House Church Worship Guide
“And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people.” Acts 2
Welcome to our first day of House Church worship! We hope you have a great worship time together, and maybe a meal or some other fun.
This guide is designed to help you worship at home – as part of your Life Group, as a group of families, as a few friends, or even on your own. Simply read, open the floor when there is a share time, and click on the links for guided worship, Hope Style. We expect it to take you about an hour. Be flexible how you use this guide.
Your group could consider having a "no Covid talk" rule during worship, or even for your whole gathering, if you think you need it. The pandemic is part of our lives, but we want this time to be all about Jesus, not Covid.
Please do give us feedback, and think about who you can include in your home.
1. CALL TO WORSHIP
God is always first. We start our worship with God, and looking to Him. Ask someone to read this Psalm to call us to worship:
Psalm 96:3 – 5
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!
For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
Invite someone(s) to pray. Try not to ask God for anything. Just enjoy Him and his glory. We just read that God’s heart is for the nations – pray that our worship with impact us and ripple around us to others.
2. WORSHIP BY SINGING
Click on the following songs you want to sing, one, some or all! Pray between them if you want to.
3. FAMILY CONNECTION
Jesus welcomed children and wants worship from all ages. We love that at Hope we are a multigenerational family of faith.
Click on the Family Resources button to find some colouring in activities and videos for preschool and school age children that you can use at any time:
Families, please note that you will need to prepare these colouring and Right Now Media resources ahead of time if you plan to use them.
Click on this Family video, where Steve talks to the whole family about stuff that “grows and bears fruit” (Colossians 1:6) (Length: 6 mins)
4. SHARING AND CELEBRATING
Throw the floor open and take some time to be attentive to what God has been doing in your life, for good.
What can you celebrate? Who has had a birthday/an anniversary/ a new job or opportunity/ a chance to share about the Lord etc?
5. CHURCH UPDATE AND PRAYER
Stream the following church update from one of the Hope Pastors. (Length: 4 mins)
Take some time to pray for the church of the week and missionary. St Johns Anglican and their minister, Don Moses, and Frank and Joanna Fleitas.
Pray for:
anyone in the group who has a need
the wider church as we meet this week in House Church.
another family who is part of Hope Church – someone that God puts on your heart.
Jade Shutte
our nation at this covid time.
6. HEAR GOD’S WORD
Ask someone to read Colossians 1:1-8. Pray for everyone as they hear God’s Word. Then watch this message on Colossians 1:1-8. (Length: 23 mins)
7. RESPOND
Have a chat about the message.
What was encouraging for you in the message?
What was challenging or hard to hear?
Identify one situation this week coming in which you can live this message out.
8. COMMUNION AND PRAYER
Take some time to remember Jesus by taking communion.
You could read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.
Because of Jesus, our sins are forgiven.
Because of Jesus, we have a hope in heaven.
Because of Jesus, we are united in a divided world.
Because of Jesus’ amazing grace, we can give His grace to others, releasing our bitterness and our need to be in control.
Because of Jesus, like Epaphras, we each have a calling.
Hosts, please note that if you celebrate communion, you will need to set this up ahead of time using good hygiene practices.
9. BENEDICTION
Ask someone to close the time in prayer and pronounce a benediction. Here’s one to use from Revelation 1:5-6:
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
SELFIE TIME
Grab a selfie together and send the photo to lisa@hopechurch.org.nz
FINAL STEP
Leave a comment at the bottom of this page sharing a sentence or two about your House Church and what you got up to.
Sunday February 20, 2022
This one video puts everything together in one service if you would prefer to watch it this way:
Sunday February 20, 2022
Share a few sentences about your group and what you got up to. Let’s encourage each other as we meet in different locations.