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Guidelines
Households are small pastoral groupings of members. They are essential to the life and mission of our community. They are where members are cared for, and where members continue to grow in the Lord.
There should be serious life giving discussion and PERSONAL SHARING. After the worship, normally the men meet separately from the women. This is very important. Only in rare times should the men meet together with the women for this portion. This is basically so that the men will grow together as men of God, and the women as women of God. Men and women have different needs, and different dynamics in relationships.
In MFC, members should have two Households in a month. For the first year, the discussions follow a specific track, based on the teaching courses that are taken up such as Covenant Recollection and Marriage Enrichment Retreat 1. For the succeeding years, there is flexibility as to content. The Household servant should be prayerful, should know the status of members, discerning and in tune with the leading of the Holy Spirit. Discussions can be PERSONAL SHARING, bible sharing with personal reflection, further personal discussion of an MFC teaching or may use the Suggested Monthly Household topic released in MFC Website. We changed it from releasing two monthly topics to only one starting Aug 1, 2024 to encourage Personal Sharing Household.
For PERSONAL SHARING there is a particular topic with the inspiration and inputs being gathered from the actual personal sharing. Ex. Topic: Pray Time, Question: How is your prayer time? The household servant seeks for the Spiritual Growth of the household members.
Three basic ingredients of a life Giving Household are worship, discussion/sharing and fellowship. It must follow the prescribed times for each aspect.
Household Format
30 mins - Worship
Led by the Household Servant who is the worship leader, the Household members must participate actively in the singing and the prayers. They should be open to receiving and sharing the Word from the Lord. There should be words from the Lord (prophecy and/or Scripture Reading), Individual prayers of thanksgiving and petition. They must have the faith to know that they are in the presence of Jesus, and accord Him the praise and worship that is due Him.
60 mins - Personal Sharing
Guided by a particular topic, everyone may share any personal blessings, challenges, prayer intentions, status of your relationship with God and with your spouse, or messages from the Lord that you want your household to know and pray about. This is gathering inspiration from each other, bearing each other’s burdens and sharing each other’s joys.
Sample Topic for discussion: How is your prayer time?
10 mins - Closing exhortation and Closing Prayer, Leading of HS
As the spirit leads the Household Servant will gather the personal sharings and God’s words together and gives a short closing exhortation. During the closing prayer, the prayer leader will also pray over the birthday and wedding anniversary celebrants.
5 mins - Announcements
Give reminders regarding the following: schedule of the next household, who is the next host; monthly activities; give tithes and other matters. Encourage journaling of God’s messages and leading.
Give: God is Generous and in response, let us be good stewards by consistent Spiritual Giving, our tithing. For Tithes Remittance of NCR Members: bit.ly/mfctithes
30-60 mins - Fellowship
This can be the meal time at the start or end
Things to Remember
Note: Overall it should be from two to three hours.
There are many life‐giving elements in community. There is our personal prayer and Bible reading. There are the many teachings, formation tracks, and leaders training. There are the assemblies and other activities. But the household is unique in that the receivers are also the givers, and vice versa. The household is thus the basic cell of community—for formation, for fraternal relationships, for moving the whole community forward.
Ref: Having a Life-giving Household by SG Oct 7, 2019
Note: MFC PFO will still release 1 SUGGESTED household topic every month. This is connected with the SUGGESTED Chapter Teaching Topic www.missionaryfamiliesofchrist.downloads
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