Report on a Home Group

I spent Monday evening with a “home fellowship group” made up mostly of young folks from several local churches (but mostly the big - by Maine standards - Baptist church in our area). The people who host this group have been doing so for many years. Twenty to thirty kids (I know I'm getting old when I call twenty-somethings “kids”), a few “seasoned” types like myself, a lot of food and fellowship, and a gifted teacher to top it off. It was a sweet time in the Body of Christ.

The food and fellowship lasts an hour or so, till you get to wondering if there's going to be anything else. Then some “kids” get out their guitars and start doodling. It's a signal for people to start drifting into the big living room with its many couches and folding chairs. There's a carefully compiled homemade songbook on each seat. No one seems to “lead.” Somebody requests a song, the strumming begins, someone shouts a page number, before you know it everybody is singing (loudly!) to the accompaniment of several guitars “sprinkled” around the room, a mandolin, a hand-drum, and a couple of “rhythm-rattles.”

I totally enjoyed this. I loved the songs, I loved the singing. And I was kind of amazed to be in a room with so many bright-eyed young people. After a while the host got up to teach a lesson. He's been teaching through the Gospel of John, and all signs point to one who has been praying and struggling through the Gospel in all humility. He spoke for maybe 40 minutes, and the folks seemed to be listening. I only noticed one kid checking his phone!

Okay, so this was the sweetest time I've had in the Body of Christ in a long time. At different times people chimed in with prayer requests or testimony of some sort, and others in the group (never the old-timers) kind of modestly entered into prayer. In fact, a kind of spiritual modesty was the mark of everything here. The prayer was soft-spoken and free of prayer-jargon, the “leadership” was definitely under-the-radar (even the worship was not so much “led” as accompanied). A couple of times when people spoke they looked around the room for “the leader” in order to ask permission, till finally the hostess said with a chuckle, “There's non one to ask, honey.” I loved that.

So . . . awesome! I hope to get together with these folks again. Thank you, Jesus!