Throughout the Book of Acts and the various letters of Paul, we find abundant evidence that Christians regularly gathered in their homes for times of worship, sharing a meal, praying together, meeting one another’s various needs and reaching out to those who did not yet know Jesus as their Lord. In recent years many Christians have returned to meeting in homes as a primary place for being the church.

Even though Northland is by all definitions what could be called a mega-church, we are committed to helping others do church on as small a scale as a dozen people in a home. The reason for this is found in our understanding of what it means to be a Church Distributed. In a sentence, it means helping people to be the church, the Body of Christ, wherever they are … everywhere, every day. Our Pastor, Dr. Joel C. Hunter, speaks often of us being field-based. That means we want to bring resources and encouragement, and training for ministry to people where they live, and work and play. The house church allows that to happen anywhere in the world.

What is a house church?

Simply put it is a gathering of people, from at least two different nuclear families, who gather for worship and see themselves as living out the New Testament example of the House Church. The first few generations of Christians regularly met in houses in order to worship and minister to one another.

How do you worship in a House Church?

Five times each weekend, Northland sends it worship live across the Internet. Currently we average more 1,000 locations around the world where people worship via interactive webcast. Some of these are house churches. They sing and pray, celebrate communion, great one another, share scripture 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.

What about children?

It depends on the group. In some house churches , hildren 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 All you need to do is go to http://www.childrensministrywarehouse.org and download the materials for the week that you want to use.

What else does a House Church do?

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.

What kind of training and support can I expect?

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.

How to I get 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).