How do you start or where do you find a home church? That seems to be a big questions for those leaving the bigger organized churches and most tend to become smaller versions of what they left.
First we dont start anything. The Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the church and he has a church already----no need to start it. We enter into his church by belief in in him. His sheep know him and follow him. Therefore the first thing needed to be in his church is to believe and listen to him, regardless of where you meet.
To ask how to start a church implies it is your church not his. To ask how to also implies a list of dos and donts similar to the denominations you seek to leave behind. To ask where, implies it is limited to a certain group.
If I asked, how do I start a family or friendly get together, what would your reply be? Isnt gathering with a group of other believers very similar? It is a time of sharing, loving, encouraging, etc. It is not a ceremony with specific dos. It is not a place to gather up more and more people like the big guys do. It is time for intimate discussion with other like minded folks. Just like other get togethers, it can be small sometimes and larger other times. It can be sporadic at times and planned at others, formal or informal, etc.
Once a woman asked me about our familys worship. She was the wife of a minister who left a denomination to start their own home church which she said failed. She hinted around as to exactly how we met or how many, or when, what, etc. I could see the reason their home church failed was they sought to gather others to their own little home church denomination. I explained our home church was not ours. Rather we had no church for her to attend. We had no special meetings or special entertainment, speakers, etc. We were just a family who loved the Lord and gathered together as we could to discuss the word. I told her how we had been out in the wilderness for a long time with just the Lord as our guide as we had been led away from this and that church and various movements, etc. We came to depend on him alone.
This is the how. Get to know the Lord very well and he will guide you to others to meet with if that is his will for you. He may also put others in your path who need to be pointed to Christ first. Family and friends have come and gone, weve had times of intense study and fellowship and times of lean. Regardless, we have the Lord and we are in his church not ours. To the worldly, religious types, it appears our home church has failed. You know they are right, our church is non existent. But the good news is: his church is growing as he adds people daily! Be glad, be happy, worship the Lord today and every day for we belong to the kingdom that never ends.
And remember worship is not something you do 2 hours a week; but who you believe in and how you live everyday. Do his will and point others to him rather than self or others.
God bless and comfort you.
