Steve's Journey

We opened up our home for house church to begin meeting on Sunday evenings. We weren't ready to give up on day church yet. I played the guitar and taught mostly, but we also gave plenty of time for anyone to share. The meals were excellent, and the fellowship was comfortable. We had more families come and go, and other families stayed. Our numbers swelled to around forty.

At that point it was time to cut EV Free loose. I contacted the pastor and informed him that we were leaving. He asked if there was something wrong with the church, but I replied that we felt that the Lord was calling us into house church, at least for the time being. Since I was teaching Sunday school, I went alone for a few weeks and then left.

I have fond memories of house church, because there was a level of intimacy that cannot be experienced in regular church. At the same time we were unable to share corporately things that were being told privately. Like marriages that were struggling. Or openly discussing differences in doctrines. Our worship was surface. While this can be found in any church on any given Sunday, it felt different in the close relationships of house church.

We spent about seven years meeting in each others homes, even traveling to Wise, Virginia and Hendersonville, North Carolina. But there was tension gradually building in our little church. Some ladies had begun to take more and more time to teach the children in the meetings, rather than take them into another room. When we tried to address that, we were met with opposition from them and at least one of their husbands.

Another woman suffered from a bipolar condition and had problems in her marriage. Her behavior in some meetings made some of us feel uncomfortable. An outburst in one meeting prompted me and another fellow to call a meeting of the men. That only made matters worse. Lois and I met alone with the couple and had a very good discussion of several matters. We felt that reconciliation had been achieved.