Our house church was losing steam. Families began to leave. Some had several children, so we felt the impact of their departure. One family wrote a letter, sharing honestly their feelings about marital unrest in another family, along with concerns of lack of discipline in that family's children. Another family moved away. Still others left, saying that they wanted to start house church in their neighborhood, some distance away, or they left simply because house church wasn't for them. One family was not comfortable with the meetings and indicated that they might be leaving.
We had not as yet shared our new belief with the group. We only shared it with immediate family and one close friend. We were also still finding our way, sorting out what we had believed with what we may believe now.
I had written before that tensions were mounting within our group (see blog article 12/5/10). The group was not meeting one or two weekends because two of the families were out of town. It was during that period that I felt strongly that the Lord was calling us out. I don't think it was because of the tension in the group necessarily, but it was possibly to prepare us for more teaching on our new faith.
I realize that it could have just been weariness within the group, and I'm willing to accept that. But I do believe that the Lord can direct us in such situations. Lois was relieved to hear of my new desire to leave and confessed that, if it were up to her, we would have left sooner. The next week we received a call from a couple whose home we were meeting at, to see if we wanted to get together the following Sunday. I informed the caller (the wife) that we had been "called out" and that we would not be returning. She was the one with the bipolar condition, that we had met with her and her husband. She asked if it had anything to do with them, and I assured her that it did not. In fact, we have had them over for Thanksgiving dinner and have spoken to them several times since we left.
I also wrote an email to the fellow who had a leadership role in the house church. He was the one to whom the other family had written the letter about marriage and child discipline. He was also the fellow Lois had talked to when we first considered house church. I used email because that was his preferred method of communication, and it was often difficult to get him by phone. He graciously responded by email that all families were free to come and go and that they would miss us.
We found out later that he was not okay with our leaving. Or should I say, he felt that our agenda was to start our own house church and take their families, with the exception of themselves. In hindsight, it would have been better to wait until the church was together and inform them of our leaving.
As our new faith grew and our former house church struggled, the lid was about to come off.
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