MCC leadership are pleased to confirm the continuation of House Churches alongside larger gatherings in our buildings. Read on to understand more about what this will look like, what the frequency of these will be, and what the rationale is for our new rhythm.
History and experience
MCC moved into a House Church model at the beginning of December 2021, at the end of the 3+ month lockdown in Auckland. At that stage gatherings were limited to 25 and people were unvaccinated so the HC model seemed like the wisest move to limit contact (and thus Covid transmission), but also to ensure a greater sense of church (more than the online and zoom church experience) was possible.
At the end of April, after five months in HC, staff undertook a review of attendance to provide one indicator of how the HC model was working for our congregation and passed on the following information to leadership:
Did not attend at all - 13%
All fringe or very irregular attendees
Attended but present less than 25% of possible Sundays - 20%
Reasons included: immune compromised, unvaccinated children, significant personal situations, change in work, relocating out of Auckland, don’t like HC context
Attended and present 25-50% of possible Sundays - 24%
Mostly a Covid-related rationale if attendance lower than usual
Attended and present 50-100% of possible Sundays - 56%
[Note: During May and June, HC attendance has been lower than previous months owing largely to ongoing Covid infections, significant winter illnesses, two long weekends and the usual winter drop off.]
More recently, we have had monthly Sunday gatherings in our buildings. These have seen 50-60 adults each time and 10-15 children. Our monthly Wednesday Worship evenings have had 12-15 attendees.
House Church Issues
While many have reported having a positive HC experience, issues that have arisen that make it inadvisable to continue longer in a scenario that features HCs most Sundays. These include:
Congregation members missing the larger gatherings and the opportunity it provides for breadth of contact with a range of different people.
People missing the larger worship experience
Children not being catered for so well and parents feeling the burden of leading children’s activities every Sunday
The pressure on HC leaders having to lead every Sunday
Preaching to a camera is a much less satisfactory experience for our preachers
Rationale for Continuing with some experience of House Churches
Learning potential – Leaders and attendees alike have fed back how significant House Churches have been in growing and deepening faith. The opportunities HCs have provided for discussion and wrestling with issues of faith have been significant. While sermons are a significant part of Christian worship services there is the tendency for them to be more passive experiences. The active nature of HC discussions, alongside sermons, has allowed for the teasing out of faith, theology, application, personal implications in a way that has been refreshing for many. Leadership is keen for this to continue.
Depth of relationship – Many MCC members have appreciated the HC context for the deepening of relationships both with peers, older/younger adults and intergenerationally. The intimacy, real-life sharing and sense of connection has developed considerably in many HCs. For those unable to attend a mid-week small group (which is a large percentage of our young-families demographic), Sunday-morning-attendance-only struggles to provide this deeper level of relating.
Pressure on volunteers in weekly Sunday gatherings
Even before the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, there was already a sense of being overwhelmed by the regularity of Sunday morning responsibilities among some of our key volunteers. The HC context has eased this to some degree.
External pressures are also a factor. There are many things placing pressure on households at the moment, aside from covid. The cost of living especially, necessitating long hours of work, means there is not the availability or capacity to volunteer that may have been present in the past.
MCC’s unique demographics (with the bulk of our people being in either the 30 to mid 40s age group or the 60+ age group) is also a consideration in terms of volunteering. The age groups which would generally be most available to volunteer (20s and 40-60s) are very low in number at MCC.
Feedback from other local churches – MCC pastors have caught up with leadership from other churches around Auckland in recent months and a lot of these are reporting very low turnout at their Sunday gatherings. Many are reporting only 50% turning up most Sundays. Some are reporting even lower. Some have no idea where their people are at / what they are up to. The HC model has given MCC the ability to stay well connected for the most part, even if households are not present physically most weeks. We have a sense of knowing what is up with most of our congregation members. Pastoral care has been better because of the HC structure and the willingness of our HC leaders to keep in touch with HC members. Some are even suggesting our pastoral care is better now than it was pre-pandemic. We don’t want to lose this.
Our new 4-weekly Sunday Gathering Rhythm
MCC leadership has decided to move forward with the following rhythm as a result of prayerful discussion and taking into consideration congregation feedback via our June survey.
Week 1: In our MCC buildings
Usual MCC worship likely
In-person sermon
Thrive & Youth programmes running
Week 2: In House Churches
Discussion in HCs based on last week’s sermon with questions, further ideas, Scripture etc to explore
Week 3: In our MCC buildings
Usual MCC worship likely
In-person sermon
Thrive & Youth programmes running
Week 4: In our MCC buildings in HCs
Various different corporate worship experiences likely
Discussion in HC groupings based on last week’s sermon with questions, further ideas, Scripture etc to explore (some groups may use other rooms at MCC)
Thrive & Youth programmes running (most times)
Shared lunch
Notes:
Our most recent survey (which was one source of input leadership drew on in their decision making) showed the following preferences:
Option 1 - Back to normal with all gatherings in MCC buildings, no House Churches - 30%
Option 2 - Gatherings in the building 3 weeks, HC gatherings 1 week - 20%
Option 3 - Alternating between in-building gatherings and HC gatherings - 50%
We are aware that most of our people would prefer Option 3, alternating, however we do not have enough leadership currently to make this happen.
It is our intention that the new 4-week rhythm will be in place for 12 months at this point. Leadership will be reviewing and tweaking things as we go along however.
House Church Changes
Until now we have had 8 House Churches operating. For various reasons we are likely to merge the Cornerstone and Triangle/GMC House Churches in with the other six HCs. Someone in leadership will be in touch with members from these two HCs to help them work out which HC would be the best fit for them moving forward.
The Difference between Small Groups and House Churches
We still have a number of MCC Small Groups meeting during the week. These are different to House Churches in a few ways:
They tend to be more homogenous with people of a similar age and stage in life meeting together
They set their own direction and are not bound by any teaching schedule set by the pastors
They have different intervals of time between meetings – some weekly, some fortnightly, some monthly
There is room and a role for both small groups and HCs at MCC and leadership will be supporting the continuation of small groups alongside our House Church and larger gathering structure.
Hopes for the Upcoming Months
It is our hope as elders and pastors that we would see some great things happen at MCC over the next 6-12 months.
With the rhythm we have put in place we are hoping that:
The intimacy and the wrestling with God’s Word provided by HCs will continue
The larger gatherings will provide some wonderful in-person teaching, meaningful worship experiences and a sense of being part of the ‘iwi’ of MCC
Leadership will continue to be developed as HC leadership is sustained and grown
New challenges will be taken up in terms of what it means for our HCs to be ‘SENT’
The HCs would continue to be largely intergenerational and seek to integrate, involve and care for the children and youth in their midst
Reviews and tweaking would enhance both the HC experience and the larger gathering experience as the months go by so that we are deepening our faith personally but also growing in what it means to be Jesus to each other and in our world.
If you’d like to talk more about this with one of our Leadership, please get in touch below: