10. Meetings of the House Church

As we move from the gathering stage into the covenanting stage normally we have to add another meeting. We must be conscious of the purpose of meetings, lest we exhaust the people by becoming meeting oriented. We have found it helpful to distinguish between three different types of meetings: Gathering Meetings, Community Meetings, Ministry Meetings. Simply adding meetings may cripple the house church's ability to reproduce and even cause it to crystallize. For this reason we must regularly evaluate our use of meetings.

For example, several of our churches started from gathering meetings. But once we made a transition into the covenanting stage, we stopped the gathering meetings. In one case we added a Sunday community meeting and retained a mid-week meeting (which formally was the gathering meeting). Both meetings focused on writing the covenant. The Sunday morning meeting was for worship and teaching about the Biblical basis of covenanting (usually focusing on the "one another" verses of the New Testament). The mid-week meeting was for the actual prayerful writing of the covenant. Without on-going gathering meetings, evangelistic efforts declined, with a deceleration in church reproduction. Months later when we tried to restart evangelistic efforts, the results were sluggish. The church had crystallized into a self-centered group of naval gazers. (More about dangers of ending gathering meetings later.)

To combat this, we clarified the following purposes for meetings.

COMMUNITY MEETINGS
We call Sunday meetings the COMMUNITY MEETING. The community may meet on another day, due to peoples' schedules, but a Sunday meeting is traditional in the west. Often this meeting has two parts: worship and teaching. The Lord's table is often a part of the worship and teaching is on issues relevant to the community. We prepare reading schedules for daily use in the homes. Thus even if a "teaching" does not occur at the community meeting on a particular week, the congregation is learning together through discussion of Scripture in the home. The reading schedule contains a passage of Scripture for each day with a question to start discussion. We encourage interaction by discussing the text first in the home and then at the community meeting. In the home, discussion usually lasts for 3-5 minutes, at a meal or bedtime. Reading lists are for 5 or 7 days each week.

The reading schedules are developed by the leaders or church planters as they are needed in the church. As churches reproduce, a pool of reading schedules accumulates and can be revised as needed.

Reading schedules must deal with the needs and opportunities of the church community. For instance, in one house church several people had been saved out of cults. The leader decided to use Galatians to teach the basics of the gospel. He developed a 10 week reading schedule with Galatians as the backbone, with other related passages. Each man in the community took turns leading the discussion week by week, including those who had covenanted out of a cult background. The results were excellent.

Other reading schedules we have found useful include the "one another" verses of the Bible, developing Christian relationships (I John), Principles for the Healing of Souls (Romans 3-8), Unity and Conflict, Studies in the life of Jesus (a Harmony of the Gospels), Kingdom Living (Matthew), etc. Most last 8-12 weeks. Longer reading schedules get bogged down because the needs of the community change quickly. A list of Reading Schedules is available through the Fellowship of Church Planting Teams (address at the front of the manual). At the covenanting stage, we use reading schedules focusing on the church often from Acts
or Ephesians.

Although teaching and worship normally make up the meeting, special aspects of edification may take the place of the teaching and/or worship, such as:

prayer: although this occurs in worship, it may be appropriate to set a whole meeting aside for prayer and intercession during times of crisis.

decision making: see chapter 3 on Developing a Covenant.

planning for the future: See Stage 3, Vision Statements.

evaluation of community health: we look at our vision statement and evaluate our progress. New ideas can be put forward to help us fulfill God's plan for us. Some meetings may focus on conflict and conflict resolution.

covenanting: when a new community comes into existence we have a feast along with public signing of the covenant. Other churches may be invited to pray for the new church.

receiving new members: New members covenant with the church. See Covenanting Ceremony in Appendix 14.

baptisms: Baptisms are usually performed as part of the community meetings although they can be part of gathering. After the evangelist baptizes the first group, those who have been baptized normally baptize their new converts under supervision of elders or church planters.

affirmation meetings: The members are encouraged to affirm verbally other members in their gifts and ministries through which they have experienced blessing. These meetings are usually tremendously uplifting. The members are encouraged to focus on one another, NOT on the evangelist!

church discipline. Special community meetings are for members only and may be prefaced with much prayer, fasting, and instruction on church discipline. (See Stage 3, Chapter 18).

The COMMUNITY MEETING should vary from week to week and not stagnate into one rote pattern. The community meeting should help the group develop into community. Community meetings are for believers, although seekers may often come.

GATHERING MEETINGS
It is a mistake to end gathering meetings when the group covenants. In many cases new social circles are still being penetrated, and old ones have not yet been fully explored to take captive for the Kingdom each member of the social circle. It ought to be the norm for a church to have a single community meeting but several small gathering meetings led by different members.

These gathering meetings ought to run for a specified duration with a specific topic. For example: 8 studies on the Kingdom from Matthew, 6 studies on Kingdom living from the sermon on the mount, 8 studies from Acts on the growth of the Kingdom, etc. Gathering meetings are for unbelievers and thus only those believers who bring their unbelieving friends should come.

Other types of topical Bible studies can be used for gathering as well. Anything that can gather unbelievers and convey the gospel should be considered. Some examples: Biblical Principles of Child Rearing, Biblical Principles for a Healthy Marriage Relationship, Principles for the Healing of Souls, How to be a Man (Women, Teenager), Financial Help in a Crumbling World.

Anything that can draw the lost and make the GOSPEL good news is fair game. We need to communicate the good news and not simply wise advice from the Bible. This requires constantly finding ways to make the Gospel relevant to the fallen world, as Jesus himself did. Remember, gathering meetings are for unbelievers. They should feel comfortable at these meetings! Community meetings are for the believers to feel comfortable. I have run many gathering meetings where the people there have been quite permiscuous and crass and which would make most believers uncomfortable. Likewise a gathering meeting where the leader starts with a lengthy prayer is likely to make unbelievers and visitors uncomfortable. Gatherers will have to be flexible. Remember, Jesus partied at Matthew's and Zaccheus' homes.


MINISTRY MEETINGS
MINISTRY MEETINGS, like community meetings, are for believers. These normally occur in mid-week, to enable the congregation to minister more effectively. Neither a gathering meeting nor a ministry meeting is for the WHOLE CHURCH. Each member should prayerfully consider how God wants him/her to serve. Some may attend neither gathering or ministry meetings, but do other types of service. As the churches multiply and form networks of cooperating churches, some of these Ministry meetings may include members of other churches. For instance, a group of parents might want to study parenting. Others might want to organize for working on music or drama for a fellowship meeting or an evangelistic effort. Men and women will meet occasionally for special leadership training and prayer. Ministry Meetings for prayer should be ongoing. Mid-week meetings should be for a specific purpose, last for a specified period, and be evaluated at the close by those who attended, for effectiveness.

We have found it very important to avoid having meeting-centered churches. People get exhausted by meetings which produce nothing except "program maintenance". We have found one community meeting per week of the church, with multiple, decentralized ministry and gathering meetings is the most effective way to reproduce. This increases flexibility and helps avoid crystallization, so the churches can move forward as God's Spirit leads.

FELLOWSHIP MEETINGS
Our house churches cluster in fellowships of from 2 to 6 house churches. The individual churches in a fellowship will normally meet together about once a month. It is a good time of celebration, sharing of testimonies, worship, and keeping up old relationships. Fellowship meetings are an encouragement to those house churches going through difficult times. They are also times when a house church and especially new members can realize that God's work is bigger than any house church. They are also excellent times to hear mission reports from teams operating in the regions beyond.