Submitted by Jessica Hyatt in Aurora…

Deu 6:1   “These are all the commands, laws, and regulations that the Lord your God told me to teach you so you may obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy,  Read the rest of this entry »

By Jan Cowles in Lakewood…

I read this week that “Americans could easily give 100 billion dollars per year more without feeling much of a pinch”. If this is true how much more is there to be given when we are lead to be generous!

Acts 4 says “There was not a needy person among them” [that is of the New Testament believers in Jerusalem]. In the simplicity of house church there is so much more money to go around. The article that mentioned we could easily give another 100 billion a year noted that the average believer gives about 2.5% of his money. That means if every believer would just give 10% (we are not limited to 10%) our giving would multiple by four times. Then we will have another problem, what do we do with all the funds. In Exodus 36:5-7 when all the people were giving Moses had to tell the people to “stop all your giving”.

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Shared by Roger Therman in Denver…

This is a poignant, stirring, illustrated 6-minute video-report from our friend, Dawson, a house church planter in Kenya .  

I think you will be encouraged (even surprised) by it. (Click on picture below!)

The following is an email from Bob Lupton of FCS Ministries (article published with permission). While not specific to house churches, it is a convicting word about taking an honest look at the current western approach to missions in poor countries.

After reading this, leave a comment with your thoughts. How can house church partner with locally-led economic development?

“They’re turning my people into beggars!”  It was a painful accusation for Juan Ulloa to make.  He was a churchman, after all.  An elder.  With loyalty to the household of faith.   But when asked the question directly, he could not lie.  I had pressed him on the relationship of his micro-lending organization to the churches of Nicaragua.  Juan was the executive director of a Christian micro-finance ministry that made many thousands of small loans to Nicaraguan peasants.  It seemed to me a reasonable inquiry to understand how they worked together with local churches.  Hesitantly at first, Juan explained that there were entire sections of the country where his loan officers could not make any loans at all.  These were the regions where a concentration of churches from the U.S. conducted their mission trips.  “People say ‘Why should we borrow money when the churches give it to us?’”    Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Christ, Christian, church, Churches, community, denomination, denominational, Faith, household of faith, local churches, ministry, mission trips, money, peasant, peasants, poor countries, salary, School, support, training, volunteer work

Our house church is currently 6 adults and 4 kids, so we have made a concerted effort to involve them.

I will not delve extensively here into WHY children are a blessing in church. A couple brief thoughts:
- the institutional church pattern of segregating age groups is not in the Bible
- it is a huge blessing for your children to see you worship and hear you interact with your peers
- as Neil Cole said (paraphrased), our children do not have happy meal sized Holy Spirit and a Jesus action figure. They have the real thing and have much to offer

Here are a couple of ideas from our church, and from other churches
- make a joyful noise into the Lord! We just did this today. Shakers, baking pans, wooden spoons..we sang joyful songs everyone knew and made a hilarious racket
- have a child oriented time first, then an adult time. For the kids time, you could interact around a bible passage (adults too!) or take prayer requests…you will have a great time praying for family pets, for them to get better at video games…and then be blessed when they pickup on the hurts and needs of a church member. Then the kids can go watch a movie, play wii (a big hit at our church!), or play outside while the adults have a more focused time

Those are a few of my ideas, what about you? Leave a comment on this post