house church

So... I've been pretty crap about posting lately. No excuses really, I've just gotten out of the habit I suppose. I'm not even sure if anyone reads this any more.

Whatever the case may be on that front, I realised that I haven't really said much on the blog about what's been happening with our work here in Auckland. In a nutshell, things are progressing slowly but steadily. Most of you probably know that we named the church plant last year. The church is called City Presbyterian Church and the main thing that's been happening with CPC is our weekly house church gathering.

House church happens on Sunday evenings and is basically a hybrid between a small group meeting and a worship service that meets in a house (duh). We meet each week at 6PM and share a meal together. After the meal we move into a more formal time of worship. No music or communion yet, but lot's of prayer, responsive readings, corporate confession and assurance of grace, and a time of teaching and discussion. We're currently studying the "Sermon on the Mount." We've had between 15-22 people attending, both Christians and those investigating the faith. Every fourth Sunday (or thereabouts) we have our normal meal and then a time of open discussion where the goal is to seek to give honest answers to honest questions. This is a no holds barred time where no question or objection about Christianity is off limits.

One of our supporting churches in the States asked us to put a video together for them to show to people to give a picture of what house church is. I've posted it below for those of you who are interested. It's definitely not professional (particularly the audio) but you'll get the gist of it. Unfortunately the night we recorded stuff was one of our low attendance evening. The lounge is usually a bit more full. Anyway, hope this helps the three or so of you still reading get a better picture of what's happening here.