Looking into the mirror: the power of simple church community

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. James 1:22-25

Except for perhaps Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, looking in the mirror can be a bit unpleasant. Too many gray hairs or not enough hair, too many pounds or not enough muscles…a mirror is unbiased and unyielding.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have had the…well…privilege of having my simple church be an excellent mirror for the condition of my soul. I cannot say it has been entirely pleasant, as it revealed to me some beliefs and behaviors. However, knowing is…as they say…half the battle. I already feel God’s hand at work within me to heal and redeem these rogue areas of my life.

I do not believe these particular areas would have been so precisely revealed in what 21st century Americans consider “church.” I would venture to say that you are in good standing in most American churches if you are able to hold it together for an hour every Sunday morning and the occasional youth car wash or nursing home visit. This is a far cry from the controversial life alteration Jesus called each of His followers to.

In the past two weeks, our church network has been spending time together in our glorious mountains. People from our different house churches have met up for a picnic, hiking, camping, and just plain being together. It is this extended time together when the defenses come down and we are revealed for who we truly are.

I am blessed to have a community, an ekklesia, a church who helps serve as an incarnation of God’s word. They are God’s mirror to my soul.

meeting mentality!

Everyone brings something to share

I would love to hear from you.

How is your church practicing the priesthood of believers…allowing each person to bring a song, something they are learning, or whatever else the Spirit might be leading them to contribute?

In our own house church we are in a time of transition, and I’d love to hear some ideas on how others are living this out.

House Church Conference - House2House 2008

This is a tremendous conference and an excellent resource opportunity. I have attended this conference, and would highly recommend it to all Colorado House Churches. With speakers like Wolfgang Simpson, Frank Viola, and Paul Young (author of The Shack), you know you will get a lot to chew on.

Below is an email from Tony Dale about the conference, click here for the House2House 2008 Conference Flyer.

I am dropping you this note to enlist your help in getting word out about the H2H National conference, and to bring you up to date information on what we believe will be accomplished by the conference. Through your mailing/emailing lists, if you are open to helping us in this way, many who are likely to be interested in what this conference is about will be able to hear and possibly decide to come because they value your perspective and endorsement.

This year, we are hosting a very special conference in Dallas, Texas. I’ve attached a flyer that explains the details of this conference. The conference is over the Labor Day weekend, which this year is the last weekend in August.

Specifically, I’m asking if you would kindly send a special one-time email blast to the people on your mailing list with your encouragement to people to seriously consider going, with the attached flyer. The subject line of the email could say something along the lines of: “The 2008 National House Church Conference.” We would like to extend our “early bird” registration rate to your contact as our thank you for you doing this email blast for us.

Registrations are already at the highest level we have ever seen for one of these National conferences. In fact they are running more than 2 X’s higher than we have ever seen for this early in the summer. The Holy Spirit is obviously drawing people. The mix of those speaking and the four “tracks” that will make up the bulk of the conference experience are also a factor in drawing people. These four tracks, of which people will be able to choose one primary track to be a part of are:

• House2Harvest-Reaching the unreached through world missions
• House2Harvest-Maximizing our workplace involvement and impact
• House2Harvest-Understanding the basics of House Church life
• House2Harvest-Relationship Christianity: Deepening our walk with God and with each other

Those speaking at the main sessions, will also each be involved, but under the facilitating leadership of others within the four tracks that will define the conference experience. We are very blessed to have the following coming as our main speakers within the plenary sessions:

• Dennis Balcombe - Missionary extraordinaire to the Chinese House Church movement.
• Wolfgang Simson - Author of “Houses That Change The World” and “The Starfish Manifesto”.
• Frank Viola - Author (with George Barna) of “Pagan Christianity” and many other books.
• Paul Young - Author of “The Shack”, which has taken the Christian world by storm over the past year.
• Felicity and I will also be involved in the plenary sessions

Although our official “early bird” registration date is already over, if you contact Paul Byerly at paul@house2house.com he will give you a “Registration Code” which when used by your contact list by June 20th will give them the same early bird registration rate as those who heard about the conference and registered early through the H2H lists. This rate will need to be limited to those who register by June 20th to help our planning processes. Please also note that the pre-conference day for network leaders and others in Christian leadership positions is already 70% full, and so if you have contacts that you think need to be a part of that pre-conference day, please urge them to register now, as we have to limit numbers there to around 100 because of limited space available at the hotel on that day.

Thank you very much for your consideration. If you have any questions, please feel very free to contact me directly.

Tony Dale on behalf of the H2H conference planning team.

Photos From the May Gathering

Here are some photos I took of our May Gathering in Cheeseman Park. I really enjoyed being outdoors and was blessed to meet some new people and celebrate all God is doing.

~Rose

United Spiritual Families

People of every age, race, and class. Leaders from Virginia, Denver, Chicago, Oregon, Boston, Colorado Springs, Ottowa, L.A., Maryland, San Francisco, and… Southeast India.

“I don’t want to plant churches. Jesus said ‘I will build my church’ and he’s a lot better at it. I would rather build families, because we know the church is not somewhere we go, something we do…it is who we are.”
That is my quote/paraphrase of the opening remarks of the facilitator.

I have long desired one family under our Father, yet have seen divisions along racial, theological, denominational, and class lines.

Father, thank you for work in simple churches, small communities of faith…families which are laying aside the old divisions under the headship of Jesus Christ.

Brian

Poll Results: What is your house church’s greatest challenge?

The results are in!

We asked what the greatest challenge is for your house church, and here is what you said!

We want to hear from you…what conclusions do you draw from this?

Northern Colorado House Church Gathering

NO Colorado (Northern Lights) monthly gathering

NEXT GATHERING:  will be a picnic and sharing time – including families and anyone interested in learning and sharing regarding house/simple/organic church

Saturday, May 24 – Picnic and sharing – 11:00 – 3:00??

Loveland Sports Park  Shelter #1

950 N. Boyd Lake Avenue - Loveland, Colorado  80537

Plan to bring your families, some food and enjoy the fellowship!

There will be 2 grills – we will try to have fired up by 11:15 a.m.  There is lots of play area for kids of all ages – including basketball courts, playground, water “squish” park

See map quest attached
To view your map, click on the link below or copy and paste it to your browser:
http://www.mapquest.com/mq/3-3F25tdCG

For additional information regarding the location, contact dukatjones@aol.com

Please forward this to anyone you think would be interested in attending!!

Share your experience from Sunday…

So just thought Id start this thread here for folks to reply and share thoughts or experiences or feedback from Sunday’s gathering. Here’s a few questions to spur some thinking on this:

• What was your favorite part of the gathering?
• What was your least favorite part of the gathering?
• Any thoughts about what to do different if and when we gather next time?
• Did you get or give ministry during the gathering — in other words, did you see God moving in any special way from your vantage point during the gathering? Tell us about it…

Thanks ahead of time for your feedback and participation! Other than jitters around having to MC the thing, I had a blast! Thanks for supporting the house churches all around us!

House Church Gathering tomorrow afternoon

Don’t forget, tomorrow (Sunday) is the house church all-gathering! Click here for full info.