Praying and preparing for the next house church seminar

From the Pastor’s Desk (260)

When I think about the lay leaders’ seminar that we hosted last weekend, all I can say is, “Praise God and thank you, New Life!” Thirty-three shepherds responded to the invitation to open up their homes and house churches to host sixty-six participants who came from all over the United States. Every one of us, especially those of us who served in the frontline, has experienced the blessings of God in an amazing way. And these blessings of God came to us in various forms: experiencing joy, getting to know and fellowshipping with other New Life members whom we didn’t know too well, witnessing the smiles on the participants’ faces as they sat around the round tables, ate and shared with one another, making friends with them and being reminded that New Life is being used by God.

I, too, had a great time teaching them about house church. However, when I saw many young participants in their twenties during this seminar, I couldn’t help but to wonder and worry whether they will be able to go back home and build their churches together with their pastors based on what they learned from the seminar. But God is great and He loves them and their churches more than I do. Therefore, I should just trust God and keep doing my part faithfully leaving the rest up to God.

Thank you, New Life, for stepping up and doing an excellent job in hosting the participants once again. They are our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. And as I shared with you during last Sunday’s message, when you hosted and invited them in, you actually invited Jesus into your home and into your midst. What a blessing this is!

We host two seminars each year, one for pastors in February and one for lay leaders in October. The exact dates get determined six months prior to the seminar. For 2022, pastors’ seminar will be from February 15 to 20.

The purpose of doing these seminars is to teach and show pastors and lay leaders what the New Testament church looks like and persuade them to do it when they return home. In order to accomplish this well, we must do our best so that we can make the maximum impact on the participants.

Therefore, going forward, please follow the guidelines below:

If you are a shepherd…

1. Make it your ambition to host every seminar as long as you are serving as a shepherd. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Whenever you participate in these serving opportunities, not only do you get blessed, you help your house church members to be blessed as well. Therefore, even for your house church members’ sake, do your best to host.
2. However, before you volunteer to host, make sure that your house church members will commit to show up on Wednesday evening and Friday evening for pastors’ seminar, and Saturday evening for house church meeting for lay leaders’ seminar. If your members can’t commit to do these, then your seminar participants will not be able to fully experience your house church. Therefore, find out if your members would commit themselves to show up before you sign up.

If you are a New Life member…

1. Please do your best not to travel during the seminar dates regardless of whether your house church is hosting or not. Unless there are weddings or funerals taking place out of state that you have no control over, put the seminar dates on your calendar and guard them from any kind of possible events or activities. If you routinely block off dates to take your personal or family vacations, then you can do this for the seminars also.
2. Do your best to sign up for a ministry or two and then come out and serve. Looking at the seminar happening from a distance and getting involved to make it happen are two different things. Your heart for God and His church will grow so much more if you serve.
3. Everyone, show up to Sunday corporate worship service on time with an expectant heart. We want to show up and worship God joyfully, passionately and reverently so that our participants can experience what a corporate worship service can be and feel like. Many of them come from small churches and they don’t get to experience what we experience every Sunday. So, let’s do our best to present them with a gift of Sunday corporate worship service.

Let’s pray that God will use New Life, which is all of us, in spreading house church all over the world starting from the English speaking world, helping one church at a time. Who knows but that God has built up and prepared New Life to do this for such a time as this?

Your pastor,

Eric