Last Updated May 5, 2005 [Trinity & Ken Auer]

The following is a series of answers to questions that are frequently asked by those interested in the church. These answers are based on either "current thoughts" or "experiences of other similar churches" and are subject to change over time. Additional questions/answers may also be added as they come up.

 How long has the church been meeting? The initial meeting of the church was on Sunday April 3rd 2005.

Where and when does the church meet? We presently meet in a rented facility in Greer, SC. Our meetings normally start at 10:30 AM on Sunday morning and end with a (simple, pot-luck style) fellowship meal which we consider an integral part of our meetings.

Who provides the systematic teaching? Greg Horrocks, Mike Butler, and Craig Reimer, three of our elders, are currently the primary teachers for the teaching. Greg Horrocks coordinates and schedules teachers as appropriate. It seems clear from the Scriptures that there are teaching elders and also teachers who are not necessarily elders (but are held to high standards). So, we do the same... elders could teach and other teachers (approved by elders) could teach.

How are elders appointed? The qualifications of elders are clear from Scripture (Titus 1:5-9, 1 Tim 3:1-7), but how are they appointed? Scripture seems to indicate that they were proven to have those qualities. It also seems reasonable to think that appointment is generally an acknowledgement by men of what is already occurring. Since we no longer have an Apostle like Paul to make the official appointment after determining who is "elder material", the initial elders have been appointed by general agreement of the initial members of the assembly. Additional elders will be appointed by those elders based on recognition of who the Lord is raising up, and affirmed by the heads of households.

Elders serve an indefinite term until they decide to take some voluntary time off for personal reasons, (in agreement with the other elders), step down because of reluctance to continue, or are removed due to the legitimate exercise of church discipline. We see nothing in the Scripture that would indicate an elder is a "fixed-term office" or that it should be. We also see little about when an eldership should end. According to 1 Peter 5:1-3, it is a voluntary position, and that elders are to be an example. When it is no longer voluntary, or an elder is no longer an example of the elder qualification listed above, it would seem that this man should no longer hold the office.

Isn't it difficult to bring the whole family together especially with very young children?  This format poses new challenges to parents who are not used to being in Bible study and worship meetings with their children, particularly since we live in a society that almost always separates families for activities like this, and there is an underlying feeling that children can receive nothing from worship services because of their age. We believe the long-term value will be greater than the short-term difficulty parents will experience as they learn to worship and learn together. Parents will have the privilege of training their children to hear and respond to God's Word.  

To assist parents with young children, we provide a back row seating area for parents with children who are "in training," or require a playpen or blanket on the floor. This enables parents whose children become unruly to avoid being a distraction to other worshipers, but to still hear the worship service. Our congregation appreciates the work involved in training children to attain the skill of participating in worship, and will with Christ, "suffer the little children to come to Him," and encourage parents with patience and support as they train their children.

* As participants in the vow to assist the parents in raising children under the admonition of God's word any adult is welcome to make appropriate remarks to young people who, by their actions, necessitate correction or reproof. We ask the person making the correction to immediately and humbly inform the parents of the child to allow them the opportunity to ensure repentance and reconciliation, restitution as necessary, and the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

* We believe the children benefit by hearing their parents' discussion after the worship service, whether in gender-specific or integrated discussion. This accomplishes a tacit accountability for the parents to live the words spoken in their children's hearing, and builds a sense of teamwork between the children and parents.

We encourage the heads of households to elaborate and complete the ideas presented, even to young children. We recognize that they will not understand all of it, but also believe and have seen that exposing them to these concepts often goes far deeper than we might first suspect.  We realize that our culture does not support the idea that children can understand complex ideas at young ages and that parents are not qualified to teach. We reject this notion and believe that a rich transfer of truth can be accomplished during and after the services.

We also believe that even though very young children may not understand everything that is said or done, they can understand something very valuable as they see the head of their household truly honoring and adoring God in worship and enthusiastically studying His Word.

We expect a certain amount of background noise, and arrange "overflow" areas whenever possible to allow young children who are disruptive to be taken to while they remain restless.

Without a Sunday school program how do you foster in depth Bible Study for each member? We are focused on training heads of households and their families together as a unit instead of disconnected individuals, which will give the family the opportunity to work out their discipleship journey together as a unified group.

We are also about the training of men as individuals who will make it their aim to teach God's Word in their homes everyday. This is the main source of in depth Bible Study for our members (Eph 6:4, Deut 6:6-9). We also organize ourselves so that there is regular leadership contact with heads of households to encourage them in their roles.

In the cases where there is no man in the household, we will work with individuals as appropriate in addition to the regular meeting and other occasional meetings of the church.

