Afterword

Where do I go from here?

Now that we have an understanding of the foundational principles, values, and practices of running a home fellowship—and are aware of some of the problems and challenges we're likely to face—how should one get started? I suggested earlier that you only need three things to start a new home fellowship: a Bible, a guitar, and a room with comfy sofas. That's not entirely true though; you also need people.

Jesus gathered a motley collection of people around him that included small business entrepreneurs (fishermen), a tax collector, a political activist (a Zealot), poor people, women of means, family members, and individuals who had been healed of infirmities or delivered from evil spirits (see Luke 5:1-11,27-32; 6:12-16,20-21; 8:1-3; 10:1-12,17-20; Acts 1:12-15). Don't be surprised if the home fellowship you start ends up becoming a motley crew too!

Start with other believers who are interested in learning more about God, who are hungry for more of God and want to grow spiritually. It might be only a few at first, perhaps two or three or four. Pray about it—God will show you who you should reach out to. Not everyone may come when you invite them, but some will.

Be alert also for opportunities to minister healing to those around you. Wimber reminded us that "the meat is in the street" so we need to be sensitive to the Spirit's leading as we meet with friends, classmates, co-workers, and people out in the marketplace. Perhaps God will show you a struggling Christian family you can help by starting a fellowship in their home. Or maybe the Lord will use you to heal to a sick person. When someone has been touched by God, they will often bring others along who also need healing.

Once you've gathered a small core of believers for your home fellowship, you can begin to focus more on evangelism. Make sure first however that everyone in your group is on the same page—that they buy into the principles and values you've espoused for your fellowship—before you start trying to undertake any serious ministry in the surrounding community.

Make worship the central focus of your fellowship times. The Vineyard renewal was birthed in worship, and worshipping God has always been our highest priority (John 4:23, Mark 12:28-30). Spend at least 30 minutes at the start of your meeting (after a welcome time of coffee and snacks) by singing simple worship songs together, songs that express our love for Jesus and the Father and that are easy to learn and memorize.

Don't have someone who can play guitar for your fellowship? Buy a cheap one, it's easy to learn simple guitar chords—much easier than learning to play a keyboard. A guitar is also a more intimate instrument than a keyboard, just like a home is more suitable than a chapel for intimate fellowship. As your fellowship grows though you may want more instrumental accompaniment for singing—two guitars or a guitar plus a keyboard can add a lot to a worship time. But be considerate to your neighbors, especially if you're meeting in an apartment.

Make lots of room for the Holy Spirit to move during your meetings. In our fellowships we often ended our worship times with a few minutes of waiting in silence to give people a chance to receive and share gracelets from the Spirit: pictures, revelations, prophetic words, verses from Scripture. Sometimes nothing happens, and we finish our worship time with simple prayers of thanksgiving. Other times a flood pours forth, and our plans for the meeting get tossed out the window as we let the Lord lead instead of trying to direct everything ourselves.

Focus your Bible teaching mostly on practical topics, how God tells us to live and what we should be doing as followers of Christ. Keep your teaching times short and to the point, making faith, hope and love the ultimate goals. Avoid topics that create controversy or generate endless discussion. If you're the leader, I recommend that you read Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus often as they can help keep your approach to teaching on the right track.

Let others in your group have a chance to explore the gifts God may be giving them. Don't try to control everything that happens; let everyone have a chance to play. Whenever you begin to think that you're in charge and everything depends on you, remember these words: "Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:26-28).

Make time for people to share their personal problems and receive prayer. Sometimes you'll want to have the whole group gather around a person to lay hands on them for healing or encouragement. Other times you'll want to take someone aside to another room and minister to them privately with the help of one or two others.

Always try to end your meetings on time so those who have other things to do can leave without feeling awkward. Feel free to let people hang around after the meeting if you and the hosts aren't too tired—sometimes the best times of prayer ministry happen during the tail end of fellowship. And if ministry to someone does go on too long, you can always arrange an appointment with them for when you can continue ministering to them.

Finally, and most important of all, be someone who seeks God's kingdom. Be a worshipper, a disciple, a servant, a shepherd—a fisher of souls like Jesus. Be filled with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit and overflowing with the love of God.

I encourage you if you're reading this, if this book has birthed in your heart a desire to advance God's kingdom by starting a home fellowship, just go for it. Join the family of 10,000 little lights that Wimber saw in his vision. You won't regret it. God bless!

About the authors

Mitch and Ingrid Tulloch first encountered the Vineyard movement in the early 80s. Much impacted by the teaching and example of John Wimber, they started home fellowships and began praying for the sick. In the years that followed, they trained and provided oversight for ministry teams in several Vineyard churches and helped support church plants. 

 

In their series of Simple Kingdom books, Mitch and Ingrid share everything they learned about worship, fellowship, discipleship, spiritual warfare, the Bible and other keys for advancing the kingdom of God the way Jesus and his first disciples did. You can download these books for free from their website www.buildplant.org. You can also contact Mitch and Ingrid directly at info@buildplant.org.