Galen, are you doing that out of habit or because you are or anticipate having fellowships?
I still have a tendency in every place I live to survey the room evaluating how chairs would be placed. I then deliberately make it comfortable just for ME!
We have only stopped running fellowships in our home for about a year now.
We do anticipate doing it again someday. We have only recently moved and right now we are in a very small apartment, while building a new home.
Thanks, Galen. You and anyone else still moved to care for people in a home fellowship are to be admired. My flip response earlier in the thread was not an attempt to be disrespectfull of those efforts: just my knee-jerk reaction to the idea. Things that can start with the best of intentions end badly, in my own experience.
I truly wish it wasn't like that for me, but it is what it is.
If I were to setup a Twig , home felllowship, kind of thing I would respect the individual's right to worship privately without the need to demonstrate to others that he or she is following the prescribed path to enlightenment. Seems to me that while in TWI there was never any time to "listen to God" for all the yelling going on and the endless amounts of busy work assigned to keep you from thinking about how much time you were wasting.
I wouldn't assume that all other forms of fellowship are inferior or somehow "of the devil" just because those people don't want to come to my fellowship. I wouldn't keep track of attendance nor would I make others responsible for giving a ride to someone unless I was prepared to do it myself. That is attendance is optional and if you don't want to come then don't and no one should ask you why you made that decision.
We would talk about whatever we wanted to and would diaglogue openly with no concern for contradicting the party line - well there wouldn't be a party line and we wouldn't rely upon anyone one organization, denomination, book, or class for "the word". I wouldn't ask for a red cent nor would I expect anyone to volunteer any money. If someone wants to bring cookies okay. Bring them if you wish but there are no assigned refreshment duties. No tapes to buy, no books to buy, no classes to fund, no supplies or hymnals. If we sing we use our memories or someone xeroxes lyrics.
In terms of what we would teach or study it would be a variety of materials from many sources INCLUDING MAJOR DENOMINATIONS ! We would NOT pretend to be Greek or Aramaic scholars capable of distingusihing subtleties in phrases and words that we seek to manipulate to match up with some pre-conveived idea or opinion we are trying to advance. We would readily accept that men and women much, much smarter than ourselves have debated various christian concepts through the centuries (trinity, salvation, tongues, etc) without converging on a unified approach. So we don't have to reconcile all the loose ends in christianity in an attempt to make ourselves look smarter than we are (like we could).
Anyone attending my fellowship would have to be comfortable with going away with NOT having all the answers and also that others within your fellowship might NOT share your views on a given area of the bible. You would need to respect that and value what the other had. Its also quite possible that if we all concluded we had had a rough week then we might in fact go to the local tavern and drink beer instead. Respecting the fact that not everyone wants to drink then we might pick a more general form of entertainment but the concept of felllowship involves many ideas above and beyond simply reading the bible or some passage we are trying to dissect to arrive at some mystical meaning.
If it ever became apparent that the fellowship was not progressing or people were disinterested in continuing then we would pull the plug on it without hesistation and , if the desire later re-emerged, would re-convene. None of this would be construed as being a "faulure" or the result of "the adversary". It would be in recognition of the fact that God expects us to give priority to our families and children above some concocted family or
artificial construct that presumably would get us more "rewards" at "the bema".
To WayferNot, thank you for your kind words about my absence from Greasespot.
As far as my comment about chairs in a circle goes, what I meant was, if I had a fellowship in my home, I would want to leave the home setting EXACTLY AS IT WAS before the fellowshippers arrives. This is because I like gatherings that are INFORMAL. Also, I WOULD NOT WANT IT TO FEEL LIKE A MEETING. To me, a circle of chairs feels like an artificial setting setup for a meeting. I hated that about twigs that did it. I much more enjoyed coming to someone's house and gathering around in the living room. If seating space was available, I'd sit there. If not, the floor was fine with me.
Come in jeans, shorts, bare feet, but just make sure you're dressed, please.... (pj's are ok on Sunday mornings...) but NO DRESS CODE!
And while I'm at it...
NO STANDING UP WHEN THE TEACHER WALKS IN!
Gawd I hated that... or when a woman walked in the room - I mean, gimme a break! There's respect and then there's r-e-l-i-g-i-o-u-s s-t-u-p-i-d-i-t-y....
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Galen
We have only stopped running fellowships in our home for about a year now.
