The posts we've written in the past on our home church fellowship have drawn quite a bit of interest. Here's another bird's eye view into what a Sunday is like at our house.
On a recent Lord's Day 37 folks attended our fellowship--quite an answer to prayer from our small beginnings of just two families, totaling 9, two years ago this month. Our usual attendance has been between 25 and 30 on a regular Sunday.
Extra chairs are brought out, and they spill around behind the sofa in anticipation of each family's arrival.
Fellowshipping with us have been folks from other parts of Virginia, New York, Texas, Michigan, Illinois, and even Nigeria!
We are so blessed to have these families worshipping with us, and we enjoy the agape meal afterwards when we can get better acquainted.
We recently welcomed Kenton and Anna and their three children who are in the area from Chicago. Kenton will be here for a year's legal internship, and we are looking forward to getting to know them more during these next months as they are a part of our church.
Friends of Kenton and Anna who are also from Illinois--George, Krista, and their little girl--are here for a month-long medical rotation at UVA before leaving the area.
If any of you have seen the Eden String Quartet DVD from Franklin Springs Family Media, you might recognize Krista as one of the sisters in the film. We loved getting to meet her because we felt like we knew her already after listening to her family's beautiful music.
Larry, Kathy, and their eight children hail from New York. They visited us recently when they came to Virginia to bring their oldest son to law school at Liberty University in Lynchburg. After getting him settled, they headed back home. We only met them the one Sunday; however, Jeremy has continued to drive the 1 hour, 45 minutes from school to worship with us here.
Ken, Andrea, and their children found out about the church and drove down I-81 almost two hours from northern Virginia to visit recently. We look forward to future visits from this delightful family.
Dan, Jan, and their family moved to Virginia from New York a year ago and have joined us for the past three months for church. We have enjoyed conversations with them and also visiting in their home.
It's been great to have these fellow believers from many walks of life gather here each Sunday. The Lord has truly blessed our small group.
~Deb
Although we've never home-churched, we do know the thrill of seeing an assembly grow and new people join us. I'm glad to see you have new people coming!
Posted by: Susan | Sunday, August 23, 2009 at 10:12 PM
Deb, that must be so thrilling to see how the Lord is blessing your fellowship. We know another family that started a home church a few years ago with just two other families. Today it has grown to more than 30 families. The Lord be praised. Thanks for sharing.
Blessings,
Victoria
Posted by: victoria | Monday, August 24, 2009 at 08:31 AM
It's so exciting to watch as the Lord blesses different fellowships! Recently we were talking about the small group of families (yours included, when y'all would occasionally make the trip to the Pruiett family's home) who would gather together and how many fellowships have sprung off and grown from such a small group in the beginning.
Posted by: Meredith | Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 02:51 PM
It is indeed good to learn of the growth in your small fellowship. When a few families make the decision to return to the simpler and faithful keeping of the Lord's Day together, word does spread, and growth comes. My own church began about ten years ago with four families, discouraged and frustrated with the huge mega church they were attending, despite the faithful and solid teaching of the Word. They began meeting in a home, soon joined by another. Today there are five congregations meeting in that large metro area, two up my way in Washington, another east of the mountains recently joined in, and now yet one more in Southern Oregon. From what I've read of your group, you are doing things very much the same. I have to drive 70 miles each way, but after years of looking closer, this has been by far the best situation. Our own little fellowship has grown from three families to about ten... we outgrew the home we met in, and are sharing a smallish community church facility, which is working out wonderfully well.
Small, closely knit groups such as yours seem to be characterised by a sweetness that is almost unknown in a larger more organised church setting (although I have known a few such). I am also convinced the shared meal/feast/covered dish supper concept is a key part of the success and growth. Times I've been involved with churches that do this weekly I really was able to get to know the others quickly and deeply. Sunday-go-to-meetin "church" just doesn't work.... it takes breaking bread together to knit the saints into a church family.
Posted by: Nick Jesch | Wednesday, September 02, 2009 at 01:53 AM
Amen to what Mr. Jesch said.
Victoria
Posted by: victoria | Wednesday, September 02, 2009 at 07:25 PM