ColoradoHouseChurch.com » How to do House Church

Event: Hybrid Church

Nick Moseley — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:06:59 +0000

There is a fascinating new trend of some traditional churches, even large mega churches, fully embracing the house church model. The best example we know of this new phenomenon, sometimes called a “hybrid church” is Apex in Dayton, OH. This community (they refuse to call it “church”!) of 3000 on Sunday morning is very clear that involvement in house church is their first priority.

Interested in learning more? This Saturday night (July 17) the Denver House Church Network is hosting Rob Turner, the teaching pastor at Apex. Come and learn more about how God is working in this large community that fully embraces the house church model.

Click here for a short video about Apex: http://apexcommunity.org/are-you-new/about-apex/

Where: Confluence Ministries. 1400 Quitman Street, Denver, CO. (West on Colfax from I-25 about one mile. South on Quitman for one block)

When: This Saturday evening (July 17) from 7 – 9 pm.

Questions: Post a comment and a volunteer from Colorado House Church will quickly get in touch with you.

Article: Detoxing From Church

artman81 — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 02:47:03 +0000

Detoxing From Church

By Jason Zahariades

Beginning the Process

Back in February, as Mark and I were praying and talking about beginning a

missional community, I emailed a guy on the other side of the US who had already

begun one of these communities. Here are a couple of things he said in our

correspondences.

“Here’s a strong statement: most evangelicals, including Vineyard people, are

addicted to church culture. Take away their Sunday service, their bible studies,

prayer meetings, and five-song worship teams and they start having withdrawals

quickly. I think that it is a necessary part of this process to have a detox time… I

would suggest a time of at least a year of not doing the ‘normal’ church stuff. For us,

during that time of detachment we only did a few things together – ask hard

questions and eat. Those were our corporate disciplines.”

In another email he reinforced the point:

“Let me reiterate from my last email that one of the most beneficial things you

might do is take a break from all things church for a while. This may seem really

counterproductive, especially when you start having people wanting to be a part of

your community immediately. But if your aim is to get people to begin thinking outside

the bounds of cultural Christianity, some significantly radical action is required.”

When I first read these comments, I knew he was stating something profound.

What I didn’t anticipate was the extent of my own addiction to the contemporary

church and the painful detox process I would experience. What I’m coming face to

face with through the process is the non-authenticity and impotence of my own faith.

Let me explain…

To continue reading, CLICK HERE for full PDF Article…

Are legacy churches embracing multi-generational ministry? Start by including the poor

Brian Rants — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:41:28 +0000

Are our brothers in sisters in legacy churches beginning to see the wisdom in integrated, multi-generational churches?

Cornerstone has been structured around reaching out to people based on their age, life-stage, and interests. While we are excited about all that God has accomplished at Cornerstone through various life-stage ministries over the years, after much assessment, prayer, and studying of the Scriptures, we have come to strongly believe that the body of Christ is NOT supposed to be divided unnecessarily along age, gender, or life-stage lines.

I would also add that the book of James makes it clear they shouldn’t be divided among socioeconomic lines either. Despite the geographical economic segregation of many cities, in a 1-2 mile radius of any church you would likely have quite an economic range.

By including the poor you will naturally see age diversity in churches. In my experience the poor are more multi-generational in how they live and relate to family and friends, a beautiful blessing for those of us raised in the middle or upper socioeconomic classes.

Missions Result From Listening to Jesus

artman81 — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:17:30 +0000

A group of guys from among the many in the relational Colorado House Church Network discussing the idea that mission is a byproduct of listening. The discussion focused in on the idea that everyone has a mission or calling, but that it must be discovered by listening to God and then acting on what He says. Additionally, the myth that foreign missions are superior to those callings lived out on home soil is discussed and the idea that all mission that flows from listening is equal and powerful.

12 Days of Christmas & 1 House Church

artman81 — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:41:13 +0000

A GREAT story/testimony of mission (evangelism) flowing out of daily listening together to God among the members of a house church family. This church family in the Littleton, CO area of Denver explain how they heard the Lord speaking to them to bless a family most of them had never met during Christmastime last month, and the wonderful result! Keep your volume high – parts get a bit quiet.

As Featured 1/16/10 on the Colorado-based Stories From the Revolution blog on Daily Churches of Two (CO2’s).

Blast 2 the Past-TIME article on Simple Church

artman81 — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:55:10 +0000

“Why Home Churches Are Filling Up” – On a Sunday at their modest, gray ranch house in the Denver suburb of Englewood, Tim and Jeanine Pynes gather with four other Christians for an evening of fellowship, food and faith. Jeanine’s spicy rigatoni precedes a yogurt-and-wafer confection by Ann Moore, none of the food violating the group’s solemn commitment to Weight Watchers.

