House Groups 3 - Are house groups needed? ...

Wednesday, Nov 4, 2009. Are house groups needed? There are two different points to ask and to answer here. First, should I go to some house group? Second, are house groups needed for a church? Both questions are, of course, strongly related.

As a Christian church, do we need to organize house groups? What is their role in church life? What is their role in the life of the individuals? There is an important point here to observe: you cannot believe alone. Christian faith is made for being lived in a community of believers. Alone you will not survive. So you need community - more than just an hour on Sunday mornings. You need real community, getting to know other Christians, talking to them, praying with them, reading the Bible together with them, helping them, spending time with them, enjoying them, having fun and action together … all this is needed. All this can be found in a living house group.

Over years I have been involved in the development of churches. I have seen the spiritual development of many people. Those who developed most, where all attending some house group on a regular basis. God wants us to be with others. And he wants us to be reliable. Choose a house group and go every week. Take over some duties to serve the others, prepare tea or the music or offer your living room to the group. Serve, and you will be served. Be a blessing, and you will be blessed. It will be a crucial step for the further development of your faith, to attend a Christian house group or some type of bible study group which has the personal dimension in it.

Are house groups needed for a church? There are many churches in our world today, who do not have house groups or have just one house group with the pastor as leader meeting in the church building. That can be a beginning. But a church has been called to live in community. We are not called to a group of 1000 or 2000 people, who do not know each other, where only 50 of them come on Sunday mornings and where the pastor is basically busy with carrying out marriage ceremonies and burials. When we are honest, we realize that we desperately need a deeper way of living our faith, which finds Jesus as the Lord and which lives on a daily basis. We need house groups for our churches, they will be pilars of community, pilars of exchange, will help to educate and grow mature Christians all over the place.

House groups can and will grow, as soon as a group of Christians get the space and freedom to go ahead. The pastor of a church can support this process. He can encourage and initiate such groups, pick gifted individuals to organize and lead the group meetings and sessions. It is crucial, that the members of a house group start to contribute themselves. Even young Christians can prepare a bible passage, using some comment or literature provided by Christian publishers. Learning to pray together for the personal challenges, for the church and for the people in our neighborhood can be a fantastic experience every week, and it will change the world. Prayer always changes the world.

Are house groups need? Yes, yes. They are needed for you, and they are needed for our church. Go and find your group. Go and establish a new house group in your church this month. [R.W.E.P., jesusnetwork.eu]

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