New Life has come to a point where we can’t just think about our own well-being. There are several churches that are looking to us for direction and guidance. And this is especially true among those churches whose pastors attended house church seminar and are committed to do house church ministry.
In light of this, I would like to ask you to make Sunday corporate worship non-negotiable. When you are on vacation with your family, it is perfectly fine to worship at another church if you are outside of Houston. And if you are camping with your family in a remote place during your vacation, then it is more than fine to worship as a family enjoying the nature God created for us.
However, if you are camping or doing an outing with your house church or village, please make sure to come back by Sunday morning so that all of you can worship at church with other church members. Some churches don’t have too many members and therefore, if one house church decides to have a weekend outing lasting until Sunday afternoon, then the impact that has on their Sunday corporate worship is pretty significant. Believe it or not, pastors ask me about things like this because they are looking to me and New Life for guidance.
So, by all means, go on vacation with your family including a Sunday or two at times. Family vacation is important and necessary. However, when you do an outing with your house church or village, please make sure to come back by Sunday morning in order to worship at church. Just recently, our college house churches had their retreat. This was equivalent to their village outing. And there were more than 80 students who went to the retreat. But they all came back to church on Sunday morning to worship with other members.
This is what love is. Love cares about others and does something about it. New Life by ourselves probably doesn’t have to do this because we have enough people at church on Sunday that even if one house church is absent it will not be too noticeable. However, we are concerned about other churches as well who are learning from us. So, we limit our freedom for the sake of others. Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial for the greater body of Christ. And by following this guideline, our children and our house church VIPs will clearly understand how important our Sunday corporate worship is. We disciple one another by modeling!
Your pastor,
Eric
No Comments to "House Church or Village Outings"