The participants, who have pooled resources for baby sitting, discuss a planned missionary trip and sing along with a CD by the Christian crossover group Sixpence None the Richer. One of the lyrics, presumably written in Jesus’ voice, runs, “I’m here, I’m closer than your breath/ I’ve conquered even death.” That leads to earnest discussion of a friend’s suicide, which flows into an exercise in which each participant brings something to the table — a personal issue, a faith question — and the group offers talk and prayer. Its members read from the New Testament’s Epistle to the Hebrews, observe a mindful silence and share a hymn.The meeting could be a sidebar gathering of almost any church in the country but for a ceramic vessel of red wine on the dinner table — offered in communion. Because the dinner, it turns out, is no mere Bible study, 12-step meeting or other pendant to Sunday service at a Denver megachurch. It is the service. There is no pastor, choir or sermon — just six believers and Jesus among them, closer than their breath. Or so thinks Jeanine, who two years ago abandoned a large congregation for the burgeoning movement known in evangelical circles as “house churching,” “home churching” or “simple church.” The week she left, she says, “I cried every day.” But the home service flourished, grew to 40 people and then divided into five smaller groups. One participant at the Pyneses’ house, a retired pastor named John White, also attends a conventional church, where he gives classes on how to found, or plant, the house variety. “Church,” he says, “is not just about a meeting.” Jeanine is a passionate convert: “I’d never go back to a traditional church. I love what we’re doing.”

Since the 1990s, the ascendant mode of conservative American faith has been the megachurch. It gathers thousands, or even tens of thousands, for entertaining if sometimes undemanding services amid family-friendly amenities. It is made possible by hundreds of smaller “cell groups” that meet off-nights and provide a humanly scaled framework for scriptural exploration, spiritual mentoring and emotional support. Now, however, some experts look at groups like Jeanine Pynes’ — spreading in parts of Colorado, Southern California, Texas and probably elsewhere — and muse, What if the cell groups decided to lose the mother church?

In the 2005 book Revolution, George Barna, Evangelicalism’s best-known and perhaps most enthusiastic pollster, named simple church as one of several “mini-movements” vacuuming up “millions of believers [who] have stopped going to [standard] church.” In two decades, he wrote, “only about one-third of the population” will rely on conventional congregations. Not everyone buys Barna’s numbers — previous estimates set house churchers at a minuscule 50,000 — but some serious players are intrigued.

The Maclellan Foundation, a major Christian funder based in Chattanooga, Tenn., is backing a three-year project to track Colorado house churching. The Southern Baptist Convention, with more standard-church pew sitters than any other Protestant group, has commissioned its own poll and experimented in planting hundreds of its own house churches. Allan Karr, a professor at the Rocky Mountain campus of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary who is involved in the poll, guesses that three out of 10 churches founded today are simple and that their individual odds for survival are better than those of the other seven. House churches are not known for denominational loyalty. That doesn’t bother Karr, however. “I want the denomination to prevail,” he says, “but I have an agenda that supersedes that: the Kingdom of God at large.”

House churches claim the oldest organizational pedigree in Christianity: the book of Acts records that after Jesus’ death, his Apostles gathered not at the temple but in an “upper room.” House churching has always prospered where resources were scarce or Christianity officially discouraged. In the U.S. its last previous bloom was rooted in the bohemian ethos of the California-bred Jesus People movement of the 1970s. Many of those groups were eventually reabsorbed by larger congregations, and the remnants tend to take a hard line. Frank Viola, a 20-year veteran Florida house churcher and author of Rethinking the Wineskin and other manuals, talks fondly of pilgrims who doctrinairely abjure pastors, sermons or a physical plant; feel that the “modern institutional church does not reflect the early church”; and “don’t believe you are going to see the fullness of Jesus Christ expressed just sitting in a pew listening to one other member of the body of Christ talking for 45 minutes while everyone else is passive.”

More recent arrangements can seem more ad hoc. Tim and Susie Grade moved to Denver a year ago. They had attended cell groups subsidiary to Sunday services but were delighted to learn that their new neighbors Tim and Michelle Fox longed for a house church like the ones they had seen overseas. Now they and seven other twenty- and thirtysomethings mix a fairly formal weekly communion with a laid-back laying on of hands, semiconfessional “sharing” and a guitar sing-along. Says Tim: “We have some people who come from regular churches, and were a little disenfranchised. And people who joined because of friendships, and people who are kind of hurting, kind of searching. My age group and younger are seeking spiritual things that they have not found elsewhere.”

