While how we attend church on a weekly basis is looking a little different during the Coronavirus crisis, there are some amazing organisations out there helping people make it easier for Christians to fellowship together in small groups in homes.
While Christians in Australia aren’t being forced into lockdown out of persecution, Open Doors CEO Mike Gore shared on Vision Christian Radio that there is actually a lot we can learn from the persecuted Church who have been operating in House Churches for decades.
“The funny thing is that we often say that the persecuted nations meet in homes. But the reality is that it’s part of the normal mechanics and rhythms of church in those nations. It’s not as if they go ‘because we’re persecuted we have to do this’, they’re not even used to centralised fellowship gatherings.”
Mike shares that Open Doors has a heart not only to support Christians in persecuted countries, but also to help the Church in Australia navigate this new way of fellowshipping which may last for as long as 12 months.
Open Doors has created a set of free weekly downloadable resources for people who want to run House Churches in their homes.
“The resources are really created to help Pastors. They’re not to be a para-church or something separate. The reality is, that I believe looking over the next twelve months, if I put myself in the shoes of a Pastor – one of the hardest things is just going to be keeping the Church community together and doing pastoral services.”
“So what we’re trying to do is to take the worry out of creating content on a weekly basis, giving them something they can hopefully rely on.”
“We’re not making it all about the persecuted Church every week. We’re trying to learn from them as mentors. But we’re also not trying to undermine or undercut Church leadership, we really want to be complimentative to help all of us get through this next season.”
For more information and to sign up for these free house church resources, visit the House Church by Open Doors website.