How Does a Home Fellowship Function

I have been asked many questions about our home fellowship and will be putting together some articles in Q and A format. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comment section and I will answer them in upcoming articles. (Other home fellowships function differently and I'll be sharing more about that soon)

When and where do we meet?

We gather in my home on Monday nights. We rent a clubhouse for larger gatherings every so often. Where we live, we have access to a clubhouse with a deposit we get back the next day, so this really has no cost to do. We sometimes gather in other homes too. We each like to take turns hosting the fellowship.

How do you celebrate the Lord's Supper?

We have pot luck every Monday night and at the larger gathering. Some nights we do dessert and coffee only. We dine together at the table, if there are more people, we use TV trays in the living room to accommodate. We believe in the full feast style supper..imagine an Italian family dinner night..that's us. :)

How do you teach?

We have no hierarchy structure, only Christ is the Master of the meeting. He functions through various people through the night. His Spirit flows through each of us in a very spontaneous and loving manner. He edifies and encourages us through one another. If you can imagine a good peaceful ping pong table where no one has a desire to 'win'..just enjoy the game. The conversation style teaching goes back and forth. It's not a one way street here.

Do you believe in apostles, bishops, elders, pastors, and teachers?

Yes, but we do no use titles nor 'authorities' here. We are all equal in Christ. We believe in the function of the Spirit of these gifts, but not as a man made structure. We are in fellowship with people who function in all these gifts. As His Spirit guides, they function. No one person is more of a master teacher than another, Jesus is our master, his Spirit is our Teacher. All these functions are not always here every Monday. Sometimes we gather at one of their homes instead of here.

How do you handle the offering?

We don't mandate an offering. Since we own our home, we have no need to ask our guests to give us money just to host them for an evening in our home. We share in the meal by having it potluck. If someone has a need and they mention it, people will give as the Spirit guides them. No one has ever abused this by asking for handouts. People are generally quite humble and hesitant on even asking for financial help. We rely on the Spirit to speak to us about who needs assistance. We do get donations of nonperishable food so we do offer food boxes to everyone if they need it, all they need to do is ask. All the 'teachers' have their own income, so we have no need to pay them.

Do you have a nursery?

No. We allow the children to play all around the house. The older children play with them. Parents tend to their own children's needs.

Do you have a creed?

No, our gathering has no creed. Mostly it's just love Father and love one another. We believe each person has their own unique walkabout with Father and they are certainly free to hold to their own creed. As long as we each understand that we live in this life with love and mutual respect, then the fellowship is sweet. We welcome people of differing beliefs and encourage theological discussion. If they don't feel comfortable with fellowship with open minded people who question, then they may not like it here. We allow for all questioning. There is no spiritual tyranny here. We live in America where there is freedom of religion. We do not feel it's fair, spiritual healthy, nor Constitutional if we usurp their beliefs and make them believe as we do. You can believe in pre trib, post trib, tongues, healing, or women who teach. But also realize that if someone asks about these things, you'll be in for a long night. If a matter becomes a wall, we'll shelve the discussion until another time.

We are not out to get everyone to believe the same..we gather because of love for Father and one another. Bible study is challenging here. If one is not up for the challenges and study, they are free to depart peacefully after the meal. We still love them.

Do people commit to serving in your fellowship?

We don't see it that way. We believe in living the ministry life every day, not just on the day we gather. As we prepare the meal, people just naturally offer to help. There's plenty to do around here when a potluck meal for more than ten people is being prepared. We encourage people to participate in serving the community in whatever ministry they feel led to. Whether it's the homeless center, recovery homes, or day care centers for the disabled. We hold no 'positions' here. We are a family.

What about baptism?

We believe Jesus baptized us in His death. We believe that water baptism is a work therefore it is between the person and Christ if they want to do this. We are a very non traditional gathering here..and while we mean no disrespect, if someone wants to get wet as a celebration of their revelation of Christ, we'll have a pool party or go to the creek and we'll all canon ball together in celebration. I know this may sound silly, but we happen to think Jesus wants us to enjoy life and not be so stiff necked about rituals. If you want to get wet, we'll all get wet together and have fun doing it. With a huge barbecue of course. Can't leave out the Supper for such a momentous occasion as 'Christ in you'.

More to come. Feel free to ask about anything I have not covered in this post. Please refrain from trying to force me to adopt how your church functions. We are all unique and I hold firm to our soul liberty.

