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Just one little example of Christian house meetings August 26, 2008

Posted by Zack in : Uncategorized , trackback

House gatherings are a major feature of today’s evangelical/born again culture. House meetings are such a broad and diverse phenomenon in the church that it’s impossible to generalize about them. There is also some controversy about house meetings, or “house church,” and how to do them (and whether to do them). Some point out that house meetings were the first kind of Christian church. Others say that Christian communities need the guidance of formal organization. Some (perhaps most) say both are necessary.

Here’s one little glimpse at how one group of young Christians gathers and thinks about its gatherings. This email came from a new friend in Kansas City this morning. He and an overlapping group also gather at his house after church on Sunday evenings for a meal, conversation and the occasional card game, guitar jam or review of the latest dense theological book that Tim is reading. Here they’re restarting another kind of gathering after a summer break:

Greetings and hello and hey,

This Thursday, after a nice long summer hiatus, our group will be starting up our weekly Conversations meeting again. We’ll meet at 7 at the Freak Show (Sam and Adam’s apartment (since it’s centrally located, and not to far from public transport)) at 7. Bring something to contribute to delicious sandwich making. After eating, we’ll take communion, sing a song or two, and then pray for about an hour. It’s pretty laid-back, eyes-open, conversation kind of praying. We follow a basic structure of praying from large-scale things down to small-scale things. Hope to see you there.

Peace to you,
Timothy.

PS. I’m culling from a pretty old list, and adding some new people, so please let me know if you don’t want to get any more emails on stuff like this.

By the way, you may have noticed that the posts on this blog are now rotating between three types:

I’m saying this because the Christian audience will find this post absurd because I’m reporting something that is so commonplace to them. Timothy, who wrote the email, for example says:

Heh. Always cracks me up to think of our group in these terms. Feel free to post the email if you think it illustrates. It’s just another email to me. Tell all you’d like about us. We’re just trying to live in the moment, and live where we are, so if it’s of interest, that’s fine.

Timothy: I assure you that this kind of thing is fascinating to many people who are outside of any born again Christian culture.

One thing that many (including myself) will want some more info on: What is prayer all about? What do you pray for? Who do you pray for? What do you think prayer accomplishes? Why pray for anything when you say you believe that God has his own plan that we can’t really understand? How do you feel when you’re praying—and after? What effect does prayer have on your group/community?

And here’s a silly but vexing question from me: Why close your eyes when you pray? Why is there this feeling in church that you’re being seditious if you open your eyes while praying? What does it mean in Timothy’s group’s case when he says, “open eyed prayer?”

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