Home Groups
"Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped
teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah." - Acts 5:42
Meeting “house to house (Ac. 5:42)” for song, prayer, scripture, eating, laughing, and crying, is the Lord’s means for forging real community and relationship.
As relationships develop and lives are “shared (1 Thess. 2:8)”, obedience to Jesus becomes a shared experience as members encourage one another along the narrow path.
Sharing our dinner tables and living rooms with unbelievers opens a door for sharing “our message (Rom. 10:16)” and gives a front row seat for how believers love and care for another.
Should we experience seasons (1 Pet. 4:12-14) where our larger corporate gatherings are taken away , Home Groups can still function in our mission of following Jesus in worship, discipleship, and evangelism.
I would say after my mother died I had lost my faith. I have grown up in the church my entire life and have always believed until the moment she was gone. I was in a dark spot, just thought it was darkness after we died and there wasn’t anything really after the fact. At that point, I didn’t realize how much my faith or lack there of was affecting Brittany my wife. I had to really evaluate how I felt so that it didn’t negatively impact her. The last thing I wanted was to cause her to fall away.
Josh had conveniently been hanging around and one particular day I had to run to Blackwell and he offered to ride with me. This isn’t something he’s ever done and it couldn’t have happened at a better time. He started to Shepherd me back to God, we started to have one on one Bible study every week and we still do to this day.
Fast forward a few months, I’m on the road working in Coffeyville and I hear that my wife’s friends find a mini pig for sale in Sedan, KS so my wife decides it’s a good idea to go buy it and we end up sneaking it into the hotel that night. I finish the job and get home to find two new goats and the pig that we didn’t have before I left for the job. One day, the Simpsons asked if they could come over to see the pig. We knew them but didn’t have a real relationship with them like we do now.
They hang out for a while and the next week they ask us if we want to have dinner at their house. Little did I know it was home group, I felt hustled, but in a good way (kind of like I felt hustled to speak today). I had heard about the home groups because Stephanie, Braden and Andrew had been inviting me for weeks to come to theirs. We show up at the Simpsons and the Reese’s, James and Langston’s we’re all there and we were surprised since we thought it was just going to be us. Fast forward, now we try not to miss home group if at all possible, we don’t always want to go but we always feel refreshed afterwards.
At this point, I feel like we’ve established bonds and friendships that will last forever. We encourage and pray for each other weekly. Our kids are playing and socializing. We’re eating good food every week (except ham and beans Megan I’m sorry :P ) These are all benefits we never expected from a home group.
This group has me praying every day, singing in church, which I never did before, they’ve helped me stop cussing near as much, those who know me know that I have a potty mouth. It was one of the last things my mom asked me to do was to quit cussing. It’s made our marriage stronger. Home group has truly enriched our lives in more ways than I can list. I believe living a Godly life has had a positive impact on our business as well.
When Josh preaches about running a race, it is essential to have a core group of people to help you set a pace so that you don’t slow down. They keep you on track for the end goal. I want to see my Jesus and my mother again and will do whatever it takes to do so.
In summary, the point is to get a mini pig and go to a home group.