Is there a place in the assembly for new believers who are single (especially single females)? Absolutely. If they are looking for singles groups, etc. we're not going to have those kind of programs. Instead we offer a model of a family of families. If they desire healthy family relationships, they should feel extremely welcome. If they don't know what they are looking for, we hope they will see something similar to what they are learning about in the Bible. We suspect that many new believers who have never been part of a "modern/traditional/institutional" church might be more excited about our assembly than most "modern/traditional/institutional" churches. This, of course, is dependent upon the real life of the body rather than the form it uses at its meetings.

Living in a household which includes father, mother, and children is by no means a prerequisite of being a part of this church. In fact, we desire that all would recognize the church as a household of households, recognizing that households come in a variety of shapes and the Lord's body includes many and varied parts.

What groups are you targeting? Everyone. Some might suggest that this format would only be attractive to homeschoolers. We feel we should also be attractive to families who school their children in other school systems since we will offer an opportunity that does not exist for them in most churches and other social structures to bring the whole family together for worship and instruction. Families with children who are not yet ":school age":, families with grown children, and individuals and families without children all need a family of families that desire to live godly lives.

Is there a place in the assembly for people who do not homeschool their children? Certainly. Scriptures teach that parents are the primary teachers of their children and are responsible for their training. Many who have applied this principle, combined with the general principle of discipling ("follow me as I follow Christ") have decided that homeschooling their children is the form that will best enable them to apply these principles. However, homeschooling is not a prerequisite for being a part of this church. The principles of parental training and discipling will be taught, as consistently as possible by broken vessels in God's hands, in word and action. We certainly recognize that God calls people in all sorts of circumstances to Himself and progressively sanctifies us. God seems to tailor that sanctification process to the individual. Homeschooling may or may not be part of that sanctification process for any particular individual or family whom God calls to this church.

With the emphasis on Biblical manhood and the head of the household, what about ministry to women? We will cast a clear Biblical vision for godly femininity and raise up many wives and daughters to exemplify the most compelling virtues of their calling as daughters of their King. In contrast to the cultural assault of feminism and egalitarianism in the church, you will see us present a rich theology regarding the Biblical roles of women. A look at passages regarding the vigorous and effective women in the Bible would help to define some of the roles women played in redemptive history. i.e., Women participating in the life and ministry of Jesus, Sarah and the virtuous woman in I Peter 3:1-6, the Proverbs 31 woman, Lydia in the New Testament (Acts 16:14-15, etc.), Nabal's (and then David's) wife Abigail I Sam 25:26-38, Gen 2:18, Eph 5:23, I Tim 2:12, 3:1-13, I Tim 5:14, Titus 2:3-5.

What kind of church programs will you be offering? Instead of creating a portfolio of church building based programs, the leadership team will attempt to fan the flame of the ministries of the members in their areas of influence.

How does the church foster fellowship when you meet only once per week? The Sunday meeting is designed for a large amount of time that includes worship, instruction, discussion among families and members about the implications of the scriptural teaching. A meal with fairly open-ended fellowship follows. We expect that "informal" small group ministries would emerge as needed to meet needs that are communicated as others have opportunity to minister. However, we believe these small groups will typically be extremely small and temporary to address particular areas of discipleship. We will focus on the needs of the individuals rather than the maintenance of programs. Other events designed for fathers and sons, mothers and daughters and men and women will be scheduled for further equipping.

How does the Church seek to meet Christ's commands for evangelism? Several methods are and will be employed through both "world missions" and "home missions".

For world missions, we will seek to support natives of foreign countries who are doing the work of Christ as well as others who may be ministering in unique ways in foreign fields. We will encourage our members to seek and fulfill God's specific role for them in world missions.

On the home front, we direct our efforts toward neighborhoods, family to family and workplace evangelism. The work of evangelism in our homes (bringing the lost souls of our children to Christ), and in our neighborhoods are a central focus of our equipping efforts, so that the head of the household is equipped to lead the family to evangelize friends and neighbors and co-workers. We encourage the members to seek out those who do not know Christ in their areas of influence including neighborhoods, workplaces and among the fatherless.

The work of evangelism is central to the focus of the universal church and we will constantly encourage one another to make the Cross of Christ the central focus of our households. We are not intending to hold a significant number of evangelistic meetings, but will rely on the members to be the evangelists in their spheres of influence. We continue to learn together how to more effectively use our homes in practicing hospitality for evangelism.

We realize that one who does not evangelize at home and at work will not be equipped to evangelize overseas.

How does the church make day-to-day decisions? Decisions are made through our elders who are accountable to the congregation to always be true to Scripture. Leadership is shared among a group of mutually accountable elders who also seek congregational input for decision making in key areas of church life. The primary role of elders is not to create programs, but to come alongside heads of households and equip them in their primary ministry as well as other ministries God is calling them to do. We encourage these family ministers to make decisions that affect their family ministry.

Of course, there are always administrative details to work out. The elders oversee these, but often delegate these tasks to others. Because of the simple model of our church, these administrative details are relatively few.

