Learn quick reasons why we are doing church in homes on the space coast.
There are many reasons that motivate people to start a house church. For us, there were a couple core elements that caused us to pursue a shift in how we do church.
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It’s Biblical – This is not to say it’s the only model that should be done but when the church of the New Testament is studied, you quickly realize the majority of churches did not meet in buildings but in people’s homes. It was not until many centuries later that a building became the major place a church met.
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Finances – The majority of verses in the New Testament discussing the topic of giving are toward giving to the poor and needy. Sadly, due to operational costs of a building only a small fraction of the average churches budget actually go towards helping the poor, the needy or missions. In the early church this was not the case. Churches met in homes which required no cost. As a result, the tithes and offerings went to such things as freeing slaves, raising abandoned babies and feeding the poor. We do not and will not accept any money in our church to allow people to give to the poor, the needy and missions.
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Community is Built In – To get to know people requires time and communication. The New Testament church did this by routinely eating meals (the Lord’s Supper) with each other. Meeting in houses enables us to incorporate meals into every church gathering. After every service, we have a meal together as a church to dine together and connect. This provides a setting for relationships to naturally occur.
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Highly Reproducible – The average church plant today requires hundreds of thousands of dollars to plant a single church for the first few years. Is that really necessary? The entry criteria for planting a church can be as simple as an individual with a calling from God and an area or home to meet. Think of house churches as the AirBnB version of the hotel industry. It lowers the overhead and enables more people to feel able to plant a church.
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Empowers People to Use Their Gifts – The large church model usually has 2 people use their gifts during a Sunday service: the pastor and the worship leader. With smaller house church settings, we don’t aim for “a flawless service” which only allows highly experienced people to participate. Instead, we aim to provide opportunities for younger people in the faith to contribute and be equipped in their ministry capability. A smaller setting is really what is needed to allow people to use their gifts as Paul gives direction in 1st Corinthians 14:26. This helps create an atmosphere where church leaders can equip their church to do the work of the ministry as is commanded in Ephesians 4:11-13. A biblical leader should be developing new leaders and sending them out rather than gathering more and more people under them (see 2nd Timothy 2:2).
