Why Home Church?

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  1. There is no paid clergy and no mortgage on a building.  This leaves us free to support missionary works of our choice.  One hundred percent can go to missions.  However, the lack of “professional” clergy does not leave us lacking in sound biblical instruction.  We have men among us who are seminary trained and who have served as church pastors and as missionaries.  Moreover, all the men who join with us are encouraged to participate in the shared leadership of the group.
  2. We can more closely model the New Testament picture of the early church.  The early church met in homes and not official buildings.  Moreover, one does not find any programs or campaigns being conducted in the early church to keep the people interested or to keep them giving to the Lord's work.  The Word of God alone and the fellowship of the saints was sufficient for those early believers, and we believe it is sufficient for believers today.
  3. We can learn and enjoy the gift of hospitality.  Jesus said, " By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."  If love is the hallmark of a true disciple, then the closer fellowship of home meetings will better help us develop that characteristic.  The hosting family is invariably blessed to have the opportunity to serve.
  4. We can be “family-integrated.”  In our fellowship the family stays together and learns together.  The men are encouraged to become the spiritual leaders of their families.  All family members are encouraged to participate in the interactive worship, with the men taking the lead during the teaching times.  Conversely, in nearly all institutional churches families are divided rather than built up together.  The children are age divided into Sunday school classes and even mom and dad find themselves in men’s classes and ladies' classes and so on, not to mention “children’s church.”  All of these phenomena in the institutional churches do not encourage the parents to instruct their children and husbands to lead their wives, but rather encourage parents to let someone else train their children and husbands to let someone else lead their wives.
  5. We can build a fellowship rather than settling for a one or two hour time slot on Sundays.  Fellowship can be developed in institutional churches, but it is more difficult when people run in at 11:00 AM and rush out at 12:00 Noon.  We meet once per week at 10:00 AM and find ourselves staying together until around 3:00 PM and sometimes later.  People are free to leave whenever they want or need to leave, but we are all finding that the fellowship, support, and camaraderie of the group are therapeutic.   We gather at 10:00 AM, have coffee and light fellowship.  The worship begins at around 10:20 and goes until 12:00 or 12:15 typically.  It includes the singing of hymns, sharing of praise reports and prayer needs, a prayer time, music education, and a Bible teaching time.  We are open to God sharing something with us through anyone, not just the man who is scheduled to teach.  Immediately following worship we observe the elements of the Lord’s Supper and the accompanying fellowship meal.  Each family brings a food item (except visitors).  We keep a schedule of meals and assignments so each family knows what it needs to bring on a given Sunday.  The ladies often fellowship after the meal and the men likewise, yet the family-integrated philosophy is still maintained.  “Keepers of the Faith” activities for the boys and “Keepers at Home” activities for the girls are sometimes enjoyed.
  6. We can be more accountable.  The men are accountable one to another as are the women.  Spending time together as we do, it is much harder to hide sinful behavior.  Moreover, as you begin to trust each other it becomes easier to ask for help in an area of struggle.  We challenge and help each other in the areas of our weakness or sinfulness.  We all find ourselves growing much more quickly in the Lord in this environment.  It is too easy to hide sin in the “dress up, put on a smile” institutional church.
  7. We can be wholly home school friendly.   Most institutional churches find themselves at best sitting the fence between public school and home school.  They do not want to offend the public school parents or public school teachers who are members, and they do not want to offend those who by conviction are training their children at home.  We are unapologetic in our support of home schooling.  Our children will not get a biblical worldview in the public school.  Being a home schooler is not a requirement of membership in our group.  However, we do not hesitate to point out the anti-God instruction being given in public schools and to encourage parents to make educational choices that will reflect obedience to God’s command to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.