People have lost faith in all collective institutions: government, corporations, the media, and the church. We are in the midst of a spiritual disaster, a flood of biblical proportions, and house churches provide lifeboats for people who are seeking a more authentic, life-giving form of Christian community. Many people remember that the early church started in homes, but they don’t understand that house churches are still a legitimate and viable model today. House churches can create the intimacy so many people are hungry for. They can nurture life-changing discipleship for individuals and create justice-centered communities. Networked house churches can become truly diverse, multi-ethnic communities that spread the Gospel by emphasizing practices over programs. These communities de-center the preacher, opting instead for grassroots organizing, but they are not leaderless — they are leader-full. This book provides an alternative model for denominations and established churches to consider. It will help pastors reconnect with the traditions of community organizing, itinerant preaching, and discipleship training that sparked Methodism and other church movements in the United States. Church Comes Home offers alternative ways to look at some of the problems facing our church and our culture.

Through rhyme and engaging illustrations this book shows parents and children what God's plans are for worshipping him in their home.

In our modern dislocated society many are searching for a church experience that offers true Christian sharing, nurturing, and discipleship, in addition to teaching and worship. For many such people the answer is found in the home church: a small, committed group of often diverse people who meet together in homes to pray, eat, sing, study, and share their lives. The Church Comes Home is a handbook for those interested in home churches. It is both visionary and practical. It describes how home churches can be formed, how they should grow, and how networks of home churches can develop. It examines issues--for example, how to make decisions; how to determine doctrine; how to include children, singles, elders; and how to reach out to the community at large--and offers practical suggestions for their resolution.

"What a refreshing book! Imagine a church whose primary emphasis is to make people "feel at home." I wish every young pastor could read this book. Thanks, Lee, for a wonderful reminder of what the church is to be." -Erwin W. Lutzer, Pastor Emeritus, The Moody Church, Chicago Is your church acting like an organization or a home? You love your church, but you wonder if it could be more. There’s a greeting team, but is there a true spirit of welcoming? There are committees, leaders, and programs, but is there a Spirit-led vision? There are small groups, but are people truly connected? Pastor and award-winning author Lee Eclov was troubled by these questions. Then, he had a realization: he wasn’t called to lead an organization, but a family. His job was to be a "homemaker," not a CEO. This paradigm shift changed everything. In Feels Like Home, he shares what he’s learned from over 40 years of ministry about being the family of God and how to live into that beautiful reality. This short volume is full of stories of small adjustments that make a huge difference in the effectiveness, warmth, and growth of a church community. Discover how the love of a family can transform your church.

Lasting, lifelong faith is rarely taught in church programs but is rather ''caught'' from a lifestyle of faith lived out at home ... but how can your church equip the home to be the primary place where faith is nurtured rather than being a ''drop-off center'' for Bible education? By becoming a Faith@Home church. Based on Mark Holmen's foundational book Building Faith at Home, this new revised and expanded edition includes everything you need to weave a Faith@Home focus into the DNA of your church community! Church + Home builds on the ministry concepts Mark has refined through the rapid international growth of the Faith@Home movement. You will learn how to reestablish your church members' homes as the primary incubator for faith by implementing vibrant, effective Faith@Home ministry in your church, no matter its size. You'll also find practical tools for building bridges between your church's programs and member's homes, and hear from pastors, student ministers and lay leaders whose faith communities are making an eternal difference in families' lives. Your church can put faith back where it belongs ... Church + Home shows you how. Find out how your faith community can become a Faith@Home church to grow the next generation of the Body of Christ.

Showing that Southern Baptist women are more complex and rebellious than outsiders might think, the author presents the views of more than 150 women, often using their own words, and finds in them an unshakable belief that God speaks as directly to them as to any pastor.

For nearly three hundred years, early Christians met almost exclusively in private homes initially built only for domestic use. In this study, Roger Gehring investigates the missional significance of house churches from the time of Jesus through Paul in light of both theological and socio-historical considerations. All church structures take shape in the tension between preestablished theological requirements and the concrete social situation. Even in the New Testament, the emergence of separate house churches involved the potential danger of splintering the Christian movement. Nevertheless their essential family-based foundation has proven to be the life-generating cell and fundamental core of the missional church. The development of early Christian ethics, the emergence of leadership structures, and the growth of ecclesiological concepts were all noticeably influenced by the households in which believers lived and gathered. In the last twenty-five years the house church phenomenon has generated a great deal of interest among New Testament scholars and church practitioners. Research has focused primarily on the architecture of these homes and on its corresponding social and theological implications. House Church and Mission offers scholars the first comprehensive summary of evidence concerning home churches in the New Testament and supplies pastors and lay leaders with a well-crafted discussion of the nature of "church" that explores the practical implications of house churches on outreach.

Many churches, riding the faddish waves of our times, have gone 'to market', but not all. Some churches are trying to 'stay home', that is, remain firmly grounded in the Scriptures. Still, the pressures mount, the temptations are repackaged, and the schemes of the world become more and more persuasive. In This Little Church Stayed Home, Dr. Gilley explores the manifold temptations of conservative churches to sell out to modern trends and innovations, including the present temptation towards mystical theology. Churches toying with 'new measures' will be challenged to remain true to the historic doctrines of the Christian faith and to remain faithful to God's chosen means of converting sinners to himself: the good news of Jesus Christ. Pastors, seminary students, church leaders, and Christians who want God's Word to be paramount in their lives will find This Little Church Stayed Home a timely message to a Christian subculture fixated on marketing the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.

David Garrison, PhD University of Chicago, defines Church Planting Movements as rapidly multiplying indigenous churches planting churches that sweep across a people group or population segment. Garrison's Church Planting Movements: How God Is Redeeming a Lost World signaled a breakthrough in missionary church planting. After the publication of Garrison's book in 2004 it became impossible to talk about missions without referencing Church Planting Movements. Church Planting Movements examines more than two-dozen movements of multiplying churches on five continents. After presenting these case studies, Garrison identifies ten universal elements present in each movement. He then broadens the circle of examination to identify a further ten common characteristics, factors identified in most, but not all, of the movements. He concludes his examination with a list of "Seven Deadly Sins," i.e. harmful practices that stifle or impede Church Planting Movements. Important for evangelical readers, the author returns to his findings to see how they stand up to the light of Scripture. What he discovers is that Church Planting Movements are much more consistent with the New Testament lay-led house-church movements that swept rapidly through the Mediterranean world in the face of hostile opposition than today's more sedentary professional institutionalized Christianity. Learn more about Church Planting Movements from the book's website: www.ChurchPlantingMovements.com.

Dealing wisely with domestic abuse in the church