Background Considerations
Three aspects of our experience with God are:
- Personal Worship (Daniel 6:10)
- Family or Small Group Worship (Matt 18:20)
- Corporate Worship in Church (Heb 10:24-25)
If anyone of these is missing, your Christian experience will be incomplete. Surveys show, however, that family or small group worship is missing in many people’s lives. Here are some good reasons not to neglect this aspect of your Christian life.
- Small groups provide an opportunity to explore the content, meaning, and application of the Christian faith.
- Small groups provide a laboratory to learn how to love one another.
- Small groups provide a supportive Christian environment for members, new converts, and those wanting to learn about Christianity.
- Small groups provide an opportunity for developing lay leadership and for discovering and deploying spiritual gifts.
- Small groups provide a readily available avenue for Christian ministry and an opportunity to be of service to others.
Key Passages and Questions
- Territorial Assignments for Witnessing — Acts 1:8
- Is it necessary to leave home in order to witness for Christ?
- Where did Lydia begin her witnessing according to Acts 16:14- 15?
- Who in my “household” needs to hear the gospel of Christ?
- House Churches — Act 5:42
- Describe some of the activities of the early Church which took place in homes. (Acts 2:2, 2:46, 12:12, 16:32)
- Give some reasons a home is an ideal setting for “Church activities.”
- In what ways can we use our homes today to provide witnessing opportunities?
- Church Planting — Acts 14:20-23
- Why has church planting been called “the single most effective evangelistic method?”
- Do you believe the SDA Church is planting enough new congregations today?
- What is necessary in order to insure that a new church remains healthy and growing?
- Missionary Tentmakers — Acts 18:1-3
- Is it necessary to be on “church salary” in order to be a missionary?
- What are the advantages of engaging in secular employment while sharing the gospel in the area where you life?
- Does it take more commitment and self-sacrifice to witness for God as a “tentmaker?”
