Our vision as Strategy Coordinators for the Kuy People of Cambodia is to facilitate a Church Planting Movement among the Kuy People of Cambodia. According to David Garrison (CPM Journal, January-March 2006) one of the ten elements of every church planting movement is house churches, small fellowships of believers based around a family meeting in a home or its equivalent. Why? A small group can reproduce rapidly when it is not saddled with the expenses of a church building, paid pastor and all the other “stuff” that goes with it. Other benefits include a simple, easy to reproduce structure, smaller more manageable leadership responsibilities, enhanced accountability and evangelism opportunities.
So, house churches are the “right” thing for the rural, oral based Kuy society. What about for highly educated urbanites? When we started working with the Kuy people we realized that we wanted a house church experience. So, for the last three years we have been experimenting with others. We have been in two different house churches made up of English-speaking expat believers. We have enjoyed rotating leadership responsibilities, sharing a meal together in the spirit of the Lord's Supper and worship geared to meet the needs of the whole family. Nate and Nikki love participating with adults in worship, sharing and fellowship.
When we returned to Cambodia we started a house church. It was just our family that first Sunday evening. The second Sunday evening we had a single guest. We are praying for others to be added. We would like to see it be a bi-lingual church. We would also like to see it be a “local” church, made up of people in our neighborhood, whom we can easily see outside of the Sunday evening meeting. Another desire is that is would spawn more house churches. We have invited a Khmer friend who lives in the next neighborhood. Perhaps in a few months he will start a new group in his neighborhood. Please pray with us for our own house church to grow and for house churches to be planted among the Kuy people.