When people from at least two different nuclear families gather for worship, this is called a “house church” or “simple church.”

The first few generations of Christians regularly met in small groups in order to worship and minister to one another. One of the most important aspects of being a house church is serving and loving your neighbors in the name of Jesus. Being the church in a house allows people to work together to serve others in ways that larger churches often overlook. Typically the members of a house church will share with one another the needs that they know of from their own relationships. As they are led by God they then reach out and meet those needs. It can range from providing meals for someone in the neighborhood who is ill, to providing Christmas for a family in need, or even doing home repairs. The type of serving depends on the situations that God presents to the church and the gifts and abilities within the church to meet those needs.

Five times each weekend, Northland sends its worship live across the Internet. Currently we average more 2,000 people around the world worshiping live via interactive webcast. Some of these are house churches. They sing and pray, celebrate communion, greet one another, share Scriptures and do whatever else we are doing in worship at that time. They listen to the sermon for the day and often gather after worship to share a meal and talk about what they have just heard. Sometimes they even communicate with other sites via the Web, exchanging prayer requests and praises.

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It depends on the group. In some house churches, children are included for the entire worship time. In others, the members of the house church share the responsibility to teach the children. The curriculum for children that is written by a team at Northland is available for free online at http://www.childrensministrywarehouse.org

You will receive personalized mentoring to help you grow as a house church leader. This may include direct conversations, emails and even personal visits from the support team at Northland. We will also connect you with other house church leaders and networks, both within and outside the structure of Northland. Additionally, the “Church, Simply” website provides information and resources to get you started.

Pray a lot! The decision to start a house church is something that you need to believe God wants you to do. Pray for wisdom and a leading from God that you are called to this. Then begin to think of two or three other families that might join with you. A family could be anything from a single person household to a three-generation group in the same house. The main thing is that they live in a different home from you. Finally, get in touch with Dr. Dan Lacich at Northland. He is pastor for distributed sites and will help provide you with the training and resources that you need to get started. Contact Pastor Dan at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 407-937-1815.