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2. Reinventing Christian Ministry
Through Ordinary Homes
When NASA was first planning a moon trip, it reinvented the spacecraft concept. The moon's gravity is a quarter of the earth's, and therefore everything weighed a lot less. Weight is of great importance to the spacecraft as it needs three pounds of fuel to carry one pound of payload to the moon's surface. Aluminum-like kitchen foil made up the craft's skin, and the pilot stood rather than sat to save weight. The spacecraft to take a human to the moon's surface and off again was a completely new creation entirely different from any earth's atmosphere craft. ✞
Different Kind of Ministry
The Household of Faith evangelism method proposes reinventing Christian ministry. Though new, it has been rediscovered from the Early Church. In the Early Church's first three centuries' existence, it only had household evangelism. They were very successful through ordinary community houses. It was not like today's institutionalized Christian church, which needs to reinvent Christian ministry to survive. ✞
Contemporary Christian Ministry
We need to urgently discover contemporary Christian ministry to meet the needs of our times as Early Church Christians did. In those days, Christian families gathered quietly in each household. They lived, worshiped, and enjoyed ministry differently from Christians today. For them, "church" meant not a weekly encounter with other Christians for an hour or so on Sunday mornings, but a close-knit community who cared for each other every day and shared Jesus' love. They supported one another because of their faith in the Messiah, Jesus Christ. This devotion created enormous difficulties for the secular authorities trying to halt this sect called "The Way," developing and growing. Today's Christian Church is in a similar situation to the Early Church. It lives in a secular society that considers people and things as tools to create wealth for themselves. Our twenty-first-century Christian church pours most of its resources into buildings and institutional maintenance. Church buildings have become museums and users of our time, financial resources, and energy instead of outreach ministry centers. Like the Early Church, we need a contemporary Christian ministry to develop and grow today. ✞
Christian House Ministry
Our Christian household ministry needs to grow in the Twenty-First Century church. There are little groups of Christian people everywhere wanting to keep their faith and their calling secure. For them, Households of Faith can support and encourage a growing Christian ministry. Its relational evangelism program can realize the Household of Faith ministry's full potential. ✞
Handing the Gospel Over
The church needs to hand over the gospel to others and becoming a dynamic missionary unit with evangelism central. "The dynamic missionary handing the gospel over" defines "Apostolic tradition." The gospel needs to blossom in people's lives. Many share our concern for those "on the outside looking in" call for a church "metanoia," "a repentance," or "a turning around." Many are "re-thinking" ministry models that will help liberate the church from the self-captivity maintenance structures for traditions' sake. ✞
Hints of Change
Hints of change are all around us, as mission and evangelism became central again. We are uniting our energy to break out of our time-capsule. Many are praying, even longing for the Spirit of God to sabotage structures and traditions to make us more effective in the gospel hand over. It is all about people - genuinely caring for people. ✞
Making Christ Known
Dynamic community people and a faithful church affect society in making Christ known in an ever-changing world. "The Household of Faith" is a timely demonstration of an effective means of "being a faithful grace church." Authentic faith communities are something the world longs to see. A belief that grips us, loves us, envelopes, challenges, and remakes us - a grace that says 'yes, you belong here, you are welcome and needed here.' It is a community prepared to be surprised by God, being 'living proof' that God is still church building, that Jesus is alive as a friend, Savior, and Lord. ✞
Dynamic Community People
My thanks go to the many Christians over several years who have contributed to its development. As you embark on this exciting venture, my prayer is that God will bless you and your local Christian ministry and draw many to our Savior. I am thrilled with the Households of Faith's potential and am eager to see and hear how God will make full use of this tool to enrich and enlarge the church. May it be a noble instrument for building the kingdom, sharing in the dynamic ministry of making Christ known. ✞
"Reinventing Christian Ministry"
by Ron Meacock © 2021
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