The Impact of House Fellowship System on the Life of an Individual Church Member by Using Living Faith Church in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria as a Case Study
Chapter One
Objectives of the Study
The broad objective of this study is to investigate the impact of house fellowship system on the life of an individual church member by using Living Faith Church in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria as a case study. The specific objectives include:
- to evaluate the effects of house fellowship on the life of individual church member in Benin City
- to determine the reasons why Living Faith members in Benin City attend house fellowship
- to investigate the prevalence of house fellowship among the members of the Living Faith Church in Benin City
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
House fellowship
House fellowship can be defined as a meeting in a house, an office, market place, etc where believers, unbelievers and people at different levels of spiritual maturity gather at an agreed and particular day and time of the week to share the Word of God.
This is carried out in an atmosphere of love, praising, worshiping and praying together; sharing experiences on what the Lord has done or doing in their lives; building up one another and witnessing through their actions and activities to the community in which the fellowship is based; living together in the community of faith and helping each other; through the good relationships established, in various areas of needs; and, in doing these, the fellowship members, the community and others derive benefits and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is spread, in good manners, souls are won and the community of believers is enlarged.
House Fellowship Centers are easy to start; they are relaxed and informal; they are evangelistic tools, facilitate training of Pastors and leaders, economical and can solve the problem of growth.
House Fellowship is a concept that embraces two ideas. One is the idea of House Church or Home Church. The second is the idea of Cell Church.
Benefits of House Fellowships
The house fellowship groups are usually the first unit of care which offer love, care and sharing and foster communal living just like a family. There we can pray together, read the scriptures together, eat together and share our resources just like the saints of old had things in common during their own time. It is a place to practice generosity and hospitality.
It is the first unit of care for such a time as the care of a mother who has just given birth, a young couple who have just married a family that may be struggling, people with emotional, spiritual, physical or material needs and all the rest of them. It is also a place to minister to those who are bereaved and are grieving over loved ones that have been taken away from them. It is a place of support, solace and comfort.
It is a place that can make people feel belonged and make them feel valued and esteemed. It is a family you could really call your own. After the disciples were released by the council the Bible says that they went to their own company, their own companion, their own people; the family of God they truly belonged to.
The house fellowship can also encourage us in the Lord, and foster our Christian growth and walk with God and it is an outlet to serve God and one another.
The house fellowship is a place we can stir, motivate, inspire ourselves to good works (Hebrews 10: 24-26), and even do greater works. Lastly, the house fellowship can grow to become a church and is an outlet to bring in the end-time global harvest.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to examine the impact of house fellowship system on the life of an individual church member by using living faith church in Benin city.
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
- Primary source and
- Secondary source
Primary source
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in gathering information relevant to the impact of house fellowship system on the life of an individual church member by using living faith church in Benin city. Two hundred (200) members of living faith church in Benin City was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF DATA
One hundred and sixty (160) questionnaires were distributed and one hundred and forty (133) were returned. This figure was the sample size. Out of the one hundred and thirty-three, only one hundred and twenty (120) were properly responded to. As a result, the researcher used one hundred and twenty for this study when more than 50% of the respondents agree to the questions, the answer is taken as valid for the purpose of this study. In analyzing the data, the approach that will be adopted is to find out the percentage and positive and negative answers to the question posed.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain the impact of house fellowship system on the life of an individual church member by using living faith church in Benin city. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenge of house fellowship system on the life of an individual church member by using living faith church in Benin city
Summary
This study was on the impact of house fellowship system on the life of an individual church member by using living faith church in Benin city. Three objectives were raised which included: to evaluate the effects of house fellowship on the life of individual church member in Benin City, to determine the reasons why Living Faith members in Benin City attend house fellowship and to investigate the prevalence of house fellowship among the members of the Living Faith Church in Benin City. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 members of living faith church in Benin City. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made pastors, elders, deacons and members were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
House fellowship can be a great church growth tool for today if pastors will return it to the place of priority that it once had and should have today. Pastors must keep the purpose of the house fellowship in mind as they organize their house fellowship, and as they enlist and train members. Pastors who build on the great basics of house fellowship work will find that house fellowship is still a viable tool for church growth for the 21st century.
Recommendation
The study recommended that pastors should encourage members and preach about the benefits of house fellowship for the growth of body of christ
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