~Lisa

This article was published in 2011. Our lives have grown in different ways, as has our practice of gathering. The Spirit is always innovating and guides us to lean heavier into faith and is revealing greater horizons for how we reach out to and love others.

Freedom to Believe and to Speak About It

Many have followed me on Facebook for the last couple of years, as well as on my blogs and Twitter, and have come to the place where they are being more adamant with asking what specifically I believe. I can understand why they ask, since I post statuses that are thought provoking discussion starters and they have to read the entire dialogue to find out what I believe and yet even at times I don't come right out with my own conclusion and I think that is frustrating some people. I apologize for that, but frustration comes with impatience and I can't control a person's impatience. 

I have debated on whether or not to state bluntly, certain things that I believe, because it just seems to cause such a stir. I believe in Soul Liberty. It's my freedom to pursue knowledge of God as Holy Spirit guides me. Then I'm often asked, "Do you have a pastor?" To which, most times, people don't like my answer. "Jesus Christ is my Pastor." Then I'm pressured with, "Have you joined a church?" and again, they aren't quite thrilled with my answer. " We are the Church, the Body of Christ." For many pastors who do know us, they know how we live and worship God and are in support of our freedom, because they know we love people and we can get along with many churches in our area. We have a unique ministry that has been called by God to remain independent, yet we are in fellowship and counsel with wonderful pastors, teachers, and counselors. My husband and I both are certified counselors, have gone through biblical education, have been prayed over and blessed by many other believers who have been ordained. Just so you know, I don't always accept a person's 'ordination' status just because they went to a 'bible college'. Some have and some have not, but we believe  they are very well studied and function in their gifting very well. My husband is a Recovery Pastor and we function together as a couple to minister to people in recovery of addictions of various sorts.

I always hesitate in sharing a lot of these things and I'll tell you why. Regardless of whether or not I share these things about us, people still desire to argue and rebuke us for not following their denomination's ways and doctrines. My husband and I study the bible, gather with believers, worship together, etc. We are not just 'winging it' in our home, we are not isolating ourselves from our community or other believers, and we aren't demanding that people give us money. But for some reason, people continually try to find some 'sin' in how we live out our life in Christ. But for those who genuinely love us and ask out of curiosity and based on love, we don't mind sharing the details about what we believe. It's when we are treated harshly with judgmentalism, legalism, and immaturity that we hold back.

We certainly do live in a day when denominationalism has grown to hack away at so many fellowships over how they teach the gospel. In our unique ministry we have had the pleasure of getting to know pastors, bishops, elders, deacons, and a few apostles of various kinds of churches. On my Facebook page, I call certain unhealthy church behaviors and teachings into question and these pastors have been encouraging me to keep asking my questions. They don't always agree with some of the beliefs that people share, but they appreciate the dialogue and they study along with us. We all contribute to the discussions and what we're finding is how unimportant some beliefs are in comparison to how we are loving people.

I have friends who insist that I need to boldly proclaim what I believe and publicly rebuke anyone who disagrees with me. I don't think that's wise. 

1 Corinthians 13:5  "Love does not insist on it's own way."

I understand the idea of boldly proclaiming the gospel and yet many find that to be divisive as well, because God has called upon us to preach the gospel to a specific people in a specific way that mainstream Churchianity does not accept. As Peter was sent to those of the circumcision and Paul was sent later to the Gentiles, their letters sometimes seemed to disagree. But as any educated missionary knows, one must learn the culture of where they are going and their current beliefs so they can wisely meet them 'where they are' and go from there.

1 Corinthians 9:22 "I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some."

There are areas of scripture interpretation that are not useful in guiding a person to get to know our Messiah, the lover of our souls. Many people have been abused by churches, emotionally abused by people who call themselves Christians, and stolen from by deceitful clergy. This is a delicate area. We are honored that God has chosen us to be a place of fellowship for people to come and grow with. We offer soul liberty to these friends and they, in turn, offer it to us. 

I wouldn't say we are planting a 'church' as in the traditional sense, but the Lord is working through us in an organic way as a faith led body that functions as he guides us. We rely upon Him to be our structure when we gather and we still fellowship and gather with other believers in various homes and churches.

