Household of FAITH Leaders Copy
Welcome Home
Key verse: “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his
neighbour, for we are members one of another.”
(Ephesians 4:25 ESV)
INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE OF THE WELCOME SESSION
The first home group of the year is an optional Home Group session as it is intended to facilitate
honest and genuine connection prior to the start of the whole series. The Household of FAITH series
has been deliberately designed so that it can be relatable in our ordinary lives. Just like our Christian
faith should be, the “Household of FAITH” theme aims to speak into day to day arenas in our
personal, family and work lives.
In order for that to happen, Home Groups need to prioritise an atmosphere where people can feel
comfortable to “be themselves” or “at ease” … within the confines of a Home Group context. Sure, we
realise that you may not be able to be fully at ease (as you’re in someone else’s house), but we are
trying to prioritise it, so that we start with an authentic core.
That’s why the first session looks at honesty, and speaking to each other.
We’d recommend you organise some food (maybe use Chinese New Year as a bit of a reason for
celebrating) or some informal setting in order to get the Home Group back to start the new year. The
whole point of the session is to get to know everyone and to create an easy environment, so really, we
just want to talk about the holidays, how things are going. Perhaps you can even invite some new
friends along.
The series will begin with Lesson 1 next week, which will focus on “Serve”
Take some time to talk about logistics and plan a bit for the next few Home Group sessions
FORMAT FOR THE WELCOME SESSION
Suggested format for the Welcome Session would be:
Standard Home Group
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Food/Fellowship (Optional)
Play Session Video (5-6mins)
Ice Breaker
Summarise Main Point
Open for discussion
Talk about the year ahead and logistics
Application and Prayer
Food/Fellowship (Optional)
Casual Home Group
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Food/Fellowship
Play Session Video (5-6mins)
Summarise Main Point
Discuss one question
Food/Fellowship
A. Short Introduction Video (4-5 minutes)
This short welcome video to the series can be shown at any point during your home group meeting
night. The video emphasises the tangible and the ordinary and the importance of relational honesty.
The major points are:
1.
2.
3.
The Household of FAITH series is about you, your family, your church
FAITH (the acronym) are components that we hope to change in the fabric of your
household life
However, God can’t engage if we aren’t being genuine and real in our Home Group
encounter
Ice Breaker: Spend some time going around the group and finding out what everyone has been doing
over the last few months. It’s really a good time to catch up, and to get to know new people who may
have shown up at your Home Group.
B. Main Point
Honesty is the starting point for real transformation into a Household of FAITH
The Home Group is going to be a place where we will get to talk about the everyday issues of your
life. Household of FAITH looks at the kind of culture you can create in your home and personal life.
But we can’t begin looking at issues in our lives if we don’t first get to a place where we can be honest
about where we are … both in our home environment and in our walk with God.
If you want, read the Key Verse: Ephesians 4:25 again.
E. Discussion Questions
Please don’t feel like you need to do ANY of these questions at all. These are here if you want to have
some kind of set discussion time.
1. How would you describe the culture of your home?
Answer guide: This is really meant to be an open-ended question. If the group finds it a bit hard to get started,
you can always ask leading questions like:
- Who makes all the decisions?
- Are you more Asian or more Australian?
- What’s a normal day like in the house?
- If it’s an individual, you can ask what’s your personality like?
It’s important in this section to just let people talk a bit about where they are at, and what’s going on
in their life. Steer carefully away from lots of blaming and putting down of other people in the group.
2. If you could change one thing about your home life or culture … what would it be? Try to
talk about something that you’d like to change in yourself (NOT another person)
Answer guide: This will be really telling of the kinds of issues your home group members are facing. As it is an
open-ended question, you’ll be able to discover from their answer what things are important to them. You’ll get
a glimpse into their hopes for their life and their family.
3. What are some of the things we can do to shape the culture of our family to better reflect
the culture that God wants us to have?
Answer guide: Take some time to explore the anwers. Maybe write them down. Maybe even EMAIL them to me
(chris.ong@fgam.org.au) as we might get some pretty good answers and suggestions. After some time of
discussion, bring the conversation back to the fact that the first step in ALL processes for changing culture is
honesty. God cannot transform the family unless we are first willing to be honest about our sin, our lives. If we
treat Christianity and our walk with God as something we “put on” for show, something that is distant from
our everyday lives, we prevent God from encountering or meeting the “real” us. God is not interested in your
“image”, he’s more concerned about you …
F. Application: A Point of Humility
Over the next few months, we will be looking broadly at the book of Galatians as it relates to the
Household of FAITH. It’s a really amazing book on humility.
Martin Luther captured the message of Galatians and the teaching of Jesus (Matt 5:3) when he wrote:
“Therefore, God accepts only the forsaken, cures only the sick, gives sight only to the blind, restores
life to only the dead, sanctifies only the sinners, gives wisdom only to the unwise fools. In short, He
has mercy only on those who are wretched, and gives grace only to those who are not in grace.
Therefore no proud saint, no wise or just person, can become God’s material, and God’s purpose
cannot be fulfilled in him. He remains in his own work and makes a fictitious, pretended, false, and
painted saint of himself, that is, a hypocrite.”
What area of your life are you willing to bring to GOD as broken?
G. Potential Prayer Points
Pray for the real needs that are raised in the Home Group and take time to put the ordinary nature of
this series into practice. Maybe it’s a prayer for kids at school, or work/finances or maybe it’s health
for a loved one. Support your members in prayer.