House Church Talk - Questions concerning leadership

[Glenn Frank]

Hi Scott,

You said...

> If the weight of responsibility keeps falling back on one or two people, the
> other folks may need to be encouraged to use the gifts God has given them.
> When they hold back, they cheat the whole body out of a blessing.

I agree... That that is kind of our situation. It seems that some people are
more apt to step out and ask questions, present views, lead songs or other
things... Maybe just because of their personality... But others are still in
IC mode and are sitting and waiting to be fed or led.

We have discussed the issue in our gatherings and asked everyone to pray and
read and be prepared ahead of time to contribute something to the group when
we meet. But it does not seem to change things.

I guess I was wondering if there is place for leadership (true, Biblical,
servant leadership) to kind of "get the ball rolling" in a gathering or set
the tone of a gathering so that those who are not naturally likely to step
out first and contribute to the gathering can feel like they have a place to
share. But we have not really done that because we don't want the gatherings
to become another typical "service" or directed bible study. We want the
body to function naturally by the Spirit.

So I guess I feel like we are in a dilemma. People who have only known the
typical institutional church format (where a leader asks the questions,
leads the study or presents the material in lecture format) seem to need
some kind of 'un-learning' so they can realize that they can and must pray
themselves, study themselves, seek the Lord themselves... Let the Spirit
give them a song or a prayer to share with the group...

But it seems so artificial to try to "kick start" this or do the
"unlearning" because it feels like we are going back to the old typical IC
format when we do that.

All that to say... I can picture how the church could function openly... But
I don't know how that looks in realility. I'm not sure if there needs to be
some kind or leadership that sets the pace for people.

Glenn Frank