SimpleChurch Journal aka House Church Blog

Spirit-Led Gatherings

Notes to some friends on Spirit-led gatherings:

“If we will learn to hear and follow His promptings, we will never have a boring meeting (Felicity Dale).”

I believe we all want to see our gatherings fueled by the Holy Spirit’s leading and empowerment.  It is good to remind ourselves some of the ways that we can help facilitate this.

1. Relax.  This is not a performance-oriented event.  In our past church-life we gauged the value of our gatherings by how “good” the church-event was.  We have grown past that.  Our church-life, now, is about being the church everyday, living a 24/7 lifestyle, and about being part of a community of people whom we love and share life with.  We don’t look to the gathering to be the “big event” that will make up for our own lack of relationship with God.  So, we can relax and enjoy whatever God does in our midst.

2. Come to give as well as receive.  This is not meant to pressure anyone, but just a reminder that when we gather we are not “consumers” looking to someone else to mediate our God-experience or “bring the goods.”  Instead, we are part of an interactive community.  We come prepared, whenever possible, to share our current story and use our spiritual gifts to bless and encourage others.

3. Pause.  Take time in the gathering to just sit and wait on the Holy Spirit.  This teaches the entire group to practice listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit:

“The New Testament church was not only the dwelling place for the presence of God, it was also a learning center for the language of the Holy Spirit. People not only worshipped God in church, but they were equipped to hear him, and after hearing God, they were able to give something to someone that would build them up (Jack Deere).”

This takes time to develop.  Pausing, listening, allowing people to express what they believe the Holy Spirit is saying, this allows our gatherings to become more and more receptive to the Spirit’s promptings.

4. Pay attention to the flow.  “God wants everything to be done peacefully and in order… (1 Cor. 14:33).”  This verse is speaking to believers who are gathering together and simply indicates that there is a natural, orderly flow to His leading.  In other words, if the Spirit is leading in one direction, pay attention to that direction and don’t interrupt with something that does not fit in.  Perhaps later in the gathering it will!

5. Prepare.  Many times the Spirit will lead some or all of the participants to prepare ahead of time.  This may be something to talk about at the end of a gathering: “What does God want to do the next time we are together?”  “Are there some pieces that we know God wants us to prepare to bring?”  The Holy Spirit works through structure as well as spontaneity.  We want to make room for both.

6. Be adventurous.  We are learning to dance with a creative, adventurous God.  We can step out and try new things.  We are in a safe place to make mistakes, experiment, learn, and try again.  And as we do, as we learn to gather in Spirit-led groups, we will be part of a great harvest of people who will be prepared to take simple church—and God’s powerful presence—into homes, neighborhoods, marketplaces, and villages any time and everywhere.

Making Good House Churches Better

Note: This is a new category of articles that I am writing to encourage and resource those who have been facilitating/leading house churches.  The entire series of articles is entitled: "Making Good House Churches Better."  I want this to be useful (tools) as well as encouraging (inspiration).  If you have suggestions for this series, please comment!

When People or Churches Feel Bogged Down

Sooner or later some, most, or all of the  members of a house church will become dissatisfied with the gathering.

“It’s not worshipful enough.”  “We seem to be in a rut.”  “The needs of my children aren’t being met.”  “We are not reaching out.”  “We need to be more open with each other and closer.”  “We don’t seem to be going anywhere.”

Sometimes, just verbalizing the longings or dissatisfactions are enough to catalyze the church to move in some new directions or make new commitments.  The beauty of house church is that we can change course nearly instantaneously.  We want to reach out more?  Let’s plan something for next week!  We want to focus more on the children?  Let’s do it today!

Most house churches will benefit by simply making space for conversations about what is working and what is not working.  Adjustments can be made and God will bring greater fruitfulness as a result.

Sometimes it requires digging deeper.  There are times, though, when a church can benefit by taking a step back and asking itself, as a group, some good questions.

A Tool for Digging Deeper

Following is a church conversation that we find is useful to do regularly, sometimes as frequent as every six months:

1. We begin by reminding ourselves that “church” is about lifestyle.  The normal Christian life is about everyday, 24/7, living and walking with Jesus.  The gathering times are simply meant to support the lifestyle.

2. Secondly, we remind each other that no gathering is going to provide everything that we need to sustain our spiritual life.  In fact, we each are responsible to determine what feeds and nurtures our relationship with God and seek multiple avenues to stay refreshed and grow.  Sometimes our regular gatherings with our house church will meet many of those needs and sometimes only a few.  We can find other avenues for refreshment and life!

3. Thirdly, we ask each person in the group to describe what need they would most want their gatherings to meet.  It is good to make a list of everything that is shared and encourage people to really brainstorm.  The list will include things like: prayer, prolonged worship, a safe place to be vulnerable and connect, bible study, a place to be with friends, a time where children are included.  Hopefully everyone gets the chance to express what they most want out of their time together as a church family.

4. Finally, the group needs to work together at prioritizing this list.  Obviously every gathering cannot meet the needs of every item on the list.  A good question to ask is: “If we can only accomplish only one of these things on the list, what would we want it to be?”  Hopefully, the church can come up with the top two or three.

5. Finally, the group can talk about how to best accomplish the top couple of priorities.

Important Note: These priorities will shift over time… sometimes quickly.  This is one of the ways the Holy Spirit leads.  Thus it can be so important and helpful for churches to update this entire process on a regular basis.