Next meeting!

Where: East Victoria Park again - it's a convenient halfway point for the people involved so far.
When: Thursday 20 September 2007, 6:30pm.
Contact us for more details. (Have a look on the sidebar.)

Meeting report: Decision making

Thursday night we met in East Victoria Park at Tim's house. We were treated to a banquet prepared by Tim with five main dishes. His excellent hospitality made the night feel very special.

(Paradoxically, there's a risk of too much good food in a house church. It does make a house church meeting very special. But you don't want it to become pressure to produce a feast every week. That's when people can feel burnt out by house church. The Christian Centre for Social Action has a weekly meeting - also in East Victoria Park! - which ends in a simple meal of bread, cheese, jam and apples. There's something to be said for this, too.)

Dave then led an excellent discussion on decision making. The group consensus seemed to be a middle ground between the Sydney Anglican line that God speaks only through the Bible, and feelings etc have nothing to do with it, and the Pentecostal search for visions and signs. We all held open the possibility and hope of God speaking directly into our lives, while also affirming that he speaks through others in our Christian community, and indeed through the Scriptures.

The things we're into so far

Our house church hasn’t spent too long navel gazing about what we are, but the things Nathan, Nicole, Tim, Dave and Heather are into so far are:

- being participatory
- being missional - not inward looking like some house churches
- being flexible in the way we meet - trying new things
- eating together
- Jesus centered discipleship, including social justice and environmental stewardship

A simple start

We've finally made a start - a simple one. Last Friday we met with three other people at our house. We ate dinner, watched the Nooma video 'Breathe' and discussed it. Then we shared prayer requests and prayed for each other.

Our next meeting is at Tim James' house in East Victoria Park on Thursday 6 September 2007, starting 6PM.

If you would like to be involved, now's a good time to get on board. Send us an email or give us a call.

Community begins at three and ends at fifteen

Someone once said, "Community begins at three and ends at fifteen." Keeping the group small maintains the feeling of community. Only in the intimacy of a small, closely knit group will people confess their faults one to another in order to be healed (see James 5:16). Open sharing becomes more difficult when the group grows to more than fifteen.

- Joel Comiskey, The Spirit-filled small group: p. 96

The church is a hospital

"The church is a hospital, not a performing arts centre."

- Joel Comiskey, The Spirit-filled small group : p. 79.

I like this quote, because when we remember its a hospital, we don't put up masks - we get more real with each other. (I don't think it's always a hospital - but it should certainly resemble one sometimes!)

Renovare - charismatic and social justice

On Monday, our Renovare group did the charismatic study. This is one of the areas I identified as a weakness in my life. I have always found it easier to relate to God with my head than my heart - and I know I have to get God into all of me.

The homework exercise I chose to do was to pray for an hour for the Holy Spirit to begin working in a new and powerful way in my life. I found it so hard to pray for an hour. I get distracted too easily; I start thinking about other things - especially when I'm listening rather than talking.

I felt God speaking in two ways to my life. I have to stop being like Jonah who didn't want Ninevah to be saved. He wanted to stay the only one who had a special relationship to God. Unconsciously, I think God is telling me that I'm sometimes like this. A book I've been reading talks a lot about having a hunger for the lost, so much that you cry tears over them - and I think this is the direction I have to head.

The second thing he is telling me is to let go of my ambitions - something He's been telling me a long time.

This morning we met again, this time discussing the social justice tradition study. We read the parable of the sheep and goats, and as always I felt cut to the quick. This week, if I get asked for change on the way to work, I'm going to see what the person asking really wants, offer to spend time with them, make sure I look after their needs.

Putting the eating back into meeting!

The Lord's Supper was actually more a substantial supper with a symbolic
meaning, than a symbolic supper with substantial meaning. God is restoring
eating back into our meeting.

- Wolfgang Simson, Houses that change the world, p. xxii.

I am writing an article for Oikos magazine at the moment on the Lord's Supper as a shared meal, and just have to use this quote.

Renovare course

We haven't started a church yet, but we are doing the Renovare (Latin for renewal) course. It is a course for small groups which goes through six Christian traditions (all rooted in Jesus) and what we should learn from them to be a balanced Christian.

The traditions are:

• Contemplative - the prayer filled life
• Holiness - the pure life
• Charismatic - the Spirit empowered life
• Social Justice - the compassionate life
• Evangelical - the Word centered life
• Incarnational - living Jesus in everyday life

We have done the first three, and each week had a piece of homework (a spiritual exercise) to complete. Knowing I'm going to be accountable to someone to do what I have said I would do has been a great motivation to actually do it.

We've eaten as part of our meeting, and that's been important. It's created deeper fellowship and made us more relaxed with each other.

The book we've been using is called A Spiritual Formation Workbook, by James Bryan Smith. The Renovare website is poorly organised and doesn't state clearly that this is where to start; in fact, I couldn't find this book on their site just now. You might be better getting it from Amazon.

Richard Foster, founder of Renovare, has written an amazing book called Streams of Living Water, which goes through all the traditions. It's an enriching read; it made me excited about church history and about bringing together so many Christian traditions in my life.

The dominance of doctrine...

Doctrinal teaching and Bible studies dominate so many small group and home church meetings. This excludes those who are intellectually less advantaged, those who think through images and associations rather than deduction and inference and those who have valid experiences (eg parables and stories, intuitions... dreams and visions) to share. Where emotion and imagination are given little place in a group, there will only be a minimum of communication - and therefore of community with one another and with God.

- Robert Banks, The Church Comes Home 83

Masks...

Many local churches have become so big that people can remain anonymous, becoming spectators rather than real participants. We have consciously sought to avoid the masks which people put on in that environment - the masks of security, niceness and personal piety.

- Robert Banks, The Church Comes Home, p. 94

why house church?

Non-hierarchical - everyone takes ownership of the group.
Participatory - the meetings help you engage rather than be passive.
Relational - we know each other personally, encourage and help eachother.
Varied - we bring different gifts and styles to the meeting. The meeting is flexible enough to change to suit different needs and circumstances.
Approachable - church is in the place you feel most at home.
Eating together - church is gathered around a meal.
Simplicity - it is easy to grow, and to change.
Local - forming community, and bringing God into everyday life, is easier with people who live close to eachother.

These are a few we can think of. Can you think of anything else? Leave us a comment!