Should I Join a Home Church?
Guest writer Tracy Close answers the question, “What’s So Important About Having a Home Church?” She shares the importance and benefits of belonging to a local body of believers and what should keep us together.
Many Christians have become disillusioned with the idea of organized religion. Through dissatisfaction, for one reason or another, their unrest leads them to the point of abandoning their home church. This can begin a process of church hopping or a belief develops that they can subsist on their own, avoiding involvement in any church body. However, this is not what Jesus intended for His disciples, His plan was always to establish and build a body of believers that would spread the good news and support one another. Had He wanted people to fly solo, He would have walked alone Himself instead of enlisting disciples.
In order to fully experience what God has for us we must be in fellowship.
So we understand that through Jesus’ plan the church was conceived, but that does not tell us why we need to be rooted in one church. Why not just attend whatever flavor service suits our needs or mood at the moment?
First, we need to understand that the church discovered quite early that organization was imperative to function and survival. In Acts we read that the believers came together sharing belongings, money and food. They supported one another and had fellowship and “did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” People witnessed the community that the believers had, something that they lacked in their own lives, but longed to experience. That longing opened their hearts to salvation.
In the Great Commission, Jesus challenges believers to go out and make disciples of all nations. It is a fact that we are capable of solo evangelism, but how effective can we truly be on our own? Moreover, how long can one fly solo? When we have the support and resource of a church body unified and committed to that purpose we have the power to not only minister on one street corner, but as many corners as the body contains individuals called to that task. Furthermore, a group will certainly have more endurance than one individual without support.
The church is a place of safe haven and through the body flows the power of prayer. In a healthy church the congregants are nurtured and tended. In times of strife they are supported with prayer “Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him” (Acts 12:5). Those of us that are rooted in a home church enjoy the comfort and security of the knowledge that we have a host of saints interceding on our behalf, all we need do is simply ask and we shall receive.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit were given by Jesus to the church. Where else can prayerfully seek the best of the gifts?
The church is organized with the purpose of providing for ministry, evangelism, teaching and worship. If you are not participating in that you are not only missing out on the blessings that God has intended for you, but you are truly turning your back on God saying “I can do it better myself.” This, we know is false. Scripture states clearly that we can do all things through Him who strengthens us, not on our own. Jesus did not walk alone, nor should we.
A home church should be sought through prayer. It should be a place that an individual feels called to, a place where one feels compelled to serve and to become rooted therein. In order to fully experience what God has for us we must be in fellowship, must be grafted into the vine through the church. If we remain alone, we are merely adrift in stormy seas destined only to sink.
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