Our church meets every Sunday, usually at Chuck and Lynda’s
house. Their door officially opens at 10:00 a.m. Few ever
arrive on time! We mostly all manage to arrive between 10:05 and
10:25. During that time, the older kids play basketball and the
younger ones run around in the yard. They do not come into the
house until their track shoes are caked with Georgia clay (this is so
they can smear it into the carpeting). Parents with little
children make several trips between their cars and the house toting
tots, toys for tots, high chairs, food for the Lord’s Supper, and
books. Once inside, people cluster in small knots talking and
greeting each other.
Chuck’s home is about 1,400 square feet in
size. His driveway and the curb in front of the house are filled
by our cars (except under the basketball net). Chuck is
considering a new deck across the back of his house.
Around 10:30 someone (usually Rusty or Steve, the
guys who play the guitar and banjo) says, “Let’s sing a song!” As
they sing, the others pile into the living room, sit down, and join
in. Keith A. put together some praise/Scripture song
notebooks which we use. We sing a lot of medleys (out of Keith’s
book).
There aren’t enough chairs for everyone.
Rather than buy more we just keep hoping someone will leave to start
another house church. It hasn’t happened yet. The Wilsons
sit on the piano bench, flanked by their two sons (no one can play the
piano, but it sure looks nice). Spencer, a single guy in his
twenties, sits on the rock hearth along with two or three of his closest
preschooler buddies. Chuck’s two sofas are usually filled with
giggling girls and a “shushing” mom or two (Arietta and Julie).
Rusty and Steve sit in kitchen chairs near each other to coordinate the
“pickin’-n-grinnin’.” Sandra sits next to Steve and wrestles their
one-year old all during the meeting. Their other two preschoolers
are either with Chuck and Lynda’s two teenagers or with Spencer.
David and Molly sit in kitchen chairs behind a sofa. This helps
them corral their “young’un”. Chris, a love-struck single, usually
arrives around 11:00 (late night date, he explains) and slinks down into
a sofa between two of Rusty’s kids. Keith W. sits in a chair on
the other side of Rusty. Chuck piddles in the kitchen or hovers in
the doorway during the open meeting (yet he never misses a thing).
Lynda, a nurse, just arrived from working all night and sits dazedly
near the piano. Ruth sits about half the meeting and stands with
her baby the other half. Bill, her husband, works nearly every
Sunday (poor guy).
Anyway, after the medley, someone will request a
song. If the musicians can play it, they do. If not we sing
“acapulco!” Another will pick a song. Then another.
Then Spencer will rise and say it’s time for public Scripture
reading. We just finished Genesis and began Luke (at one chapter a
week). He usually divides the chapter into sections and farms it
out to be read aloud by several people. After it’s over, we often
kick the content of the text around, making observations, applications,
and sharing insights as a group.
Not infrequently someone will copy a new song for
us to learn and pass it out. Occasionally we sing from the hymnals
we bought. If a visitor comes who can play the piano, we usually
wear him out singing hymns!
Somewhere along the line several will relate a
testimony or experience they had during the week (all things said in the
meeting must be to edify the whole church). Almost every week one
of the brothers will bring a teaching (anywhere between 5 and 25 minutes
long). Nothing is scheduled ahead of time. Sometimes two or
three will bring teachings (depending on how long-winded the others
were!). The teachings are rarely monologues, but rather
dialogues. Occasionally no one will teach.
There is no one who leads the meeting.
After a while it gets quiet because everyone has run out of things to
say. Finally, someone will start praying, and a conversational
prayer time will follow (but sometimes not). Always someone will
thank God for the food of the Lord’s Supper and ask Jesus to
return. Occasionally a request is made that we conclude the open
meeting with a song.
The Lord’s Supper thus begins anywhere between
12:00 and 1:00 p.m. We take it as a full meal along with the bread
and the cup. The fare is strictly pot-providence! Everyone
brings something. The bread and cup are on the table with the
other food; people partake of them as they serve their plates (buffet
style). There isn’t room to sit down at a table to eat. We
spread a sheet on the floor for the kids to mess on. The adults
mostly stand up and eat. Paper plates and plastic forks and cups
are the order of the day.
There is no ending time. People stay and
fellowship as long as they like. Some leave around 1:30 or
2:00. Others “hang out” at Chuck’s until 4:00 or 5:00. Chuck
and Lynda feel no need to “entertain” them. Lynda might go to bed
and Chuck play on his computer, all the while a clump of guys resolve
some pressing theological issue or just watch football.
There are 17 adults (6 couples and 5 singles) and 14
kids in our house church. The kids are well behaved usually and
stay with us in the open meetings, though sometimes they get bored and
go outside. A good time of fellowship, learning, encouragement,
and mutual participation is usually had by all.
“When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or
a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue, or an
interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of
the church” – 1 Co 14:26.