We do anticipate doing it again someday. We have only recently moved and right now we are in a very small apartment, while building a new home.
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topoftheworld
Thanks, Galen. You and anyone else still moved to care for people in a home fellowship are to be admired. My flip response earlier in the thread was not an attempt to be disrespectfull of those efforts: just my knee-jerk reaction to the idea. Things that can start with the best of intentions end badly, in my own experience.
I truly wish it wasn't like that for me, but it is what it is.
Thumbs up to the rest of you.
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diazbro
If I were to setup a Twig , home felllowship, kind of thing I would respect the individual's right to worship privately without the need to demonstrate to others that he or she is following the prescribed path to enlightenment. Seems to me that while in TWI there was never any time to "listen to God" for all the yelling going on and the endless amounts of busy work assigned to keep you from thinking about how much time you were wasting.
I wouldn't assume that all other forms of fellowship are inferior or somehow "of the devil" just because those people don't want to come to my fellowship. I wouldn't keep track of attendance nor would I make others responsible for giving a ride to someone unless I was prepared to do it myself. That is attendance is optional and if you don't want to come then don't and no one should ask you why you made that decision.
We would talk about whatever we wanted to and would diaglogue openly with no concern for contradicting the party line - well there wouldn't be a party line and we wouldn't rely upon anyone one organization, denomination, book, or class for "the word". I wouldn't ask for a red cent nor would I expect anyone to volunteer any money. If someone wants to bring cookies okay. Bring them if you wish but there are no assigned refreshment duties. No tapes to buy, no books to buy, no classes to fund, no supplies or hymnals. If we sing we use our memories or someone xeroxes lyrics.
In terms of what we would teach or study it would be a variety of materials from many sources INCLUDING MAJOR DENOMINATIONS ! We would NOT pretend to be Greek or Aramaic scholars capable of distingusihing subtleties in phrases and words that we seek to manipulate to match up with some pre-conveived idea or opinion we are trying to advance. We would readily accept that men and women much, much smarter than ourselves have debated various christian concepts through the centuries (trinity, salvation, tongues, etc) without converging on a unified approach. So we don't have to reconcile all the loose ends in christianity in an attempt to make ourselves look smarter than we are (like we could).
Anyone attending my fellowship would have to be comfortable with going away with NOT having all the answers and also that others within your fellowship might NOT share your views on a given area of the bible. You would need to respect that and value what the other had. Its also quite possible that if we all concluded we had had a rough week then we might in fact go to the local tavern and drink beer instead. Respecting the fact that not everyone wants to drink then we might pick a more general form of entertainment but the concept of felllowship involves many ideas above and beyond simply reading the bible or some passage we are trying to dissect to arrive at some mystical meaning.
If it ever became apparent that the fellowship was not progressing or people were disinterested in continuing then we would pull the plug on it without hesistation and , if the desire later re-emerged, would re-convene. None of this would be construed as being a "faulure" or the result of "the adversary". It would be in recognition of the fact that God expects us to give priority to our families and children above some concocted family or
artificial construct that presumably would get us more "rewards" at "the bema".
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nolongerlurking
To WayferNot, thank you for your kind words about my absence from Greasespot.
As far as my comment about chairs in a circle goes, what I meant was, if I had a fellowship in my home, I would want to leave the home setting EXACTLY AS IT WAS before the fellowshippers arrives. This is because I like gatherings that are INFORMAL. Also, I WOULD NOT WANT IT TO FEEL LIKE A MEETING. To me, a circle of chairs feels like an artificial setting setup for a meeting. I hated that about twigs that did it. I much more enjoyed coming to someone's house and gathering around in the living room. If seating space was available, I'd sit there. If not, the floor was fine with me.
Cheers
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ChasUFarley
Yeah, all of the above and...
NO DRESS CODE!
Come in jeans, shorts, bare feet, but just make sure you're dressed, please.... (pj's are ok on Sunday mornings...) but NO DRESS CODE!
And while I'm at it...
NO STANDING UP WHEN THE TEACHER WALKS IN!
Gawd I hated that... or when a woman walked in the room - I mean, gimme a break! There's respect and then there's r-e-l-i-g-i-o-u-s s-t-u-p-i-d-i-t-y....
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coolchef1248 @adelphia.net
i co ordinated twig for more years than i care to think about
and many many times i was the one sitting on the floor when i taught
and it was sweet
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