HOME CHURCH

By Rick Mathes

Philemon 1:1-3 (NASB77) ¹   Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our beloved brother and fellow worker, ²  and to Apphia our sister, and to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house: ³   Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The post-modern attitude of many struggling pastors and wealthy donors fill the church with anyone they can lay their hands on under the pretense that if you get them into church, at least they will hear the Gospel. Sounds like a good intention with an underlying motive of increasing revenue. The downside is that these well-intentioned ministers are a watered-down Gospel. We don’t want to chase off the fragile newcomers, do we?

Too many mega-churches have come and gone in my lifetime where I can’t help but be upset when are constantly hammering on the fellowship for money when the focus should be centered on the pulpit message. My solution is that instead of having a thirty million dollar church have thirty, million dollar budgets with separate home churches. This way the debt is more manageable for many reasons. Plus a good pastor even with two good staff ministers can’t shepherd more than 200 members which a large home church would comfortably accommodate: does this make sense to you?

When is a home a church? Your home is a building and where you stand is church. This leaves you with the option of getting other believers together and freely worship. I have a sundown Friday night service, the Hebrew Sabbath, so as not to interfere with the attendance of my friends to their Sunday morning worship.

Do you have a church in your home? You certainly do! Making your church a legal entity is only for the compliance of government requirements and tax exemption matters. But your house, your home has two or more worshippers, it is a church, no doubt about it.

Who are the members? All those who believe are of the Body of Christ. There is the visible and invisible church.

Who are the lost? Just confessing Jesus IS Lord is not going to do it. You must also confess Him AS your Lord. If you will walk your talk you are a true believer. What are you doing for Him? You can start today and invite friends and relatives to join you for a prayer night. Church begins and ends demands that if Jesus is your Savior He must be your Lord. If you believe, you obey! It all start and ends in the home unit.