These are our small groups that meet during the week. We call them "house church" rather than "small group" since we meet at members' homes.

The fundamental difference between our house churches and other systems is our goal to recover the spirit of New Testament churches. Our desire is to make our house churches look as much like the early Churches as possible.

There is a story about a craftsman who made horseshoes. One day, the craftsman had to leave for a long trip. So, he made a model horseshoe and instructed his apprentice to make 100 copies of the sample he made. He left for his journey, and when he returned, he was surprised to find that the horseshoes the apprentice produced looked quite different from the one he had made. When he asked what happened, the apprentice admitted that instead of always using the original as a guide, every time he made a new horseshoe he used that copy as a reference for the next one he made. Eventually, small mistakes and variations in size and shape compounded until the new horseshoes bore little resemblance to the original.

This story reminds us of churches today. Rather than studying how our Master, Jesus, built the first churches and studying what He taught us, we only look to the previous generation of churches for guidance. Just as the horseshoes gradually evolved into something very different from the original, we feel that modern churches have strayed far from how they started.

People throughout the history of the church have seen that churches weren't what the Lord intended them to be and have started movements to return to the original church. Many of these reformers were successful in their time. However, the generation that followed them looked to the churches those reformers established as the true church, rather than studying the original. That is the cycle we are in now.

We believe that the church needs some sort of reforming, whether large or small, at least every 30 years. We must constantly reevaluate the structure and the methods of the present church and compare them to the churches described in the Bible. Why every 30 years? That's about how long it takes for a new generation to emerge. Each generation must discover for itself what biblical churches and biblical spirituality look like.

That is the journey we believe we are on at LightHouse Fellowship. We are not there yet. We have a long way to go to look like the church God desires, but we believe that we have taken an important first step.

Because churches in the New Testament met at members' houses, we do the same. However, forming house churches is not the ultimate goal. The goal is to restore the New Testament church. If there is more biblical form of church, we will gladly abandon our house churches and adopt it. Because we believe that house churches are the most biblical model, that is the one we've adopted.

We would love to have you join one of our House Church groups, and it is one of the best ways to get to know other members of our church. Please fill out our newcomer contact card and we will get back to you!