Apostolic house churches?
 

I am sure there are several threads somewhere with a similar title. .. but I am trying to find out... who here is a member of an apostolic house church? I am using the following definition for the sake of this thread:

An independent local fellowship of people who believe in Jesus, with a "oneness" view of the godhead, who have repented of sin, been baptised in either "Jesus' name" or "the name of Jesus Christ" or "the name of the Lord Jesus" or "the name of the Lord Jesus Christ", who have experienced the "pentecostal baptism" initially evidenced by speaking with other tongues, meet regularly (in person) to pray, read and study scripture, and worship God, and who consider themselves to be a definite assembly or "church". Thus a small group home fellowship meeting of a larger church, incorporated as a non-profit and meeting primarily in a dedicated building other than someone's house or domicile, is not what I'm referencing.

Re: Apostolic house churches?
 

Well I was for some 20 years or so. Unfortunately I am not right now. I hope this thread turns up some people who are currently meeting. Lafon? Kept By The Word?

Re: Apostolic house churches?
 

I'd love to be a part of a strictly Apostolic house church network. The network I'm a part of today is more non-denominational with the majority having charismatic and Baptist roots. While they are open to Oneness and Acts 2:38, they don't identify themselves by it as I'd like them to.

Re: Apostolic house churches?
 

homeless here.

Re: Apostolic house churches?
 

Yes, I believe we would qualify for the home church definition that you have posed. We certainly have a oneness view of the godhead, are all baptized in Jesus name, and have experienced the Pentecostal baptism. We are a small group of several families. We don't have a leader per se, but the men of each family guide our fellowship. All are welcome to share their thoughts, testimonies, and prayer requests, even children. We don't have a set form or pattern of meeting, but start with prayer and follow the leading of the spirit. There are several in the group who play the piano, and we sing hymns and choruses, and worship the Lord together. We share a meal together as well as celebrate the Lord's Supper each time we meet.

Re: Apostolic house churches?
 

The small group that I am a part of meets your definition of a House Church. We are small, rotate our assembling from one member's house to another, we vary in number at each gathering from 5-12, depending primarily on work schedules, or other responsibilities that might prohibit them from attending. For this reason we have chosen to meet twice weekly, Tuesday and Friday, so that everyone has an opportunity to assemble with others at least once each week.

Four of our members attend, on occasion, a local Apostolic Penteostal church (non-UPCI), as I do also for some special event. One of our members, a former licensed member of the ALJC, was even invited to preach, & accepted, on at least two occasions that I am aware of, to do just that. The Pastor of that assembly was invited, and in fact, did attend one of our gathering where the topic of discussion was focused upon our Lord's commandment of Matthew 6:33. I was later told that they even used much of what we talked about in a sermon afterwards at that assembly.

Each member of our group has been baptized "in the name" of the Lord Jesus Christ and have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, that is, with the exception of a young couple that have recently started attending. The husband was raised by his Grandmother in a Trinitarian Pentecostal church, and his wife was raised by parents who were Jehovah Witnesses. They both seem to be very attentive to our discussions and join in with many questions concerning things which differ from what they have been taught.

Our focus from the beginning was to seek out as many "un-churched" Oneness Apostolic Pentecostals as possible, and offer to them a non-institutionalized setting wherein they might find comfort and fellowship with "like-minded" people who have, because of their individual reasons, become separate from the institutionalized Apostolic Pentecostal churches, yet desire fellowship with others whose core beliefs are the same. We are slowly achieving that objective, and have set the limit at 15 people before dividing to begin a separate House Church group.

This is because we are an "ever-member participating" group, where each person is allowed to free expressly their views on a matter. Although I, as the eldest, have been "elected" as the Teacher and the one who exercises control over the activities, that is, insure that only one speaks at a time, but encourage everyone to participate in the discussions, I am not, do i want any to consider me as a Pastor.

I was greatly encouraged when a young man, who is also an un-churched Apostolic and had learned about our group, called me and asked if he could begin attending. He is a student at a local colledge & desired to know when we met, so that he could arrange his winter classes so that he could be free to attend. So we are growing, and that is great news!