Planting Seedpods for Mission The Inhome Church Model

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Planting Seedpods for MissionThe In-home
Church Model
Vicar Terry ZuehsowPrince of Peace, Carrollton
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What is an In-home Church?

• A group of Christians meeting as a church in a
  private home

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A Brief History of In-home Churches

• Where Christians predomin-ately met until the
  3rd century
• Luther considered an in-home church model
• Various denominations used in-home churches
• Persecution in China has led to a massive network
  of in-home churches
• Significant movements also in Central
  Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Philippines,
  India, Cambodia, and Great Britain

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Why Should We Do This?

• Youngest generation is only 4 churched
• In-home churches appeal to young adults
• Hungry for personal fellowship
• Desiring intergenerational contact
• Looking for authenticity in worship and life
• Barna projects sharp decline in local church but
  double-digit growth in in-home churches

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What They Uniquely Contribute

• Limited size
• Encourages contribution from all
• Fosters intimate, accountable fellowship
• Accommodates more focused Bible study
• Approachable setting
• Less of a barrier to the unchurched
• Hospitality more readily practiced
• Reduced overhead
• Significantly more rapid multiplication
• Larger of offering goes to outreach

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Guiding Principles

• Christ centered
• Theologically grounded
• Worship focused
• Outreach oriented
• Servant led
• Ecclesiastically connected

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Leader Formation

• Through licensed deacon program
• Promising leader assigned to supervising pastor
• Lay ministry training done online and locally
• Status annually renewable by District President
• Leaders normally retain their secular job

P O R T L A N D, O R
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Church Replication

• In-home churches grow through multiplication
• Share Christs priority to seek and save the lost
• Continually produce new leaders
• One or two in-home church families start a sister
  church with new believers

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Sample Worship Format

• Snacks, soft drinks, fellowship
• Opening song
• Announcements
• Invocation/call to worship
• Set of songs
• Creed
• Scripture reading
• Children go with two adults

• Conversational sermon
• Sharing/testimonies
• Prayers, thanksgiving, ministry
• Children return
• Confession of sins/ absolution
• Lords Supper
• Benediction
• Closing song
• Continued fellowship

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What Weve Experienced So Far

• 3 Taste of In-home Church gatherings
• 4 men committed to be leaders
• Training requirements approved by District
• 1st in-home church has met for six weeks
• Average attendance 16
• Members not from Prince of Peace 8

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In-home Church Sites
KEY
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Sponsoring Local Congregation

• Provides prayer and mentoring support
• Allows reasonable access to office equipment
• Shares leveraged activities (VBS, sports, etc.)
• Lends or rents facilities for Network events
• Receives portion of in-house church offerings

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Local Congregation Involvement

• Pray for God to guide and bless this ministry
• Refer people to in-home churches
• Come to a Taste of In-home Church session
• Attend an in-home church yourself
• Mentor a new in-home church member
• Offer your home for an in-home church
• Lead an in-home church

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Questions and Dialog
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In-home Church Ministry Gods Family in Your
Neighborhood
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From Luthers Preface to The German Mass and
Order of Divine Service, Jan. 1526 (page 1 of 2)

• But the third sort of Divine Service, which
  the true type of Evangelical Order should
  embrace, must not be celebrated so publicly in
  the square among all and sundry. Those, however,
  who are desirous of being Christians in earnest,
  and are ready to profess the Gospel with hand and
  mouth, should register their names and assemble
  by themselves in some house to pray, to read, to
  baptize and to receive the sacrament and practice
  other Christian works. In this Order, those whose
  conduct was not such as befits Christians could
  be recognized, reproved, reformed, rejected, or
  excommunicated, according to the rule of Christ
  in Matt. 18. Here, too, a general giving of alms
  could be imposed on Christians, to be willingly
  given and divided among the poor, after the
  example of St. Paul in 2 Cor. 9.

(Continued on next slide)
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From Luthers Preface to The German Mass and
Order of Divine Service, Jan. 1526 (page 2 of 2)

• Here there would not be need of much fine
  singing. Here we could have baptism and the
  sacrament in short and simple fashion and direct
  everything towards the Word and prayer and love.
  Here we should have a good short Catechism about
  the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's
  Prayer. In one word, if we only had people who
  longed to be Christians in earnest, Form and
  Order would soon shape itself. But I cannot and
  would not order or arrange such a community or
  congregation at present. I have not the requisite
  persons for it, nor do I see many who are urgent
  for it. But should it come to pass that I must do
  it, and that such pressure is put upon me as that
  I find myself unable with a good conscience to
  leave it undone, then I will gladly do my part to
  secure it, and will help it on as best I can.