The biggest concern for pastors who attend the House Church Seminar for Pastors is the frequency of the weekly meetings. “Our church members have a hard time even attending biweekly or monthly small group meetings. How can I get them to attend house church meetings every week?”
They have this concern because they haven’t experienced house church meetings. The house church is where people experience God. When that happens, people will come no matter what.
When you enjoy something, you make time to do it, no matter how busy you are. If you like playing golf, for example, you’ll go to the range and hit a few buckets of golf balls even when you’re late from work. If people experience God at house church meetings, they will surely come every week.
One way to help house church members experience God is to have their prayers answered. If shepherds want their house church members to experience God, they must learn how to turn their sharing into prayer. When house church members share about their mundane everyday lives, shepherds should look at their situations from God’s perspective and find prayer requests that align with God’s will.
Shepherds should suggest these prayer topics during the prayer time near the end of each meeting and pray with other members for each member over these topics. God will answer their prayers when they are prayed with faith and according to His will (1 John 5:14). Shepherds must check whether their prayers were answered when they next meet. House church members experience God when they see that God answers their prayers.
Shepherds and their spouses must become praying men and women for this to happen. You must prepare for house church meetings with prayer. The best way to do this is to use an online Ministry Journal. One or two days before each meeting, you should pray and think about your house church members and their lives, asking God to help you see their situations from His perspective. Then write down your thoughts, feelings and prayers for them.
When you come to meetings thus prepared, the prayers offered there will be answered and house church members will experience God. Then they will become eager to come and non-believers will come to believe that there is a God and open their hearts to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.
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