A Glimpse into Gatherings: Approaching Worship and Prayer

As part of our article series, “A Glimpse into Gatherings,” we’re diving into many of the specific ways we’ve seen house churches spend their gatherings–both scheduled and spontaneous ones. We hope that sharing these experiences brings both visibility for those nervous about the unknowns, as well as hope and inspiration for those struggling to let go of the idea of needing a liturgy. If you haven’t already, check out our article, A Glimpse into Gatherings: Letting Go of Liturgy, for more on why we believe intentional flexibility better serves the church than a set liturgy, including more about the example of this set before us in scripture.

In this article, we’ll share more about what dedicated time for worship and for prayer can look like in a house church setting. While neither are particularly complicated, they are both generally integral parts of house church gatherings.

While the term “worship” can certainly encompass much more than song alone, the people of God have always expressed their worship of the Lord through music.

Beyond that, we also have explicit New Testament instruction for churches to include spiritual song in their interactions with one another in Ephesians 5:18-21 (ESV):

“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

Music is typically the first thing people are thinking about when they ask what worship looks like in a house church setting. The simple answer to that: it mostly depends on what resources a church has. If there are professional or near-professional musicians in a church, they’re more likely to have a wider variety of instruments and technical equipment. On the opposite end, if nobody knows how to play an instrument, that church most likely uses a speaker or goes acapella–or some people take the time to learn an instrument.

Some other practical pieces: some house churches have a main list of songs they choose from to worship and some choose to do only certain sections of songs or to do them repeatedly. Many churches also create space for their members to pray, write, create art, read scripture, or anything else that brings them more deeply into their faith. Most of the time, house churches choose what songs they’ll play and/or sing as they go (often with participation in song choice from the whole church). That said, though, we have occasionally seen house churches plan certain songs for a given week or (in a church with noticeably more professional musicians) even have those who play instruments practice the songs together ahead of time.

Outside of musical worship, we’ve also seen house churches sit aside time to share their personal writings, art, and other expressive forms of worship together. In less artistic forms, churches also sometimes set aside time to simply speak praise and gratitude together for who the Lord is and how He is working in their lives and communities. 

As for prayer, the most important practical factor in the house church setting is that, in most cases, the entire church participates.

While we don’t know exactly how prayer looked in the earliest church, we do know that the earliest church spent time gathered where all of them were devoted to prayer and spent time in prayer (Acts 1:12-14, Acts 2:42, Acts 12:12-17). We’ve found that devotion to prayer is much more intense and intentional when it is more than simply listening to others pray for the majority of the church the majority of the time.

That said, there are also plenty of occasions where just one or two people will pray for specific purposes or needs as they arise. There is no rule where if anyone prays during a church gathering then every single person has to pray. In fact, that’d probably be a fast way to “heap up empty phrases” rather than trust the Father who knows our needs (Matthew 6:7-8). 

Otherwise, though, house churches and each of their members tend to spend quite a bit of time in prayer when they’re together.

It’s a relatively regular practice to see house churches pray all together when gathered and for every member to have the opportunity to pray. Sometimes that’s for a specific purpose, like praying for a certain direction for the church as a whole or on behalf of someone in need. Other times, it’s a much more general, open floor to come to the Lord together. Often, every single member takes the opportunity to pray while together–though, again, not if it would simply be to repeat and heap up more words for the group’s prayer. 

We’ve often also seen house churches take time to partner off or split into smaller groups for prayer. Sometimes that might happen after time spent with scripture all together with a specific purpose around what was read, studied, or taught. Other times, it’s much more free-for-all. Sometimes, still, there may be another given purpose or focus for the groups praying together. For example, we’ve seen people partner to pray specifically for the community, for the people spiritually lost in their lives, and for the way the Lord is working most currently in the other person’s heart and faith, among others.

We’ve also seen times where churches gathered and then everyone prayed on their own individually. Typically, they followed this up by coming back together and sharing about their prayer–whether that meant sharing about struggling to pray meaningfully, having a breakthrough, or simply crying out in either need or gratitude to the Father. 

While this is certainly not an all-encompassing look at the part that worship and prayer play in house church settings, we hope this has given you a very wide, practical view of what gatherings can look like in a healthy, mature house church setting. However, our goal isn’t to give house churches a list to pick from for their gatherings–rather, we hope this has been a touchpoint for potential inspiration and connection to your own church’s needs.

For more glimpses into what a house church gathering looks like, you can also check out the other articles in this series: A Glimpse into Gatherings: Letting Go of Liturgy; A Glimpse into Gatherings: Approaching Scripture; and A Glimpse into Gatherings: Approaching Fellowship, Communion, Partnership, and Edification.