When these details become a distraction to the elders, we place them in the hands of biblically qualified Deacons (see Acts 6:1-6, 1 Timothy 3:8-13).

During transitional times, if there are not multiple elders, there will be a leadership team in place to help make necessary decisions and hold a single elder accountable. A lone elder would not have access to the bank account during such times. Also, no person is able to write themselves a check for more than $50, even if they have signature authority.

Without expenses of paid staff and buildings, what do you do with money collected? We have a small amount of assets: hymnals, chairs, etc. and expenses such as paper plates, etc. We also incur some maintenance expenses (such as cleaning services) in buildings we rent. However, the vast majority of funds are and will be used to support various ministries. Foremost among them will be the support of widows and fatherless, as well as those who are afflicted, as the Lord brings them to our body. Other expenses may include support for ministries that minister to the fatherless and widows in manners consistent with Christian principles and promote the gospel. We may also support individuals and organizations that promote the gospel and are like-minded in promoting biblical churches and families. These will be decided on a case-by-case basis and the books will be open (with respect to expenses) to everyone in the body of Christ.

How do you refrain from becoming reclusive? It is difficult to be reclusive as we focus on evangelistic ministry in our neighborhoods and take a proactive role among the fatherless and widows. See Isaiah 1:17, James 1:27. We also believe that men are hungry to know how to be the head of their households and that many men (even unbelievers) from the community will be drawn to our vision to train men how to provide Biblical leadership in their homes. Similarly, our focus on world missions and God's call to reach the nations will keep us outwardly focused.

What about youth groups? Every head of household is a youth minister.

The practice of separating youth from their parents in the church at a time when they desperately need to be in the family context to learn how to honor and obey their parents is producing negative results. We also believe that the family should be in training together and not as individuals.

We submit that what we commonly call "adolescence" has become a socially acceptable way to keep a teen in a delayed maturation process and does not acknowledge the great positive impact youth can have. Instead of sidelining youth in peer groups, we will strive to put them in the place of leadership and service alongside mature adults. We also believe that since "foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child" that concentrating this foolishness in youth group gatherings is not the best way to train the next generation.

What about youth who are not in a church family? We will encourage families to open their hearts and homes to these youth and bring them into their discipleship program.

Why can't you do this in an existing church? This is a very different church structure and format compared to the vast numbers of churches in the United States. To ask for such a dramatic shift in structure and format might be counterproductive to the ministries of the existing churches and might subvert the good things happening in them. Although we encourage all churches to consider the issues we are raising, we believe such changes in existing bodies will typically happen a little at a time. (For more information on transitioning traditional churches, see the book Uniting Church & Home by Eric Wallace and the website for the ministry of the same name).

We also believe these are desperate times, as families are separated and fragmented in every endeavor in the culture including the church. At the same time there is a systematic breakdown of the family within the church as well as in secular society. Our culture has almost completely lost a memory of what it means to be a father and mother and how to provide loving leadership in the home, and fulfill basic Biblical roles and responsibilities. These desperate times call for purposeful measures. The rate of change in existing local churches is likely to be slow, and we feel that the time is now for restructuring the church to bring families together and to give family members every opportunity to turn their hearts toward one another for the glory of God.

How do you get the word out and seek those who might be interested in the ministry? Our families talk about this to people in their neighborhoods and other places of influence. They share what the scripture teaches about church and other issues as well as the vision of this church with their neighbors and friends and invite them to join if they are not already involved in a Bible-centered local church body. We get some interest from people who are already "in between churches" and hope to continue to add others that are new converts. We also expect that some will be pointed to our website which is registered in the National Center for Family-Integrated Churches directory. Like the early church, we endeavor to rely on word of mouth and the work of the Holy Spirit.

How do the fellowship meals work? We REALLY try to make this as simple as possible and not have anyone sweat over this. The focus should be on the fellowship, not the food preparation. Therefore, we will be using the following guidelines:

• We will supply water to drink (easy, no sugar, and don't have to worry about spills)

• Please don't bring any desserts(to eliminate the following; a. sticky spots on the floor, b. children with sugar "highs" and c. a shortage of healthful foods).   

• Bring plenty of food to share, but keep it simple, e.g. Crockpot meal, Casserole, Sandwiches (even PB&J), Salad, whatever is convenient.

Guests are not expected to bring food, but will be encouraged to join us... there is always plenty of food.

An added blessing is that you don't have to prepare another significant meal after church is over on Sunday. For answers to additional questions or more information, please contact us at:

864-895-8008 or info@GreenvilleChristianAssembly.com 

Notes

(This document was originally created by Trinity Baptist Church, Wake Forest, NC and modified by Ken Auer, Southwest Wake Assembly, additional minor modifications by the elders at Greenville Christian Assembly)