What an outreach it is. We had 3 homeless guys stop in the other night, and they said they will come regularly. God is enlarging our tent.
I am often hesitant to share specific axamples of what God is doing, but I have to say, it really helps me to get my mind around things to read about specific experiences like these. You and Laurie Ann both have blessed me a lot in your willingness to do this. Thanks!!!
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