One of the frequent questions that we are asked, and for good reason, is “what do you do on Sundays?”
Here is the reasoning behind the question:
If we are trying to plant churches, that probably means there isn’t one that we are part of right now.
Not good.
This absence of a church leaves us with a few options.
1. We could ignore the idea of regularly meeting together with believers. Bad idea.
2. We could go to the Brethren church, or the Pentecostal church. We have attended services before, but this could cause confusion on various levels.
3. We could rent a building and start hosting services, inviting people to come to church. There are several problems with this approach.
- A building isn’t a church, it can only house the gathered body of believers which is the local church.
- We would just be duplicating our own little style of services that could be very unlike what a church gathering would end up looking like in our context, and nearly impossible to reduplicate without another person just like us.
- Inviting people to “church” in our context means, “would you like to go to Mass with us?” Not exactly the message we are trying to get across.
- Etc.
Here is the option we have chosen:
Sunday mornings we meet at alternating homes (between our home and the Templetons). Our desire is to feed our souls, encourage other believers in the gospel, and proclaim the gospel to those who have yet to believe it. In order to do that we:
- Read Scripture
- Sing Scripture
- Pray Scripture
Our normal gathering begins with prayer and a couple songs geared toward teaching verses and biblical truths to our girls. Then one of us walks through the chapter we are all studying (currently we are working through the book of Luke) in a way that the little girls can understand. After a few more songs (and handing out snacks to keep he little ones happy!) we read through the same chapter together. The discussion is led by either Jon or I, depending on whose home we are in that given Sunday. The main questions we discuss revolve around the context, observation, meaning, and application of that chapter. We end our time of study with more singing and prayer. This is done in both English and Spanish, depending on who is in attendance. We finish our morning by sharing a meal together, seeking to bridge the conversation over into our time around the table.
It may sound fairly static, but we are adapting as we go. Nearly each Sunday we change something, or ask the question, “How should we adjust our time?” As more people join us, the decoration will change, but the structure will not. We will continue to read Scripture, sing Scripture, and pray Scripture.
