Quote:
Originally Posted by Amanah
Aaron, are you doing house church now? and if so how is that going?
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We have been a part of an independent Apostolic assembly that meets home to home, for a few months more than two years now.
It is is the right path for us. I know it is not for everyone, even though I personally think it should be (but am not militant with others about it), but for us, under the conviction of truth we believe we have, there no longer is another way but this.
As far as the meetings go, they are some of the most fantastic times in the Lord I've ever had. My wife and I have been married now for going on ten years, yet it feels like there has never been a time in our lives that we didn't have each other.
It is the same with meeting house to house. We've only been doing so now for just over two years, and yet it feels like that's what we've had our entire lives, without that actually being the reality.
I think that if more people would consider the purpose for it, for why it is Apostolic (meaning of the Apostles, not just the current Apostolic Church, as is) doctrine to do so, and if they'd give some time to patient prayer and fasting with meditation upon the Holy Scriptures, the only thing that would hold them back is fear.
There is nothing in me that says God won't meet with His people if they are not meeting house to house. But many people can't seem to conceive of the idea that God will meet with His people just as much anywhere else as in a building owned by a local assembly.
There is something about the feeling of safety when there is a building owned by a local assembly, where all can meet for service as scheduled, on a regular basis, with liturgy and pre-planned, even pre-packaged agenda.
Meeting house to house at first can feel like stepping out on the boat and walking on water (for some, at least), and the call to do so, requires great faith(fulness).
It may feel like it's not really "church" at first, but the un-Biblical trappings, when they are finally realized to be just that, un-Biblical, slowly fade into the background and become more and more unnecessary as time goes by.
The key is to have someone educated and discerning and gentle and apt to teach, who can give an account to the believers, who has been there, done that, and knows that of which they speak.
Too many times, "house church", as it's called (a term I do not use or like) is equated with un-accountability, heresy and dogmatism, and other profane things, all of which all too often do happen in some "house churches", because they went house to house for the wrong reasons, and by beginning in their flesh, they finished in their flesh and found no harvest from the Holy Spirit.
My dad lives with us and he has been in the Apostolic Church for almost as long as me (he was my second convert), and he won't come to the meetings we host at our home. He attends a different "church" and while he's not against anything we do (though he did have some questions), he has not expressed any interest in being a part of it, even when it's happening in the very same home.
I'm not bothered by this. I just wait and pray for the day when things will change (not just with him, but with the brethren as a whole, who can't seem to find unity but rather divide over the smallest stuff, like, for example, whether meeting house to house is an acceptable form of Body life and ministry).
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