How Would You Answer?
What is a church? Is it the same as a cell group or a prayer group? Aren’t all believers a church as we all have the Holy Spirit? What are the essential elements or functions of church?

Why bother doing church planting? Isn’t it sufficient to just share our faith with people and disciple them to be strong believers?

What should I tell new believers to do when their family expect (and virtually force them) to make offerings to their ancestors for Chinese New Year?

Who should do baptism? Do we have to take people to the main official church to be baptized or can members of a house church do it themselves?

These are some of the questions that Miss L, Miss N and Miss H have been asking as they have studied together. They have been studying through the book of Acts trying to discern what the Great Commission means today. They are so excited about studying the Word and praying together. Their understanding of church and church planting has definitely got a lot clearer. They also recognize that it is not without cost – persecution and suffering had a huge part to play in the growth of the early church.

Miss L had the joy of assisting 2 different groups: some Lao young people and an emerging ethnic group. She is thinking how she can help the ethnic group to eventually become a house church. Six relatives and friends meet weekly. All are new believers or very interested.

Each meeting lasts for around 3 hours as they ply Miss L with question after question from what they’ve read in the Bible or ask advice about how to serve God in their context. The wife has given up a very lucrative part of her business as she feels convicted by God that making incense sticks for offering to idols is wrong. So far the husband hasn’t believed and the family live in fear of what might happen once he discovers the truth. He has a room full of idols.