Critics fret that small, pastorless groups can become doctrinally or even socially unmoored. Thom Rainer, a Southern Baptist who has written extensively on church growth, says, “I have no problem with where a church meets, [but] I do think that there are some house churches that, in their desire to move in different directions, have perhaps moved from biblical accountability.” In extreme circumstances home churches dominated by magnetic but unorthodox leaders can shade over the line into cults.

Yet the flexibility of simple churches is a huge plus. They can accommodate the demands of a multi-job worker, convene around the bedside of an ailing member and undertake big initiatives with dispatch, as in the case of a group in the Northwest that reportedly yearned to do social outreach but found that every member had heavy credit-card debt. An austerity campaign yielded a balance with which to help the true poor.

Indeed, house churching in itself can be an economically beneficial proposition. Golden Gate Seminary’s Karr reckons that building and staff consume 75% of a standard church’s budget, with little left for good works. House churches can often dedicate up to 90% of their offerings. Karr notes that traditional church is fine “if you like buildings. But I think the reason house churches are becoming more popular is that their resources are going into something more meaningful.”

Evangelical boosters find revival everywhere. Barna says he sees house churching and practices like home schooling and workplace ministries as part of a “seminal transition that may be akin to a third spiritual awakening in the U.S.” Jeffrey Mahan, academic vice president of Denver’s liberal and institutionally oriented Iliff School of Theology, doesn’t go that far, but he does think the trend is significant. American participation in formal church has risen and fallen throughout history, he notes, and after a prolonged post — World War II upswell, big-building Christianity may be exhaling again in favor of informal arrangements.

If so, he suggests, “I don’t think the denominations need be anxious. They don’t have a franchise on religion. The challenge is for people to talk about what constitutes a full and adequate religious life, to be the church together, not in a denominational sense, but in the broadest sense.” Or as Jesus put it, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I.”

By Rita Healy & David Van Biema – Feb 27, 2006

Poignant Words About the Difficult Journey

artman81 — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:00:57 +0000

Hey all, Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!
Below is an excerpt from a letter answering why we we are doing what we do here locally, and this portion talks mostly about where we came from and some of the challenges (the “…” as where things are left out). Hopefully it is encouraging to you to know that many of us share a common experience as we’ve made the transition from Traditional Church to Simple Church. Happy Holidays!!!!
Scott LinklaterLas Vegas, NV

….Simply put: it is what God is
doing and we are participating in it. The
shift towards this type of ministry lifestyle is undeniably happening globally,
as evident by research and testimony. ……

The negative implications of
living out this life have been many, ranging from financial loss to relational
destruction to professional embarrassment to spiritual desert lands, and on. A person who shifts from a traditional
life to a life should expect that same difficulties and trials to varying
degrees. The positive
implications are many as well, ranging from a release from religiosity to
authentic faith to more time with family to significant more time and resource
for outreach, etc…

A major difficulty of this new
lifestyle is that there are very few quantifiable milestones of success. In our former traditional church
lifestyles, there were many regular measuring sticks for whether we were
achieving our goals and we were able to “define a victory” so to speak (i.e.
weekly attendance, financial stability, raised hands, etc…). There is much security in these
measuring sticks, but to a degree they became our “decision stones” and we
would consult these measuring sticks as to what we should and should not do. The local pastor, after consulting
these “decision stones”, would then pass on the decision to the congregates who
would then fall into line with the corporate vision. The fruit from this process is
undeniable and to discount the positive outcomes of this is ignorant. But, God very rarely leaves
well-enough alone, especially when we begin misusing and misinterpreting those
structures (remember, He is not afraid of destroying even that which He
created).

To the pastor that goes through
this shift, it ranges from very difficult to impossible to function normally
and/or make sense of what is happening. In
fact, because of the removal of these constant measuring sticks and personal
praise, the most insecure of us will go down rabbit trails, start businesses,
write books, and seriously question their faith and calling altogether, all in
attempt to regain a sense of purpose. But,
this time in the desert is necessary and God-designed to break the prior
paradigms and destroy thought patterns, so that new things may grow up in their
places.

For the “attendees” that goes
through this shift, it is very confusing at best, and offensive at worst. Formally, the pastor was the figure
head of their faith and gave direction as to vision and helped them relate to
God, both personally and by creating a weekly meeting in which the attendee
engaged and encountered God. In
this new shift, the pastor appears to shirk his former responsibility and
appears to give little to no direction or leadership, and does not provide the
Pope-like example to follow. This
is difficult to process for the attendee because their paradigm of faith and
church was centralized on this meeting and this definition of a pastor – with
out the meeting or this Pastor as they know it, where does that leave their
faith?

