Church comes in so many forms but surely the heart of real church must be the transforming power of the Holy Spirit as we meet with Jesus to worship the Father. This is what we see in the Wilmore Inspire House Church every time we meet. At the end of February it was all the more powerful as people joined us from the Inspire intensive Learning Community that had met for the two days before.
We usually meet for Inspire House Church every other week. On an ordinary Sunday 12-16 people gather, but on the last Sunday in February we had 26 around the table in the house!
We begin with breaking bread at the start of our breakfast meal. The meal is always good as everyone brings something to share. As we eat we share stories about where we have see God at work in our lives since we last met. When someone shares, we pause and pray for them. After about an hour we take the cup (after the meal).
Then we move into the sitting room where we bring our gifts of worship, scripture, prophecy, insight and ministry to one another as the Spirit leads us. We encourage people to exercise their spiritual gifts and we often end up with people in the middle of the room whilst others pray and prophesy over them.
In the time of teaching that follows we allow the Holy Spirit to teach us through one another. Sometimes we exercise lectio divina on a particular scripture; we might be led in a particular reflection or spiritual practice; or someone brings teaching on a particular subject that we unpack together. Always we are pausing for prayer and discerning the lead of the Spirt.
As we do all this, the children are playing quietly in our midst, singing and dancing in worship, or listening and contributing according to their age.
It looks a lot like we might imagine Early Church gatherings. And the fruit is evident as the Lord continues to add to our numbers.
If you would like to know more about how we use Inspire principles for planting House Church and House Fellowships, contact us to speak to an Inspire Missioner: CONTACT
