John White, a member of the CHC community, recently had the privilege to speak with Felicity Dale of www.SimplyChurch.com on women in leadership of the church.  Below are the three videos that John published for their use.

Video 1 - Understanding the nature of church, who leaders were, and how to interpret scripture to see the leadership role of women in the church.

Video 2 - Using the “one-end-of-the-telephone” approach to understanding scriptural commands for the behavior of women in the church.

Video 3 - Women leaders of the early church, women as apostolic church leaders, and the excitement seeing women and men joined together in ministry.

For more information on the SimplyChurch ”Kingdom Women” series, visit http://www.simplychurch.com/kingdom-women/

It is time to update our Colorado map of house/simple/organic churches! Our map of simple churches on this site has been a widely used tool for many looking for a church family to join up with in their area of town, and has proved a blessing to many. Here are a few items to consider: Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read more about Cornerstone’s shift in thinking.

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.

Here’s the info on School on the Way’s newest class taught by our own Alex Malaska who is involved in a couple of the Ancient Paths urban house churches where he helps lead a house church in the Globeville neighborhood of Denver’s inner city.

Photo by John-Morgan

To learn more about School on the Way you can click on the link above to go to their blog or check out this video interview we did with Jan Cowles about School on the Way here.

ENGAGING BEAUTY

In today’s world, the average person (including the average American Christian) can easily slip through their life without ever opening their heart to Beauty–and to the life, joy, transcendence, sorrow, intimacy, romance, and pain that Beauty brings. All of us hunger for Beauty, yet few will answer its haunting call. The purpose of this class is to learn to hear that call, to recognize it–wherever it is to be found–and then learn to open vulnerably to that which we desire and fear more than anything, to allow it to transform us forever.

TIME AND PLACE
We will meet for two hours once per week for twelve weeks at Desi and Rose Starr’s house on the northeastern edge of downtown Denver. If you are interested in taking Engaging Beauty, please email me a list of all the times during the week that you would be available to meet (my contact information is below). I will try to find a time that can accommodate everyone’s schedules, if possible. My earnest hope is to begin this class the last week of January or the first week of February.

COST
The cost will be $25 per class (which is $300 for twelve classes). If you are interested in taking this class but would not be able to because of financial reasons, or if you are someone who would like to help subsidize this class for a needy brother or sister, please let me know.

REQUIREMENTS
You will only be required to buy one book for this class, The Healing Path by Dan Allender. It costs about ten dollars plus shipping on Amazon.com. I’ll copy the rest of the readings and place them on Google Documents as PDF files, and you will be able to read them for free or print them off if you want to. The reading for this course should be manageable and engaging, and I will do my best to require only what is necessary, while making additional resources available to those who would find them life giving. Along with the readings, you will be asked to commit to spending at least one hour a week alone with the Romancer, that is, in solitude and contemplative prayer. If this is intimidating to you, don’t worry, we will discuss it in depth during our first class and grow in our understanding of it throughout the course. I promise that by the end of the course you will look forward to spending your hour in silence!

MY END OF THE DEAL
In my adult life, I have probably thought about Beauty and intimacy with God more than I have consciously thought about anything else, and I have suffered much in pursuing Romance and the Romancer. I promise to bring all of my passion and desire to teaching this class on the subject I love most. If you are interested in taking this journey with me, please contact me (Alex Malaska) by phone at 330.402.2216 (yeah that’s 330 not 303) or by email at alexmalaska@gmail.com. And I look forward to seeing God transform our hearts as we engage Beauty together!

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. Read the rest of this entry »

A word of encouragement and exhortation to my brothers and sisters in the Lord – - delivered at our Denver network monthly gathering - 11/2009

I would like to encourage and exhort my wonderful brothers and sisters in the Lord to continue to listen and obey our Lord Jesus. Read the rest of this entry »

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