Home Groups Can Facilitate Healing | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Home Groups Can Facilitate Healing | Previous Challenge Entry
By Sherry A. Jackman
12/05/07
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES

Whenever a person told me they didn’t have a regular church to attend and went to someone’s home as their place of worship, I cringed and avoided such groups at every turn. It never pays to be too careful whose teaching you sit under. However, I often wish I had been more diligent to attend a home group type session with my friend Maggie.

She and I were attending the same church so I knew the group was covered spiritually by areas I considered important. Maggie had ladies over to her small apartment for weekly sessions, where she played tapes by a well-known women’s speaker who teaches extensively on healing. Much healing took place in Maggie’s life as a result of these very home groups I was always too scared to attend. Maggie was partially disabled. When it came time for her to leave her small apartment and move into a tiny room in our church building, she didn’t even have the communication skills needed to order her phone transfer. I was able to do that for her.

Later, as Maggie attended daily prayer meetings in that very church, much healing took place. She became a vital part of our church thrift shop staff, and even determined which agencies bought used cloth for recycling. Ragged clothing was a large portion of what we received as donations to our church thrift shop and we were unwilling to waste even that. As time went on Maggie also advanced to the point where she was able to move back to Ohio and took over the care of her ailing mother until the time of her mother’s death a few years later. I haven’t heard from Maggie recently; however, I have faith that she is still trusting Jesus and still growing emotionally. She seemed to be adjusting to life in Ohio, even though she left behind many friends here in western Washington.

When Jesus was here, they met in houses. It is safe to say that the meeting at the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus was similar to what we would today call a home group meeting. In the case of our Lord, the teacher was trustworthy. I have always been personally hesitant to attend a home group meeting, unless I was positive the person conducting it was someone of good spiritual integrity and had a good spiritual covering. By spiritual covering, I mean the person that the home group leader answers to, whether it is a pastor or some other person of spiritual authority, perhaps a professor at a local seminary or some position as that.

I did attend a home group type healing course in 1998 and it was taught by a married couple who were members of a reliable church. The meetings always kept to the topic at hand and were beneficial in helping me recover from some devastating emotional issues from the past. Other members of this class also received healing. As a result of this experience, I would be less reluctant to attend a home group in the future, but will always make sure that the people conducting such a group are born-again believers, have a good spiritual covering, and above all are people of integrity.

PREVIOUS ENTRY | NEXT ENTRY
SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY FOR THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE

The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.

If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be right now. CLICK HERE

JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.