Continuing the series on Luke 10:
Much of what we have learned in starting simple/organic/house churches, we have learned through our mistakes! The importance of Luke 10:7 is one of those things.
The verse says this: Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.
Aside: what does this say about one of the common forms of evangelism–door-to-door?
We had just found our person of peace in some low-income housing projects. God was answering prayer, and Rosa, our person of peace, was willing to invite her friends and family to meet us so we could explain what Jesus was doing in her life.
That week, Rosa introduced us to one of her neighbors. "She's just like you…" she told us.
Sure enough, Nora was had become a Christian 4 years previously. God had delivered her from drug addiction, and that very week, following prayer from her church, she had gone from HIV positive to HIV negative! Not only that, she was willing to host Rosa's family in her nice, clean apartment (which had Christian music playing softly in the background).
It was a disaster! Not only did Rosa's friends and family not come, but Nora belonged to a church that only used the King James version of the Bible, and everything had to be translated into modern English (which the simple version we had given Rosa was written in).
When we got home that evening, we asked the Lord where we had gone wrong, and he directed us to the Luke 10 passage.
"Lord, we're sorry. Please help us!" we cried out to him.
Within a few days, Nora moved into a new home that she'd been praying for for months. We were back in the chaos of Rosa's home, but her family and friends all started coming and God birthed a church there, in her tiny apartment, out of the harvest.
Lesson learned: People will come to the home of a person of peace, no matter what state it's in, because they feel comfortable there. Those same people will not go to any one else's home, including your own! If you want to increase the size of your church, invite the person of peace to your home, and thereby lose the opportunity to reach out through them. If you want to multiply churches, have the person of peace invite their friends and family into their home.
2 replies on “A cautionary tale: stay in one place”
“If you want to increase the size of your church, invite the person of peace to your home, and thereby lose the opportunity to reach out through them. If you want to multiply churches, have the person of peace invite their friends and family into their home.”
Powerful.
I aboslutely adore this message. We are so clueless to even the simple concepts of heaven. We judge according to carnal appearances, but when God looks on the heart, there is a different thing he sees. And, we make so many mistakes… but God is good. This message gives me hope to see the salvation of God at work in places where I would least expect it. Glory to his name… Carolyn