Peace in the House

A Conversation Among Multiple Churches

Peace as the First Move

Before we read Scripture, let’s name what’s happening in this room. This is not a time to solve every problem, and it’s not a time to trade best practices like comparing programs. This is a space to listen for a faithful next step—something real, local, and shared—that helps peace take root among neighboring churches and in the communities God has entrusted to our care.

Many churches are carrying anxiety: about numbers, finances, leadership fatigue, and the speed of change around us. When anxiety rises, the instinct is to default to what can be controlled—structures, plans, and decisions. But the gospel often begins somewhere else: with presence, trust, and small acts of courage that make room for God to work.

So this conversation turns to a simple scene from Luke 10. Jesus sends people out not as lone heroes, but two-by-two. They don’t lead with a pitch; they lead with a blessing: “Peace to this house.” They receive hospitality, they stay long enough to notice what’s happening, and they let peace become the first sign of God’s reign. Listen for what kind of low-risk, relational experiment might grow from that sending.

Sent Before Prepared

• Consider the disciples’ background and formation in this story—ordinary people, without academic training. In what ways are we similar to them, and in what ways are we different?

• In Luke 10, Jesus sends them before they feel fully ready and tells them to receive hospitality rather than manage outcomes. On a scale of 1–10, how often does “we’re not trained enough” function as a reason to keep our faith mostly inside the walls of the church? What would move that number down by one point?

The Last 90 Days

• If an outsider who knew nothing about the way of Christ observed our last 90 days, what would they conclude our church exists to do? What evidence would they cite—calendar, budget, conversations, decisions, anxieties?

• Name one concrete “house” God keeps putting in our path (a person, place, group, or institution). In what specific ways have we received hospitality from them—allowed them to host us, teach us, and shape the agenda—rather than approaching them as a project to manage?

Where Peace Rests

• Why is beginning with a simple blessing—“peace to this house”—often a more faithful (and lower-control) first move than how we usually begin: with explaining, recruiting, fixing, or proving credibility? What does a blessing make possible that a pitch cannot?

• In Luke 10, the disciples don’t decide the whole strategy in advance; they watch where peace “rests,” and then they stay. Where have signs of receptivity already appeared—open doors, trust, mutual curiosity—and what would it look like to follow that peace instead of forcing outcomes where there is little openness?

Living the Gospel Together

Below are a few invitations for shared action. Every region, every congregation, and every leadership team is in a different place in its life cycle—with different capacity, trust, and bandwidth. So there are no “right” or “wrong” small steps here. There is only the choice to take a small step together, or to stay where things are.

Use these options as a guide—not a prescription. Choose what fits your context, or adapt them into a simple experiment that makes sense for your churches and your community. The goal is not a grand gesture, but a concrete next move that helps peace take root beyond our walls.

Invitation 1: One Shared Practice

Considering your congregational history and current capacity, what is one other congregation you could share a short-term practice with over the next season (4–8 weeks)?

• What would be a reasonable shared practice—small enough to keep?

• How could that same practice be intentionally outward-looking (so it blesses a “house” beyond the churches involved)?

Invitation 2: Two-by-Two Listening

Choose two people from two congregations (pastor/elder, elder/elder, or pastor/pastor) and make one visit in the next 2–4 weeks to a “house” in your community (a school, clinic, food pantry, civic leader, neighborhood group, small business, recovery ministry, etc.). Go as learners—no pitch, no recruiting.

• Who are the two people who can go together—and what “house” will they visit?

• What is one question they will carry to learn what life is like there?

A simple way to begin: “We’re trying to know our community better and to be good neighbors. Would you be willing to tell us what you do and what you’re seeing right now?”

Debrief afterward (15 minutes): What surprised us? Where did peace seem to rest? What’s one next step?

Invitation 3: Stay and Learn

Choose one “house of peace”—a place or partner where there is already openness—and commit to a small, repeatable presence for 8–12 weeks. Keep it simple: show up, receive hospitality, bless, and learn. No new committee required.

Examples of “stay” rhythms (pick one):

• a monthly shared meal with a community partner

• a weekly volunteer hour at one site

• a rotating “porch visit / coffee hour” in a neighborhood space

• a monthly listening circle hosted by someone outside the church

• a monthly listening circle hosted by someone outside the church

Which “house” will we stay with for 8–12 weeks, and what clear, repeatable rhythm will we practice there?

How will we keep it relational (receive and bless) rather than turning it into a program—and what will we look for as signs that peace is “resting” there?