CWA Conference 4 th April 2011

Welcome to
Stirling Avenue Mennonite
Church
We are a congregation nurturing households of faith that respond to God through worship, spirituality, learning, caring relationships and living justly.

CHURCH – THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH
• Hebrews 3.1-6 (cf Nu 12.7 & 1
Chron 17.14)
• 1 Peter 2.4-8; 4.17
• 1 Tim 3.15

CHURCH – THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH
• Ephesians 2.19-22
• Strangers (paroikos)
• Members of household
(oikeios) Gal 6.10
• Built on (epoiodomeo) 1
Cor 3.10-14
• Building (oikodome )Eph
4.12, 16, 29
• Building Together
(sunoikodomeo)
• Dwelling Place
(katoiketerion) Jer 9.10; Rev
18.2

CHURCH – THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH
• Gospels
• The new family
Matt 10.21-25 & 34-39;
12.46ff; 18.1-4; 19.29;
23.8f; Mark 3.31-35;
10.29f; Luke 12.53 (Micah
7.6); 18.29f
• The family/household matters
Luke 1 & 2; 9.57-62; 12.51-
53; 14.15-35; 18.18-30 household meals etc esp in Luke; Matt 5.27-32;
19.3-9,19

• Acts 2.46; 5.42; 10.17 -
11.18; 16.13-15; 16.25-34;
18.8; 20.7-12; 20.20
• 1 Corinthians 1.16
• Colossians 4.15
• Philemon 2
• 2 Tim 1.16 & 4.19
• Household worship, breaking of bread, teaching, preaching, evangelism, baptisms, church

HOUSEHOLD CHURCHES
Priscilla & Aquila
• Acts 18.1-8 – In Corinth
• Paul stays in household of Priscilla & Aquila (cf
18.26)
• Romans 16.5 & 1 Cor
16.19 ‘Greet also the church in their (Priscilla
& Aquila) house’

• Mirror codes of the ancient world and yet go beyond them
• Ephesians 5.21 – 6.9
• Women, children and slaves are named and identified.
Unlike other ancient codes. To name is to identify, give significance to, value. read in the light of ‘the household of
God’ in Eph 2
• Colossians 3.18 – 4.1
• 1 Peter 2.18 – 3.7 – read in the light of the spiritual house of
2.4-8

HOUSEHOLD FAITH TODAY
FOOD
• Weekly household meals – Fair Oak story
• ‘Grace’ as part of household life at family meals

HOUSEHOLD FAITH TODAY
BIBLE READING & PRAYER
• Family Bible Reading –
Howard Worsley
• Extended Family Bible
Reading – Keith White
& Mill Grove
• Family Liturgies

HOUSEHOLD FAITH TODAY
FAMILY FUN
• Church on the Hill –
Carolyn Edwards
• Games, Swimming,
Film ......

HOUSEHOLD FAITH TODAY
EXTENDING HOUSEHOLD
• Families coming together as extended households
• Families incorporating single people as extended households – modelling singleness and offering community
• Families welcoming visitors as temporary household members

HOUSEHOLD FAITH TODAY
ACTING JUSTLY
• Households as places where justice is practised
• Households which engage in pursuing justice – child sponsorship; global prayer

HOUSEHOLD FAITH TODAY
AWAY FROM IT ALL
• Times away – camps, house-parties etc as experience of extended households –
Temporary
Communities

• Messy Church – a form of extended household?
• Development therefore is both taking this back into households & then helping them be extended households
• Messy Church as a model for more church life?

• What examples / stories can you share of building households of faith?
• What role can we play as CWAs in encouraging the building of households of faith?