There is much that Vineyard is passionate or concerned about. And for now we will share on what may at first seem like a dead subject: on 2 key aspects of our organization or structures.

No matter how boring it seems, structures are important. And as if to explain the need for some in church, someone in Vineyard (cannot now recall whom) said something like: Too little structure and people cannot work. Too much structure and the Holy Spirit cannot work!

Alexander Venter, author of the book, “Doing Church – Building from the bottom up” proposes (in his book) only three structures for Valley Vineyard, the church he pastors.

Doing Church is widely accepted in the Vineyard movement as a helpful documentation of Vineyard’s way of doing church, of John Wimber’s and our philosophy of ministry, if you like.

Alexander is sticking to the Radical Middle when he suggests only three structures. They are the home (or house) church, Sunday worship (or the celebration service) and the Ministry group.

At the moment, in Vineyard Singapore, we have two fairly well defined structures, the celebration service and the house church. Importantly, they also happen to be the first point of contact with us for new comers. That’s why we thought to start here, and share about what the celebration service and our house churches mean to us.

Actually, the celebration service is essentially a large group meeting. (Duh!) Because the gathering is larger and comprises a more diverse group, there are a number of things, which we hope to see happening in our service:

(1) We hope to enhance what’s already happening in the house churches, such as in worship.

We want to do what we can to support, strengthen, and unify our small groups, the small group leaders, and the people who participate in them. This is why at the celebration service we will teach and share about Vineyard’s vision, values and practices.

We also take the time to affirm and bless what the Holy Spirit is doing in people, and we invite the Holy Spirit to do more!

(2) We hope to provide a place where the full "symphony" or range of spiritual gifts, such as those which are listed in 1 Corinthians 12 are manifested, and the body is built up.

(3) We hope for ministry to take place that will benefit all the parts of this body including visitors.

This is where correct practices are modeled, caught and not just taught and there are opportunities to observe and learn from other leaders.

House churches or small groups are where our focus lies and in fact the primary purpose of our celebration service has been to serve the people from all our house churches.

God wants us to have an intimate personal relationship with Him. He also desires that we build and grow in relationship with one another. Accordingly we place a high value on being relational: people growing together in relationship with each other and, most importantly, with Jesus. We consider that house churches or small groups are the best places to develop and foster meaningful friendships.

House church is also where we can get healed of our brokenness or our hurts.

It’s where we discover our gifting and how you can serve.

And importantly it’s where we pay attention to character and spiritual growth.

In short we feel that house churches are the best and perhaps only way to reach and disciple people for Jesus effectively.

If something is worth saying it is worth repeating. Here is why we feel that it is so important that everyone belongs to a small group or house church:

(1) You will experience a greater sense of belonging in God's family.

John Wimber is quoted as saying, "People come to church for many reasons, but they stay because of relationship."

How many of you think that it is fun to be lonely, and to have no one to share your burdens and joys? (Again, duh!)

How many of you feel that one of the greatest benefits of being a part of a small group is the close relationships and friendships you have fostered and gained? It's true that we really do need each other. God never meant for you to "go it alone" in the Christian life.

Our desire is to build true community, and not just have meetings. In a small group you can develop meaningful, intimate, and long term relationships. It is a matter of becoming friends, sharing our hearts, resources and our very lives.

Openness (taking off masks), honesty and being real and up front about one’s self, God, life and others are values that will help.

Another Wimber quote, “the depth of our experience of church is determined by the quality of our relationships”. In the end, relationships are the church.

(2) You will grow in your relationship with Christ.

You will be encouraged, and challenged to grow in your relationship with Christ.

There is constant reminding in our house church about modeling it. Walk the talk. And you will hear us say a lot that it is caught not taught.

When Lye Heng was filled in the Spirit he was so hungry for Christ. He was looking for good Christian books to read even at the National Library. And He managed to find a gem of a book in the National Library, of all places. The book was "Taste of the New Wine" by Keith Miller.

