Dear Saints, we have been getting many messages sent to us asking how to meet as a Gospel Fellowships meeting or how to get involved with what God is doing. We want to try and simply answer this question in this post and give further clarification and help to believers.
Gospel Fellowships has been a burden of many brothers and sisters in North America for many years, in its simplicity the gathering of believers under the headship of Jesus Christ and not under a denominational fractured system is at the root of this burden. We are not anti-denominational for all movements in Church history have become denominations in the end. And we are not anti-church building for many movements utilize churches and God has blessed this.
Rather Gospel Fellowships is a burden that saints would gather in a more primitive, apostolic and simple way in house churches or any buildings of use as the Holy Spirit guides. Saints who feel the Lord leading them to gather together with other true believers under the headship of Jesus Christ apart from denominations can be considered a part of this movement. This can look different for some meetings can just be mostly prayer, and others a message and others brothers just sharing their hearts with each other from the Scriptures. We are publishing the Principles book to give more guidance and help to these small groups.
Also another thing we are doing is hosting regional gatherings of believers where for 1 day saints in that local area would meet together and 1-3 other elder brothers would share a few messages and time would be given for prayer, worship and a time for brothers to testify and share their hearts as well as time for fellowship. We believe in these meetings the Holy Spirit will connect many like-minded believers together that could meet as House Churches in that area.
We also encourage believers to find elder brother(s) that they can submit to and recieve counsel from. This could be a speaker from one of the gathering meetings, or a mature brother in a biblical church in your area, or another house church leader that you have met that can simply be an encouragement to you as you go forward. Therefore we are not isolated and separate but are connected in some way with God's people in North America that are meeting in this way. We feel this is a vital and important step for believers to do willingly as they can find a brother to submit to and find encouragement in Christ.
Some brothers in local areas will naturally have more brothers desiring to submit and receive shepherding and encouragement from them because they have walked with the Lord much more and are more mature in the Lord. This will help many believers who are desiring to start a house Church meeting to be mentored and not learn the same mistakes. Also if there are problems that arise in the fellowship there is a more mature brother that can help with this. In no way should these mature brothers Lord over any others or consider other fellowships "under them" they are simply connected to other groups.
In this way we are not having a map or network of the house churches or gospel fellowship gatherings but will simply facilitate regional gatherings all over North America for saints to connect and network with believers there.
"For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” - Matthew 18:20
To meet as a Gospel Fellowship does not mean you have to leave your biblical church that you are involved with. A Gospel Fellowship meeting can be any day of the week, but some will be intentional to have it on Sunday mornings. Either way they "are" House Churches because our Lord said that were 2 or 3 are gathered He is in the midst. But just because you are involved in a house church does not mean you cannot go to a denominational church also. The key though is that Gospel Fellowships itself is not associated or under any denomination but Jesus Christ as head.
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“Christianity was birthed in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and will only continue as we have this empowering from above. God is always looking for the willing vessels that will trust Him afresh for the impossible.” from: Principles for the gathering of Believers under the Headship of Jesus Christ.Since 2012, a growing group of believers in North America started to warn of coming persecution to western countries. This message was shared in a variety of ways. One of the responses to this was to compile a book taking principles from underground Churches around the world of how they thrived under pressure and persecution. The volume, Principles for the Gathering of Believers, had in a short time over 50,000 downloads in ebook format and much interest was shown. Some new house churches started through this and other existing groups were encouraged.