A house church is one of the more difficult there is to grow. As a former pastor of a house church I can tell you that it is very different than church growth of a normal church on the corner. You do not have the visibility and advertising is not something that can be done easily.
I have learned a few things about church growth, which I want to share with those who are in house churches across America. There are a few things you require to comprehend at first. These problems will affect any church growth attempts you make.
The first issue your home church will face is that of a meeting place. Not everyone wants to have strangers in their home. If your church grows it will have to do so through use of some other alternative meeting places. This of course is just if you require your church to grow that much. If you merely develop by gaining members that you already know then you should have no problems.
That brings up the next issue you require to think about. How much do you require your home church to grow by? The very beauty of a home church is the intimacy that the members enjoy. That intimacy would diminish as the church grows if it gets too huge.
These are your two biggest concerns. There are only two ways to solve the problems. You can either grow just by including more friends and not strangers. That is one way to solve the problem. The next way is to commit to building a normal church with small groups.
Cause the growth of a home church that just includes those who are already friends could just go so far and this article is about church growth I will not converse about the other option. Like I already said you can commit to building a church. This is going to take a lot more than most home churches could handle.
I would like to make merely one suggestion before you go down that road. Have your members spend time in other established christian churches. This will do a few things. It will test your member’s loyalty to each other and the common goal. It will also give you ideas on how to establish your church.
As you visit these other christian churches grow your own house church by inviting people to your home church. You do not have to hold service on the same days. This will test your home church to see how it may handle growth. It will also give you experience in dealing with a changing church. Numerous home churches could not survive this system.
That is why you in fact have to mull over what you are doing very carefully. Prayer is one of the most vital things to this system. No church should take growth lightly… even a small home church. As you may see there are pit falls to the growth of a home church. Growth could be straightforward for established public churches… but it is not the same for the small home church.
Author Resource:
Learn more about church growth at small church advertising com.