Preaching in a House Church

Jim Elliff recently commented at another blog about preaching in house churches. Jim's comments below are taken from the comment thread found here.

"We’ve employed both an open session format and a longer exposition, prepared by an elder or other capable brother. In this view we are in the spirit of 1 Cor 14, but also taking note of the many instructions for leaders related to teaching. In the typical guest meal of the Roman world, a person would often be assigned to provoke the assembly with some prepared speech. Ben Witherington in Making a Meal of It brings this out. Though I think we could make it without it in our congregation, due to a number of good teachers who speak up in our meetings, we have retained the special extended, though interactive, exposition for now, seeing much benefit from it. Those house churches that do not do this tend to get mushy and less helpful, in my view. Our meetings are 2 or 2 1/2 hours long, prior to the Lord’s meal.

One thing should be said about an emphasis on doctrine in our verbal contributions to the meeting. It must not be forgotten that Paul labored for right doctrine in nascent churches. Sometimes house churches minimize what Paul emphasized. He cared about this because these churches would start others. As he made a beachhead in any given city, nothing could be more important than this. It would be inconsistent to say that people were just to share sort of non-doctrinal life together, when the evidence of the NT is otherwise. For us, we enjoy and appreciate the richness of seeing doctrine in the Scriptures we work on together. We have a variety in verbal contributions to the meeting, but teaching is doctrinal by definition.

Our meetings usually see three or four shorter teachings, plus other sharing. At these times, a brother points us to a passage and we turn to it, often interacting with his views. He is teaching, not saying, “This passage warmed my heart this week.” We allow that, but when one is teaching, something more is happening. Add to this a longer exposition which is 20-40 minutes, and you have something substantive and often life-changing...

I think we should work hard to dismiss the notion that all house churches have to be doctrinally uncommitted. It doesn’t make sense from the biblical data. At the same time, we all know the dangers of being “doctrinaire.” We can teach truths and be humble and open—that is possible.

Our life together is both in Christ and in what He says. I won’t go into giving the passages related to life being in the Word, but they are there. We feed on truth. I still am amazed that leaders can say that they will not teach the very things Paul was laboring to impart to young churches. In some cases laziness is the problem, but in others, philosophy of ministry. To go long without meaningful doctrine is like attempting to raise a healthy child on cotton candy.

As an additional comment–our pastors really work hard at helping our men especially to take responsibility for a good meeting together. Since we mentor every man in our individual house church, we can be direct about this. We’re learning, but the efforts are life-imparting. Each of our congregations is at a different stage, and not all have the level of teachers our congregation is blessed to have. But, there is something to training men to step up and be responsible for our gatherings.

Readers can find more at our church site, www.ChristfellowshipKC.org."