What Can We Do?

“We are starved for fellowship with believers who are of like mind. I am ashamed to say that we cannot relate to most of the families in our church.

We love our pastor and his family, he is a good man. But as a homeschooling family concerned about holiness, we just can’t be a part of all the carnality that is in our church.

What can we do?”

Create a fellowship of believers in your church, not a bless-me group, but a Let’s-go-out-and-tell-someone about-Jesus group. This can be done under the umbrella of any good Bible believing church. You will want your children to sit with you in church. If you do not want to turn them loose in the youth group or permit them to attend Sunday schools, then perhaps you could persuade your pastor to allow families of like mind to come together for family church during the Sunday school hour. Three to six families, with all their children present would “have church” together. You will take turns teaching the children in the presence of all adults. You will involve your twelve to eighteen-year-olds in the teaching and song leading. The men will speak words of encouragement to the whole group and you will pray for one another. This inner fellowship will continue throughout the week with perhaps a meeting in your homes once a week.

This church within the church will become a core nucleus that can reach out to the rest of the church and disciple other families. To prevent an appearance of sectarianism, you might call your inner church group a Homeschool Support and Fellowship class. When the group grows beyond the size of a living room, you should split up into smaller groups and continue to reach out to others. This cannot be organized from the hierarchy down. If the whole church were divided into cell groups it would likely be a total failure This must be a result of spontaneous life. If there is not a thirsting and hunger on the part of the participants, it will be just another “church social.” Those of like mind who have responded to a higher calling must be allowed to separate themselves for their own survival. Then they will have the strength to reach within the greater church and build up their numbers one family at a time. The eventual goal is to grow until the whole church is consumed of a higher calling to holiness and family ministry.