This presents a quandary. Does the attendee go back to their
former traditional church life? But,
whenever that person re-engages a traditional church, it just doesn’t seem
right or authentic. There remains
a gap in how this new lifestyle could actually be church, leaving them
wondering if they are disobeying God or even if they are Christians anymore. In fact, they wonder if they are
failing God and the people around them. The
irony is that at this point of humility and doubt they are probably as close to
God as they have ever been, seeking God from a humble place, without the pride
and hindrance of knowing all the answers.

The other major hurdle is the
shift of responsibility for a one’s own faith. The responsibility for a persons faith
shifts to them and them alone – not the former pastor, not the church, not the
dynamic worship. They are
responsible for reading their Bible, and worship, and outreach, and church
multiplication – if they don’t take responsibility for it then it won’t happen. Ironically, for a person who did not
grow up in church, this seems completely natural, and the thought of some
outside person telling what to think, what to do, and how to do it seems very
odd and controlling. To those coming from inside the established church, this control is exactly what we want and what we are used to…in fact, it is what we paid for…because lets face
it: it is easier to pay someone else to be Jesus than to
actually live out the tenants of our faith with passion, purpose, and
responsibility.

After a time of shifting, we
are left feeling like we are in a desert place and very little makes sense –
it’s all very confusing. “Great,
now what do we do? You brought us out here to die.” Read the account of Moses and the
Israelites at the Red Sea and I think you’ll see similar feelings.

Your dreams are either gone, or
very, very difficult to define, sort of like looking through a fog. In fact, because we’ve been so
accustomed to explaining our vision and life to others with an underlying
pride, its frustrating and embarrassing because now it’s vague at best and
really doesn’t make sense (and peoples eyes glaze over because they don’t understand). Quiet persecution and critical
whispers from outside don’t make this transition any easier. You could see “clearly” in your old
life, but now what do we tell other people? How do you answer there criticisms?
What do we tell ourselves about our own lives? What is my life about?

In our prior lives, we had
vision, direction, and we could measure our success. In this new lifestyle, the only
measuring stick of success comes in the quiet times with God. This quiet time was previously created
by someone else, through worship experiences and devotional plans. We no longer have the luxury of these
walls and direction,… we must hear God for ourselves and then follow through on
what we hear.

So, now we’re left looking at a
giant blank canvas, one that previously had a beautiful picture of what we were
to do, what to say, how to act, what success looked like (and we’d ask God to
bless our picture)….and now the picture is now gone, it’s been erased. We’re left with a Bible and no vision
– and that’s it. This is where God would want to lead
us – back to the beginning, stripping away all our pre-conceived ideas of what
God wants, and leaving us with no vision, no direction, nothing really, except
quietly waiting for God – it’s our only option, we have no where else to go.

Now, it is up to us to sit
quietly enough to hear Him speak, and let God be the initiator of any vision
and let Him paint the new picture. It’s
not the responsibility of anybody, including yourself, to build a vision for
your life – it is up to God to build that vision. This may be the single most difficult
thing that we who are shifting from the traditional church could ever endeavor
to do because we no longer have safety nets, no one to blame, no one to claim
as our king other than Jesus. There is nothing between our ears and the voice of the Holy Spirit and no one to dictate our response.

For us to be able to hear, our
lives have been deconstructed. I can attest that once there is an acceptance of
the “stripping away” by God that there is a tremendous freedom and weight
lifted. Embrace the white space –
embrace the lack of vision and allow it to be an opportunity that is divinely
created. As for outside criticisms, …. I encourage you to be secure enough to
answer those questions with a humble “I don’t know the answer to that
question,” and deny the internal pressure to say anything more. Sometimes knowing all the answers doesn’t allow God any space to move and create in our lives…..and sometimes not
knowing opens up the door for God to bring the answer.
(…the letter then continues on talking about some specifics of Las Vegas, hearing God, and then acting on what we here locally…the whole thing is posted at: http://cells-twelves.blogspot.com/)

This article is used with permission from Scott and was originally posted at the link above.

Report from the Denver Network All-City Meeting

artman81 — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:56:15 +0000

Denver Network Meeting 11/13/09

Meeting took place at Denver Seminary with about 25 people. After pizza (thanks, Susan!) we broke up into three regional groups – west, north and east. We checked in with each other (SASHET) in our groups and then spent time listening to the Lord. “What do You want to say to us about Denver?” After the listening time, each person shared what they had heard. As they shared, a picture began to emerge like the pieces of a puzzle coming together. The following is a compilation of what we heard. Perhaps this is a sort of prophetic message about Denver. Please weigh this (question, add to, change, etc.).

