E. "Aims for Evangelism" The Anglican

A new program designed to encourage evangelism in parishes is being developed in the diocese. The Rev. Ron Meacock, incumbent of the Parish of Hastings, believes the program, Households of Faith, may help to build Christian community and strengthen congregations. Mr. Meacock and a group of lay people and clergy from across the diocese began working on Households of Faith two years ago. A Household is intended to be an extension of the local church that trains and nourishes Christians and is mandated to divide and double its membership every two years.

Early Church Model

"What we're doing is looking at the very early church model when groups of people met in homes," says Mr. Meacock. "Friends would have come along. It would have been a large extended family with many children, parents, grandparents, widowed parents and people who wandered in." The idea is to use the home as center for evangelism, which he describes as "sharing the faith." It builds not on someone on the street corner preaching or someone being argued into the Faith, but someone meeting other Christians and being attracted to the Faith."

People Ministry

Eight to Twelve people are needed for a Household of Faith. Four of those would be core members of the local church, while the others would be fringe members. "They would make a covenant to meet together on a weekly basis." Both the host and leader would be appointed by the parish priest, who would meet with them on a regular basis for instruction and to co-ordinate their activities. A respected and competent person would be appointed as the leader, whose main job would be to run the Household. The host is the person who is willing to open his or her home for a gathering every week.

Clergy Participation

The cleric in the parish where the Household is situated would be asked to give his or her consent to the formation of a Household. Normally clergy would not attend Households once they are formed, except by invitation or to celebrate a communion service. The priest's role is to equip the leaders, train new leaders and retain oversight of the Household. Once a Household is formed, one of its first tasks is to agree on how the meeting time would be spent.

Flexible Model

"Building a covenant is not simply about getting everybody to agree about what the Household is going to study. At the heart of a covenant is the willingness to take the time to listen to each other, to hear what each person in the Household wants to get from the time together." The Household gathering time could be at any time during the day or evening and would be something that's decided by the people attending, Mr. Meacock says. "This kind of model is so flexible that it includes all kinds of variations." For example, the teaching material and the time could vary according to people's needs. Households could include children or teenagers or there could be a separate program for them. The focus of the Household would be on teaching, sharing and worship, Mr. Meacock says.

Learn and Grow Together

"What each group would seek to do is to learn together and grow together as Christians over this two year-term." At the end of the covenant, which would be either one or two years, two new Households would be formed. New Households would be formed because it's essential they move on at the end of the covenant. "The whole program is an evangelistic one. We don't want a group to become a Bible study group in the old model where they just do the same thing year after year after year with the same few people. The challenge is to bring in new people." By new people, Mr. Meacock says it could be those from the fringe group in a congregation or those who only go to church occasionally.

Higher Level of Spirituality

What it seeks to do is to take people to a higher level of spirituality. It seeks to bring them closer to other Christians. This is a way of getting them committed to one another and therefore their faith will deepen and their commitment will deepen to the church as well as to the group. "Your Household group is a perfect place for those Baby Boomers, who wouldn't necessarily go to church, to get together and to talk about their faith and to grow in their faith. It's exactly the same with the X-Generation." Another benefit of the Households is that they could be used in areas where churches are few and far between.

Article by Susan Mann for The Anglican April 2002

"You are fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household." Ephesians 2.19

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