Many years ago we home schooled our children. Experiences gained there have taught me that no-one can safely claim to represent everyone. House churchers are almost as diverse. I say almost because unlike home schoolers we assume the centrality of Jesus. You don't have to be a Christian to be involved with a house church - but Jesus Christ must be central in the life of a church.

Another thing that has made me hesitant to add articles to this site is not wanting to detract from our main aim of networking. House churches can be very isolated. We were fortunate in our early years exploring house churches to be friends with Tony Collis - who was key in bringing to NZ Wolfgang Simson, followed by Tony and Felicity Dale.

The third thing that has made me hesitate is that I am no expert - and even if I knew all the answers, time and experience will soon give me the opportunity to learn the error of my ways. I started this article by talking about home schooling. One of the things I learned from that experience is that is important to be a life-long learner. So anything I say on here could be modified as I get more experience.

Having said that, most of the thoughts are not mine - they're things other people have expressed far more eloquently than I ever could. But the important thing is what I do with them. And the dare I say the same applies to you. We can fill our mind with ideas, debate issues until the cows come home. and so on - but the ultimate test of any idea is how it translates into practice.