Comment: No one came to the Meeting with an agenda for Denver. The agenda (or picture) emerged out of a group of people connecting with each other on the heart level and out of listening to the Lord together.

The unifying picture was of the city of Denver covered with beautiful flowers. The picture and the flowers were marked by being very fresh, crisp and clear.

Currently the seeds for those flowers are under the ground but they are beginning to pop up. A few at first but then more with increasing regularity. Like popcorn beginning to pop. The seeds will multiply 30, 60 and 100 fold. Small and simple but result in viral multiplication.

The sense was that the flowers were not just house churches but regional networks of house churches. That tonight as we break into three groups for the first time is just the beginning of the multiplication of these groups. The day will come when there will be groups like this all over the city.

Some of the regional networks (flowers): Golden, Thornton, Commerce City, Aurora, Parker, Centennial, Arvada, Wheatfield, Highlands Ranch, Five Points, University Park, Littleton, Englewood, Glendale, etc.

Next step.

The day will also come when this room (at the Seminary) will be filled at the quarterly meeting of the entire Denver Network. Remember this night when there are only a few of us.

Pay close attention to your DNA. What you are now will be multiplied 30, 60 and 100 fold. Two primary aspects of the DNA…

1. Transparency.

2. Listen and obey.

　

Other things that were shared…

1. CO2s are proving to be a foundational form of church. Transformation is occurring through them. They form the basis for house church. They are multiplying (Noah – 10 pairs, Russ – 5-6 pairs). The Denver CO2 “virus” has spread to India (Hugh).

2. Several people led to begin prayer walking their neighborhood.

3. Regional networks can bring unity to Denver. Don’t be afraid to partner with traditional churches.

4. We are seeing the multiplication of starfish-like groups (Book: The Starfish and the Spider)

5. God is excited to be with us. (If He used SASHET with us, what would He say?)

6. God wants to start a church in the DTC (Sean). Prayed for a person of peace.

7. What else?

Sean had a strong exhortation to us about this. See his notes. Genuine honest heart level sharing. SASHET as a spiritual discipline to help with this. Each regional group (North – Hobby, East – Sean, West – Nick) will plan to meet monthly for the next two months (Dec and Jan). Quarterly meeting in Feb (Susan).

The October Experiment: Not Too Late to Join In!

artman81 — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:42:05 +0000

Since June, several hundred people in Colorado and beyond have been field testing a simple but powerful tool for spiritual growth and discipleship. The tool or practice is called “CO2″ or “Church of Two”.

The CO2 “tool” is revolutionary because it provides for “rhythms of attention”. That is, simple ways of paying attention to the heart – my own heart, the heart of one other person and God’s heart. As a result of this paying attention or listening, we are seeing two results occurring spontaneously – personal transformation and viral multiplication.

The October Experiment is the chance to join a gaggle of others in Colorado and beyond in connecting with one or two others daily for the month of October in a church of two. Interested? It’s not to late to join in!

There are at least two benefits to joining the Experiment. First, you get to contribute to the community what you are learning as you practice a CO2. Here’s what Rose Starr in Denver, CO had to say…

“Spending time listening every day is a new thing for me. It has been challenging since it’s a new skill and I don’t feel “good” at it yet. However since I’ve been writing as I listen, I’m amazed that in a few short days I am writing more and more. I feel that God is indeed speaking to me and the thoughts that are flowing from my head/heart onto my paper are from Him. It’s been so encouraging. I mean, why wouldn’t I want to hear from my Papa every day? Then as I gather with my LTG, or Sunday group I have all sorts of things to share about what God is teaching me!

Second, you receive a short (3 minutes to read) daily email about what the others are learning. For instance, Here’s a one minute video from Tod Brown in Midland, Tx about doing a CO2 with his 13 year old son. Check it out at http://www.lk10resources.com/practice-2.html (Scroll to the bottom.)

So, to see more about what people are learning, go to our new website:

http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/

Want to join? On that same website, in the right hand column find the box that says “Your email address”. Enter your address and you are “in”. It’s that easy!

Glad to answer any questions you might have about this.

Your brother,

John White

What is Simple Church? A full-length film

Brian Rants — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:59:51 +0000

I received an email with a link to this video from WhatIsSimpleChurch.com? What are your comments on this video? What does it get right and is there anything you would add?

What Is Simple Church? from Expectation Media on Vimeo.