Twin Cities Church

DIFFERENT TYPES OF CHURCH MEETINGS

The dominant model of church meeting in America today is the Sunday service, where a sermon is delivered, songs are sung, money is given, prayers are prayed, and kids are tended to. Generally, when people “go to church,” this is what they’re talking about. Regardless of the tradition, be it Catholic, mainline Protestant, evangelical, or fundamentalist, this model dominates. There’s nothing necessarily bad about that format, and in fact, one of our meetings operates fairly consistent with that model. The problem is what is not structured in terms of other types of meetings that are considered “church.”

The early church experienced a much wider variety of meeting formats, depending upon the need and the leadership involved. The New Testament and contemporary scholarly research affirms a variety of purposes and formats to meetings, including:

•	thanksgiving and praise meetings
•	Scripture-oriented meetings (sermons, preaching, teaching, and discussion)
•	support and relationship oriented meetings
•	sacramental meetings (Lord’s Suppers, baptisms)
•	service meetings
•	evangelistic meetings

They also met in a variety of places, including the temple in Jerusalem, public forums, schools, and houses. Twin Cities Church believes that our meeting structures should accommodate ministry functions. For corporate worship and to hear preaching and teaching, the standard model works great. However, there are more ministry functions than just worship and preaching, and Twin Cities Church employs other equally-important meeting structures to accommodate those ministry functions.

WORD AND WORSHIP

Our Word and Worship meeting is our weekly opportunity to give thanks to God as a community for His acts of mercy and love in our lives, to grow in our unified understanding of the Scriptures, and to publicly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to anyone that attends. Aesthetically gifted members perform original songs, dance, and other expressions of showing honor to God and His Son. We usually preach from books of the Bible, emphasizing the eternal work of God through His people and the life found in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

HOUSE CHURCH MEETINGS

Perhaps the most enjoyable and encouraging of our meetings is our House Church Meetings. We use our House Church Meetings to engage a variety of ministry functions, including growth in the Scriptures, prayer, fellowship, sacraments, shepherding, mission, and service to the world. We meet weekly in homes of our church members, where every week we share a meal, participate in the Lord’s supper, pray, and other things as the Spirit leads. The informal environment of a comfortable home, the generous hospitality of the host family, and the quality of experience around a shared meal creates an atmosphere that most people find warm, inviting, and pleasurable. For some, our house church meetings provide their entry-point into the TCC family.

DISCUSSIONS

Twin Cities Church utilizes discussion formats for our equipping our members and leaders in the whole council of God. Discussion over readings, examples, and written projects, as opposed to listening to lectures or sermons, provides participants with a much richer learning experience where differing ideas are tested, sharpened, or changed in a community forum where all participants are co-learners in their walks in Jesus. TCC has two primary tracks for development:

Walking in Christ. This discussion class provides the foundational equipping necessary for all Christians through an ordered process.

Leadership Development. This discussion class provides those ready and willing to participate in leadership spheres the opportunity to develop character, ministry, and academic skills needed for a lifetime of mature ministry participation, regardless of a person’s station in life.

For more information about these learning opportunities, see Resources.

PRAYER

Jesus clearly commands the church to pray. We are specifically commanded to gather and pray for our national leaders and the salvation of people (1 Timothy 2:1-4). All are called to cast our anxieties onto God through prayer and to be anxious for nothing (1 Peter 5:6-7; Philippians 4:6-7). Paul instructs the church to pray for each other’s burdens (Ephesians 6:18), and to pray for his efforts to preach the gospel (Colossians 4:2-4). James instructs us to pray for each other when we are sick and reminds us that the persistent prayers of a righteous person are powerful and effective (James 5:13-16). In short, the churches of God are to be praying churches. To ensure that TCC remains faithful to pray, we have specific meetings devoted to prayer and our House Church leaders covenant to pray for each of the persons in their House Church by name on a daily basis.