We believe that God chooses who He wants, to do certain things in this world, and He chooses how we will function. We heavily rely upon His Spirit to guide us each day of our lives and in how we help others. Since we function among believers from various denominations, we remain as neutral as possible in certain areas to keep in harmony of love. We hold to what a few select early church believers stated about our freedom of conscience. We have studied various reformers, what they believed and why they believed those things. We have studied why they broke from other churches and began their own. We have seen a general commonality that they all sought for, soul liberty.

I think it's perfectly natural for people who believe the same, to gather together for study, fellowship and worship. I think it's also natural that if a person has studied for any length of time with a group and wants to ask questions that they don't want to look into, then that person is free to find a group that does. It is in my opinion, that anyone who insists on the group taking on their beliefs is violating that group's soul liberty. Again, I go back to;

 1 Corinthians 13:5 "Love does not insist on it's own way"

In my opinion, some clergy and their Christians who continually fight and cause strife between people are behaving the same as childhood school bullies. "If you want to be my friend, you can't be friends with him!" All because of an uneducated, arrogant, fear that someone different from you must some how be of 'the devil'. These people are insistent on causing more divisions among the people, dividing them from one another over issues that disrupt the harmony of love in our communities.

I'm not suggesting all the churches become a part of the 'New World Order' and it's 'One World Religion', but rather a part of a loving community that is open to loving one another no matter what interpretations they believe. If people are loving, kind, and tolerant, then why become divisive with them? No matter how many churches are in your area, you are still a community of Americans, One Nation. But even far more important, we are of a Heavenly Nation of Love. How will people know you are a Christ follower?

John 13: 34-35 "A new commandment  I give to you,  that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

We are each of different flavors of Christ, so let us not divide the Body asunder, but encourage one another in love. We each have soul liberty and should not forbid one another from expressing what they believe and why they believe it. We may be able to learn from one another if we truly give one another the same freedom the reformers fought for.

~Lisa

The Battle and It's Wounded Soldiers

Sometimes people are so convinced that if you're not in a church that you are somehow in retreat, but that's not what I am finding among the believers that I know (those who don't belong to an Institutional Church).

Yes, there are many wounded soldiers and sadly most of them have been wounded by those we thought were on the same team. Is there any other religion that shoots it's own soldiers when they're down, than Christianity?

There's a battle raging within Christianity today and it is crippling the momentum that should be advancing on the field. Christianity has become Churchianity in many places all over the world and their focus left Christ a long time ago. Now our wounded soldiers are having to deal with how to be strategically wise in order to protect themselves and their loved ones from the very 'brethren' we fought alongside for so many years.

I've never served in the military, but I've read and studied enough to know that not every branch serves in the same capacity. Each one specializes in a specific area and if each branch could work together in supporting one another we can become quite powerful..."to the pulling down of strongholds" once again. But somewhere along the way they forgot about pulling down strongholds and they are more concerned with recruiting people into their branches to just increase numbers. 

I remember meeting with a recruiter for the Air Force when I was 18 years old. I wanted to be a pilot in the Air Force. The recruiter gave me all the information, but asked me to be sure this was the branch I really wanted to be a part of. There are other branches I could have chosen and I still would have been on the same team, The United States of America. 

Now that I think about it, you don't have to be in any military branch in order to be on this team, even the civilians are still on the same team and our taxes pay for those soldiers. We all need one another.

I try to think about this in terms of my faith and the fellowships we all form in our own towns. We each have a function and God will place us where He wants us. There are also wounded soldiers who have been inflicted great harm at the hands of other soldiers and some abusive leaders have misused their positions to punish unjustly. There is corruption all around us and it has been said many times that an outside enemy doesn't have the power to destroy us, the power to destroy comes from within it's own department.

We each have a function and we need to discover what that is through God's Spirit guiding us. Maybe you feel like you are a wounded soldier never able to get back in the battle...but may I remind you of something the apostle Paul said? He said,

 "Love never ends". {1 Corinthians 13} 

The command to love remains steadfast which is where we can be of use in this multifaceted ministry of reconciliation. Even the military hospitals have doctors, nurses, and staff to help the wounded to heal...they're still all a part of the progress of defending freedom.

If God reveals to you that you have wounded one of our own, could you seek Him in depth on how you can reconcile? Even if you agree to disagree, can it be done in love and through peace? Let's remain linked arm in arm, advancing on the field in the victory that has already been given to us through Christ.

The freedom in Him to love one another and help spread the Gospel.. Christ came to set us free.

~Lisa