Q.  What is a Great Oaks Home Church?

A.  It’s a group of 15 to 20 people, including children, that typically meet weekly in the home of one of the group members, where they participate in a complete midweek church service (see the Home Church video for a complete demonstration).

Q.  What does a midweek Home Church service consist of?

A.  People arrive around 6:00 or 7:00 pm (start times vary), catch up with one another while they enjoy a potluck meal together. Then they sing a few songs, thanking God for the blessings in their lives. Next, a very unique teaching segment follows:

There is no sermon – a Q&A teaching format is employed. The leader reviews the selected topic, reads the applicable scripture, and then asks the first question to get the discussion started. The Q&A interaction drives the remainder of the session. Older children are encouraged to participate. Activities are provided for younger children in another room. Finally, people share the needs in their lives and pray. This concludes the service.

Q.   Why are Home Churches suddenly becoming so popular, even with people who have never attended church, or who have given up on church?

A.  Although Home Churches have been popular in many countries for quite some time, according to researchers they are just starting to catch on in the U.S. There are presently over 10 million Americans that are attending Home Churches.

The consensus on what is driving this growing popularity is that small Home Churches uniquely fulfill a need in each of us to have close personal relationships with people we can trust. And this need is met and flourishes in a small church service setting attended by only 15 to 20 people, compared to the large church setting typically attended by hundreds of people.

The highly informal environment is conducive to building strong personal relationships. Once Home Church people get to know one another, they share their lives and truly care for and support each other. These and other attributes have tremendous appeal to people who don’t attend church, as well as many who currently attend church.

Q.  What’s the difference between a Home Church and a small group?

A.  The primary difference is that the Home Church meeting includes a complete church service as described above, whereas most Small Group meetings have a much narrower focus, typically centered on some form of study.

Further, many churches purposely dissolve and restructure their small groups periodically, which has the affect of breaking up close relationships, or inhibiting their development. Conversely, Great Oaks Home Church members, although they’re free to leave at any time for any reason, typically only leave to voluntarily become part of a new Home Church start. Accordingly, Home Church members can stick together as long as they care to. 

Q.  Doesn’t attending a midweek large church service and attending a Small Group meeting essentially provide the same combined benefits?

A.  In churches that allow their Small Groups to remain together indefinitely, and offer a complete midweek service the benefits are almost the same. The exceptions are: the older children don’t participate in the entire service and learn from the adult interaction, and the no-sermon Q&A teaching format is believed to be a more effective learning experience, particularly with people who are new to Christianity.

However, to attend Sunday service, a midweek service, and a Small Group meeting requires 3 time commitments per week. Most people today, particularly those with children, can only cope with 2 commitments per week. As a result, few people are able to attend both a midweek service and Small Group meeting each week no matter how much they would like to.

Q.  Don’t Home Churches have a tendency to become spiritually flawed, disconnected, or even cultlike?

A.  Rarely, but it can happen, which is why we firmly believe in providing oversight to insure that each Home Church maintains integrity. In the early church, the teachings of the apostles together with mature, accountable leadership kept the church on track. The same remains true today. Our Home Church leaders are committed to biblical authority and to living in community and accountability with one another.

Q.  What’s the Leadership structure of Great Oaks?

A.  Our structure consists of a Central Church organized and operating like most contemporary Christian churches today, but the backbone of our structure is Home Churches. The Central church is led by a largely seminary-trained staff that produces the Sunday service, coordinates ministry development and activities, and provides oversight to the Home Churches.

Home Church Leaders may not have seminary training, but must qualify as Elders in accordance with the standards set forth in 1 Timothy 3. The Home Church Leaders also appoint others in their group to assist in various internal ministry functions as required, and are authorized to restructure the service format to suit the needs of their particular group.

Q.  Doesn’t Great Oaks have a large weekend service also?

A.  Yes. It’s a typical contemporary service. Our music is upbeat and played by a band. The arts – particularly video – are used to emphasize the key points of the message.

The messages deal with real life issues, and explain how God’s Word reveals how to resolve them.

Our younger children’s programs are fun and creative and designed to build a spiritual foundation that helps them make wiser choices. Our teen’s programs focus on combating the enormous peer pressures kids face today: to engage in sex, experiment with drugs and alcohol, and participate in other abusive behaviors.

Q.  Does this mean Great Oaks people will feel pressured to attend both the Sunday service and a Home Church Service each week?

A.  No. Each person can attend the service that works best for them. However, each service has some different benefits going for it, which is why many people eventually try to hit them both whenever they can.

Q.  Do small Home Churches get involved in serving those in need?

A.  Yes. At Great Oaks we believe that serving others is not an option. Further, we believe in serving by hands-on involvement whenever possible. It’s in our DNA. Home Churches first try to care for those in need in their immediate neighborhoods. They also collaborate with other Home Churches and the Central Church to engage in larger projects that serve the needs of the community at large, and those less fortunate in foreign lands.

Q.  Why do older children participate in the entire service?

A.  It gives them a chance to see true Christianity in action -- how adults love and care for each other. They learn a lot about Mom and Dad’s world, the troubles they face, how they rely on God for help, how God answers prayer – things they may otherwise never learn at a young age, things that strengthen their faith.

Q.  If I’m interested in investigating a Home church, how do I go about it?

A.  There are basically three ways:

1. You can click here to go to the Home Churches times and location page, select a Home Church that is near you, call the leader and arrange a visit to a meeting.
2. You can call the church office and they’ll answer any questions you have and direct you to the leader of a Home Church that’s near you and fits your preferences.
3. The most popular way is to visit a few Sunday services, get to know a few people, meet our staff, and talk directly to several Home Church leaders.