This pandemic brought lots of parents to home school sites, thinking this is where they might want to go to learn how to keep their children safe. The problem is reducing the risk of the pandemic means the children might be home for protection but is not home schooling. A few chose to continue to home school once the worst of the crisis is over, but most did not.

House church is much the same. People like the idea of reducing their exposure but still want "church". If that's the case, plenty of churches are offering services online. This site is not about doing church in small gatherings. It's about meeting with like-minded people in your area. This is usually in homes but can be in other facilities.

Notice like-minded does not mean people will always agree. Paul and Barnabus come to mind as an example. So what do people do in a "house church"? Anything they want. Perhaps the most significant factor is sharing a meal. It also means sharing life and lessons, music and testimony, praying and so on. One book (Megashift bt the late Jim (James) Rutz lists about 40 activities - and it is not an exclusive list.

Perhaps the second key factor is growth. What seems vital at one stage will become a moribund tradition if there is no natural growth. Growth does not primarily mean numbers, although stagnation can also be a problem.

There is much more (much much more) that is possible. J P Phillips wrote a great book: "Your God is too small". If you ever think you've got Him or His body sussed, He has so much more in store for you - if you ask and listen.

We connect Kiwis to house churches (often known as simple churches), and house churches to other house churches in their area, and in New Zealand generally. Note while the name is obviously similar, and we talked with Tony Dale when we started on this site, we have no formal links with House2House.com - or any other site for that matter. Nor do we intend this site to include any of the myriad of features offered on House2House.com or any other websites.

We don't have defined articles of faith - many of our long-held views have been deeply challenged in recent years - but we do hold to the traditional creeds. We're not trying to prescribe what a house / simple church is or isn't. We recognise this has dangers - but so too has the best-intentioned church which limits itself to a human definition. Many of the most precious and seemingly innocent boundaries we place on our walk can limit us. All we want to do here is put people in touch with others who are on the same journey with Jesus Christ. One of the worst mistakes we in the West often make is to be alone instead of in community - whatever shape that takes for each of us.

We recognise organising house churches has a certain similarity to herding cats. So we do not intend to publish here material which may restrict the appeal. We have links to sites for your information, but we do not recommend or endorse any in particular - we are after all not a church with one way only of doing things. Similarly, we don't endorse or control any of the groups listed on here.

So it's not "our" site. It's here purely as a tool for people in New Zealand looking for groups in their areas. If you don't use it, that's your choice. But we hope you will. Since we don't have a central organisation, it's completely up to you.