Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Should we rotate locations or should we stay in one place?

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS:
In the Bible, it wasn’t an either/or—it was a combination. They ate together “from house to house” (Acts 2:42), but they also met regularly in one member’s home (see Romans 16:3-5—the church that met in Aquila and Prisca’s house). The principle we draw from this is that the churches in the Bible didn’t just get together at the normal “meeting time” but that they did life together.

THE POSSIBILITIES:

Rotating locations gives each person/couple a chance to host the church, it allows the group to share responsibility and serve each other, and it doesn’t place the entire burden of hosting on one person/couple. Keeping the location constant allows each church to develop a presence in the neighborhood in which they’re located, which will transform into influence as the church begins to impact the neighborhood through their presence, and through compassion and commission projects. A third possibility is to keep the location constant most of the time and changing it every once in awhile, which allows for flexibility but still allows the church to develop a presence in the community.

THE SOLUTION:

Each group needs to answer this question for themselves. Talk about it in your group and seek God’s leading—pray in the group about how Discovery’s mission will best be fulfilled through your church in regards to this question.

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