How Do We Know When It's Church?

One of the paradigm shifts that goes with "going organic" in church life after a lifetime of participation and leadership in more traditional church structures is what happens "at church".  In more traditional modalities, "church" begins at a particular point after worshipers arrive at the church campus (how often have I heard - and said - things like "church starts at 9:00"?).  Then, in effect, church "ends" sometime after the formal worship service is dismissed.

Not so with house church.  It is more like a family gathering.  And since this family is the family of God, "church" begins not just theoretically, but actually, as soon as two or more come together in His Name.  For us, "church" begins with a potluck breakfast meal around 9:00 a.m.  It is fair to say that church begins with the making of the first latte', the distribution of the first donut or bowl of oatmeal, and the passing of the first sausage -- and I'm not just saying that.  It is a fact.  What could be more "church" than God's people bringing things to someone's home and feeding one another - taking care of one another - thinking about what people would enjoy, what we could add to the whole.  A prayer of thanksgiving and blessing is prayed and then we get on with interacting, serving, cleaning up after and enjoying one another.  If that ain't "church", what is?

See, at the house church, we don't "put on a service" per se.  We meet, yes.  We worship, certainly.  We get into God's Word together, absolutely.  We minister to one another, regularly.  But we don't really "go to church" in the way we used to.  We meet as church to be the church.  So, on many days a church meeting includes the experience of us plowing through I Samuel a couple of chapters per week, as we have been doing over the past several months.  But today "church" (after b'fast, worship, sharing, etc) took a much different turn as we divided into three groups and went out door-to-door through the neighborhood.  Our mission was to pass out invitations to our three upcoming home grown Christmas activities planned for December.

Before we left on our neighborhood trek, we read a passage from Luke 14 where Jesus tells us to freely invite people to a banquet without concern as to whether or not we would get payback for doing so.  Then we went out and DID IT.  Along the way we talked with each other, spoke with a few neighbors and generally enjoyed a stroll in the brisk but sunny Southern California air.

After finishing our neighborhood tour, one of our new house church friends sat down at the piano and began playing "Silent Night" while I joined in strumming on the 12-String guitar.  A few voices picked up the refrain and, for a moment or two, the room spontaneously filled with beautiful song.  That's right - we were still being the church.  And, without a doubt, "church" was still going on.

If you are coming from a place where you know it's "church" because a worship service has been formally begun, bulletins have been passed out, sermons have been preached, collections have been taken, and other hallmarks of a traditional worship service have come to pass, you might find some of what we do during "church" to be a little befuddling.  But when I revisit the biblical definition of the church, I have reason to believe that God is right in the midst of our life together - interacting with us, using us and (dare I say it?) enjoying His time with us as His called out community while we are engaging in fellowship, worship, and action in His name.    

Maybe that's one reason why I look forward to coming every week - well, that and the fact that it is the best breakfast I will eat that week for sure!

See us at www.vineyardathome.com

Get Your Free CD Yet?

You are invited to request a copy of a free CD courtesy of Vineyard at Home.  The CD contains a recording of the workshop led by Bill Faris at last summer's Regional Conference of the Vineyard in Anaheim, California on the topic of "Ministry in Everyday Places".

This is not a "lecture", but a very good recording of a lively discussion Bill led with participants that included a teacher, a Christian motorcycle club member, traditional church pastors, house church people, children's ministry people and others.  Really cool!

To get your copy in the mail, simply write us at: mail@vcmn.org.   Naturally, you will need to pleasse include your mailing address.  Enjoy!

See us at www.vineyardathome.com

We'll Be Home For Christmas

(photos from past Foothill Ranch House Church Christmas celebrations)

Halloween is behind us now and the winter holidays approach.  Even though "The Glory of Christmas" will not be presented this year at the Crystal Cathedral, there will no doubt be many other Christmas-themed productions and presentations designed to draw people to the churches in our area.  That's great.   However, those of us from Vineyard at Home have our own ideas about taking the Christmas message and the Christmas spirit to the neighborhood and creating connection, community and worship "home style".

For example, Eric Brown and the teenagers have been working on our homegrown original production of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" -- with a gospel twist!  For weeks now, they have been constructing and painting set pieces, practicing lines and preparing details for our third annual live Christmas production staged entirely in the Benson's garage extravaganza.  Okay, extravaganza may be too strong of a word, but this year's "Grinch" presentation is the young people's most ambitious project yet.

Of course, all this begins with a neighborhood prayer walk and invitation distribution time that we'll take on an upcoming Sunday morning to canvass the neighborhood in Foothill Ranch.  That's when we'll be inviting people to the play as well as to a neighborhood hayride we have planned for early December.  Finally, we will be hosting our regular in-house Christmas Eve candlelight and worship presentation at our host home in Foothill as well.  So it will be a 1-2-3 punch of Christmas outreach, fun, creativity and worship.  Not bad for our small band of Vineyard at Home members.

Our Friday night group (we meet in San Juan Capistrano at the Price home) is also planning a special holiday in-home invitational worship, candlelight communion and Christmas-themed celebration.  This will open the door to more connections to the weekly Bible Study we have been holding there.

So, as the year moves towards its final act, we'll be sharing Jesus in our own wonderfully simple ways.  At VatH, we'll be home for Christmas!  

See us at www.vineyardathome.com