I was looking back at my archives the other day and realized that it was over three months between writing Part 5 and Part 6. I guess that's what moving and getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas will do to your blogging. In any case, Part 8 was the last part I had planned to write, so I wanted to recap the series. It starts with us leaving our church, sharing my experience and thoughts about my time there, and our experience searching for a new church, discovering house church, and my thoughts about it since.

Deconstruction
Why I Left My Church
Approaching Ministry
Worship Wars Part 1 - My Background
Worship Wars Part 2 - Compromise and the Excitement Factor
Worship Wars Part 3 - Why It Shouldn't Be a War, Anyway

Reconstruction
Why We Have Chosen House Church
Part 1 - Some Definitions
Part 2 - vs. Small Groups
Part 3 - vs. Cell Churches
Part 4 - Intermission and Coexistence
Part 5 - Some History
Part 6 - Men and Open Formats
Part 7 - What Would Jesus Do With Ten Million Dollars?
Part 8 - Unbelievers "Get It"

Looking back over these past six months, I'm amazed at how much has changed. We left our church, considered a move to New York, found a house church, and moved into a new house. I'm particularly amazed at how many of my thoughts were leading us directly into house church, before we had ever made a decision to go that route, much less visited one. Below is an example from Approaching Ministry:

Most churches understand the family aspect as social gatherings. We know each other, we enjoy hanging out together, and we do favors for each other. That's a great start. But we're really called to live life together. Jesus didn't just see the twelve a couple of times a week. They lived together. They slept together, ate together, traveled together, worshipped together, and ministered together. Real family cannot be experienced in a group of a thousand, five hundred, or even fifty. We have to get smaller, but we have to seek something more than just "small groups." We need to take a more basic view of church family, and seek our primary connection with the church through a family-sized unit instead of a congregational one.

Lord, thank You for leading us to a place that fulfills, even if only dimly, the vision You have given us. Our house church isn't perfect, as none are. But the reality is, it is in this environment where we can practice Your example of living life together, of sharing our burdens with each other as a part of our regular worship, and seeking Your will for our gatherings.

Labels: church, house church