We like to do a "Family Forming" get-together in the early stages of a new house church. This is an "exercise" that builds community as we talk about what it means to live the spiritual life in interdependence.
We build this get-together around three questions:
1. In what ways do we choose to be responsible to one another?
2. In what ways do we choose to be responsible to other churches?
3. In what ways do we choose to be responsible to the world at large?
It's not that we come away, necessarily, with some great insight. But the process is powerful because of the discussion. We find that we are practicing doing family life together. We begin to talk about more difficult issues and start learning how to disagree and work through conflict. We learn that church is meant to be about relationship, discussion, and listening to everyone. We are laying the groundwork for future family meetings in which everything is discussed and the Holy Spirit leads through the contribution of each person.
We also come away with a stronger sense of connectedness to each other, to the Body of Christ at large, and to a sense of mission to the world. It does always seem to lead to a deeper sense of "family."