Written about 40 years ago Keith Miller was a prominent house church pastor who believed passionately in the value of small groups.

Keith shared that God had touched him and he wanted his wife to experience the same transformation. Christ had become the center of his life, and he wanted his wife, MaryAnn to be just as deeply committed to Christ.

Keith would take every opportunity to witness and preach to MaryAnn. But the strangest thing was that the more enthusiastic he became, the cooler MaryAnn seemed to get. MaryAnn saw Keith's efforts as an attempt to change her into a religious fanatic. Worst still, she felt that Keith was saying that he did not like the person she was, or the woman he had been married to all these years. So the more Keith tried to change her, the more she would subtly point out to him areas in his life, which, if he was really transformed, then why was he still behaving in the same old way.

But Keith did not give up. In fact he decided to be even more loving. Now, there's nothing wrong with being more loving, except that Keith committed the cardinal mistake of doing what in fact pleased him, instead of MaryAnn.

For instance, Keith had a friend at the time that was a terrific cook. She would bake a pie for her husband every so often to convince him that she was a good Christian wife. The only trouble was that the husband did not like pies.

For Keith and MaryAnn, there was one thing that emerged early in their marriage which formed a wedge in their relationship. Keith was brought up with the notion that men did not help around with household chores. Soon after they had settled in their new home Keith made an issue of taking out the trash from the kitchen. MaryAnn was shocked with Keith's refusal to help in this small way.

The problem for Keith was that he was brought up to think that taking out the trash was just not something that a man could do. Does this strike a chord with anyone? Remember that this was more than 50 years ago. Today, guys love to do household chores, change nappies and wash the baby’s bottom, right?

So when Keith was looking around for something loving that he could do to convince his wife that Christ had transformed his life. Guess what? Exactly! It was the trash bin in the kitchen.

Without mentioning it to MaryAnn, Keith started taking out the trash every evening. And this was when she knew that something had really happened to Keith. Within a few weeks, she made a commitment of her future to Christ.

In family relationships everything is transparent. This is the same in the house church family.

As in MaryAnn & Keith Miller's experience, people are more likely to change fundamentally, or change on the inside, if they can see something supernaturally happening in the lives of other people.

In house church you will grow in your relationship in Christ when you can see Him in the behavior of someone in the group, and when you are able to show that Christ is at work in you.

There are other gems to gather from Keith’s story:

When you want to express your love for someone, it is absolutely not what pleases you that matters. It is what pleases the other person that matters. What a practical way to die to your self!

If you want someone to change, you must first be prepared to change.

Mercy, love and charity – acts, which costs you and offer the other person real tangible helps or benefits, will win people over more readily than ideals and words.

But coming back to what you can get from house churches:

(3) You will understand the Bible better.

How many of believe that application is important? The Bible needs to be studied. Then the word must be applied to our personal situations.

In house churches there are more opportunities to ask questions, and discuss what God is saying to us in scripture. It is easier to share on a confidential basis. The insights and valuable lessons we gain from each other gets us ready for battles in the real world.

(4) You will be equipped and have ample opportunities to serve one another and reach out to other people.

You can bring in new believers, nurture them, and to reach out to the community in ways the "larger" church can't.

We are committed to equipping the saints to do the work of ministry. Our concept of training is primarily apprenticeship, on the job, and in the safety and ongoing relational context of a house church.

All of this translates into a specific and practical process of training, which John Wimber, called “Show and Tell”.

The process ensures people get exposed to who were are and what we do and they get to participate. That’s why we have the saying, “Everyone gets to play”.

The house church pastor will “model” or influence our people by example. And there is basically a seven-step process where the leader will:

(i) Do the ministry with others watching.

(ii) Then talk about it (reflect on what happened, and answer questions).

(iii) Get them to do it while he or she watches.

(iv) Give feedback (talk about it and answer questions that may arise).

(v) Repeat the process (as often as is needed for them to catch it).

(vi) Leave them doing it (monitor and encourage)

(vii) Get them to do steps (i) to (vi) with others.