Five Hours of House Church? Why Not?!

At some point today, when I realized nearly four hours had gone by since first arriving at house church, I turned to someone nearby and said: "I remember when I tried to get in and out of church as quickly as possible".  Someone else quipped: "I remember when I used to be late to church all the time".  Our host chimed in: "I remember when I used to have to leave my house to go to church!"

Ahhhh - how things have changed.

If five hours seems like a lot of time to "go to church", you have to remember that "church" begins with an hour or so of potluck breakfast.  Today's spread included: quiche, oatmeal with raisins, bananas, strawberries and milk, a potato cheese hot breakfast hot dish, sausages, breakfast burritos, warm coffee cake, fresh fruit assortment and (if you want one) a hand-made latte' courtesy of our hostess.  

After such a feast - complete with noisy kids and adults, stories and updates from our crazy lives, and other this and that, we retreat to the living room for worship.  Adults circle up on the main floor area.  Teens and pre-teens sit on the stairs and on the landing above, looking down.  Smaller children spread out a few quiet toys and puzzles near their adult parent while the baby got pretty much passed around (he seemed to like it, too!)

Now it's worship time!  Beautiful and sweet (worship leader disclaimer: "the kids want some faster songs this time").  Next it's sharing.  First order of importance: the 11-year old who (while jumping up and down on the stairs) proclaims: "I accepted God and Jesus this week" while at a VBS event.  Applause!

Others share.  Encouraging words.  Interesting experiences.  Now the youth are leaving for their own time outside while the adults pull out electronic and paper Bibles for our first dip into I Samuel (chapters 1 through 3 if you must know).  There is observations, group readings and discussion - wonderful insight, wonderful application!  Now we circle to pray for two folks who could use some personal ministry.  

Outside, the sound of ping-pong and kids splashing in the pool increases.  Soon adults are wandering out and joining in.  SPLASH!!!  That's the sound of the 17-year old doing a canonball.  SSSSPPPPLLLLAAAAASSSSHHH!  

That's the sound of the, um, more mature aged youth leader doing his "preacher" canonball.  Is there any water left in the pool.  Fortunately, there is. 

We take a group photo.  We eat popcorn.  We challenge each other to ping pong and talk some smack.  All the while, kids are swimming and, by 2 p.m., the hostess throws on some pasta and hooks up some tacos to serve for lunch.  Time for us to leave, but others stay on.  Who knows how long "church" will last?

Driving home I reflect upon the fact that I like this house church thing.  It's family!

See us at www.vineyardathome.com

Welcome to Vineyard at Home

Vineyard at Home is a new blog about our house church experiences, philosophy of ministry, quirks, adventures and points of view. In it, I will be sharing not only my own insights and experiences, but also those of others who are meeting in simple church / organic church / house church modalities. Should be pretty interesting - and fun!

Vineyard at Home is the name of our house church "network" in Orange County, California. We are affiliated with the Vineyard USA which is the community of Vineyard Churches in America. However, as a house church, we are definitely breaking new ground for our movement and for ourselves. We don't mind (too much) that people don't always get why we would move away from more traditional/conventional church life to house church. Indeed, there are things we sometimes miss about the "old days" when we were a small church in Southern California meeting in a rented building and reaching out as churches in our neck of the woods do. But, after two years in house church mode, we're pretty hooked on the chance to "empower everyday people to bring the ministry of Jesus to everyday places". Oh, and you'll notice that - while we take God very seriously - we don't take ourselves too seriously at all!

We welcome comments, questions and the experiences of others who, like us, are launching out into the sometimes lonely paths of alternative church modalities. Please don't hesitate to weigh in!

So, welcome!

Bill Faris, Director and Blogger

Vineyard at Home