It’s Not About The Meeting!

It’s a conversation I have a hand full of times every year. I meet a saint who truly wants understand what a house church is and how one functions. And part way through a conversation I stop.

And instead of telling them about the meeting where we gather to edify one another, I start telling them about my life and the different ways my life has intersected with different people in our church in the last week. The prayer meeting. The child’s birthday party. An intentional discipleship time. Dinner at another couples’ home. The list could go on.

And it’s at this point that I drop the bomb on them: Churches that work to perfect their meeting time and “make it biblical” but whose members only see each other once a week are missing the point.

Because it’s not about the meeting! It’s about a life with God that includes other believers. And so much of that life that you have with God happens outside of the meeting. For you to expect two hours (or even four hours!) of your life to affect the other 164 hours of your week is a bit unrealistic. But for you to live life together with a group of people whose hearts are bent towards loving God and others 24/7, that’s transforming!

Now I’m the last person to be described as “anti-meeting.” I’ve found that if a meeting doesn’t happen, the connections tend to be so loose that people are never built up the way Scripture describes it.

But somehow I’ve seen the human heart think that all we need to do is show up at the meeting and participate. This is so much less than what the New Testament describes. It describes a people who–yes meet together to encourage their walks with the Lord–but also live together throughout the week, sharing with each other, supporting one another, and learning how to follow Jesus in the day to day. Most of this happens outside of a meeting.

My encouragement for you this morning, friends, is to check your heart about the church you are part of–even if it’s not a house church! Is it just about the meeting for you? If it is, look for ways for your life to intersect with other believers in your church. Be intentional about it.Seek other believers out. Share the life of Jesus with them, not just during the meeting, but over coffee, at the bar, at the sporting event, wherever!

Because when church becomes about more than a meeting, we begin to be the people of God the New Testament actually describes. And that is transforming.