One of the defining turning points in my mind when I think of the history of the twelve tribes of Israel was a point of decision. God had, with a mighty hand, led them out of slavery in Egypt, through the mighty red sea, and now into the desert where he would prepare them for their promised land. The whole nation was encamped near a mountain and God had told them to draw near so he could talk to them from the mountain. He desperately desired fellowship and open communication with His people.

The people purified themselves and drew near to the mountain, which was now enveloped in loud thunder, flashes of lightning, great quaking, and a roaring fire: a display of the awesome glory of God. The people were afraid – and their fearful desire for self-preservation was greater than their desire for fellowship with their creator – so they told Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” (Ex. 19:12 – 20:21) So the people withdrew from the bottom of the mountain to stand afar off and watch.

I can only imagine God’s disappointment when he saw the people back away. He had done so much for them and all He expected in return was an open line of communication. He did not want to start a religion, He wanted to start a relationship with His people. He wanted to talk to each of them, and only one was willing to do it face to face. Only one was hungry enough to know God that they were willing to risk hair and hide to find do it. Only one.

The unfortunate dilemma in many church systems today is very similar. Churches have been set up using Old Testament hierarchies when the Old Testament has passed away. The church in the first century was so wonderfully free from religion that there were no heads or tails among the people. No pulpits and pews in their meeting rooms. No clergy and laity. Rather all were kings and priests to God, and for the most part they acted like it. They all ministered in different ways, all were used in differing gifts of the Spirit, all took part in building up the whole body. As a result, all layed hands on the sick, all visited the infirmed or imprisoned, all baptized new believers, and all were charged with being prayer warriors and soul winners.

The average church group today looks very different. They have a Moses, and they have told him, “You go for us.” Without realizing it, they have rejected God as their King and heaped to themselves a mediator. Someone who will talk to God on their behalf and deliver His messages for them. A leader they can call their own and who will represent them to the world and to God. This setup hinders the forward movement of the body of Christ in at least two key ways. The leader becomes overworked and born down with way too much responsibility, and the saints under their ministry become fat and lazy and carnal – I say this with great respect for the motives and efforts of every church group today, because I used to be on both sides of that coin.

What is most unfortunate is that most saints prefer it this way!

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

I started reading Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham Jr. a few nights ago. It’s not a house church book, but I read something that really touched and challenged me. It totally fits with house churches. Here’s the quote:

“Our homes must be rife with the aroma of love. Those who visit us should notice immediately that they have left the world of self-serving, egocentric narcissism and have entered a safe harbor where people value and esteem others above themselves. Outsiders should enter our homes and never want to leave. Our neighbors should find excuses to visit us just to get another whiff of the fragrant aroma of love. The brokenhearted should long to be near us. The downtrodden and the abused should seek us out. Families on the brink of disaster should point to us and say, “Why can’t our home be like that?”

Wow. That is my desire and yet, we fall so short of that! Lord, please forgive our selfishness and help us live out 2 Corinthians 5…

11 Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12 We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13 If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.

14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

May we be more aware of our broken state, His redeeming love and those who are lost and blind.
~Rose

I recently posted this on my personal blog and thought it would be good to share here. ~Rose Starr

Some of you may know that we are a part of a house church network. Desi, my husband is a pastor/house church coach/mentor here in Denver. We have had a very interesting journey these past 4+ years in this lovely city. We came out as inner city missionaries to start a traditional church. After meeting in our home weekly for awhile (doing house church but not calling it that!) we ended up being given a large donation from an anonymous donor and began renting a small chapel. Although we had a sizable core group, we didn’t grow. We moved to another location and again did not grow. I struggled with not enjoying Sundays at all. It was so much work to haul tub after tub of stuff only to go through these church motions and then have to clean up again. We moved to another location and started meeting on Sunday nights. Again, no growth…people left instead! It was discouraging. We felt like we were wasting God’s resources and after much prayer and about 6 months at that location we went back to Sunday mornings at a house.

We decided to pray and seek God and His will for our group which had grown and shrunk and grown again with people leaving and God bringing us together with another small group. Turns out we had the same vision and heart for the city as this other group who joined up with us before we moved to Sunday nights renting space at a local church. Desi and Bruce (his ministry partner) along with Carrie (another inner city missionary) began to meet/pray regularly and in earnest. I’m not sure how, but we heard of a large house church conference that would be in Denver that summer that was put on by House 2 House. We felt led to go and wouldn’t you know it, that was our start into house church gatherings. We had a lot of ‘traditional mindset’ to re-think as we searched the Scriptures to see what ‘church’ was really about. We discovered some simple and profound things: That were two or more are gathered in His name, He’s there and really that is church…the believers…we are His bride…the church is people and when we are together, we are doing church! Now this may be too liberal a definition for some folks, and that’s ok, but we love it!

Our group met on Sunday mornings at one house for about a year, getting used to being a part of something so different than most of us had been a part of. We began to minister to one another in beautiful ways. We used resources to give to the needy in our own group as well as in the city. We grew in friendship, love and life. We saw some leave and many more come. We joined up with large traditional churches for outreaches and VBS’ in the summer. We prayed that God would send laborers for the harvest and He did! Story after story of how He grew us and brought new people. I love it! Near the end of last year, we realized our core group was getting too large for the house we met in. We all began to pray and ask God to lead us, to move in our hearts and give us a desire to multiply in order to grow and continue to make disciples.

Since then, we have grown into a network of five house churches. One meets Sunday morning, two on Sunday nights (alternating between two houses), one Tuesday night and one Thursday night. Each church looks and feels a bit different, but each is active, alive, nurturing and growing. Desi and I are hosting every 2nd & 4th Sunday evening partnering with another couple who live about a mile from us who host the 1st and 3rd Sundays at their house. It’s nice to start off just every other week and share the hosting and cooking. At our Sunday evening gatherings we share a meal at 5:30 and have our gathering after the meal. Our first gathering was last Sunday. I felt led to have us do an activity I found in a book about Lent for kids. It was a family tree where we all drew/cut out a symbol with our name to represent our branch. We then wrote on leaves qualities that we saw in others that were a blessing and glued the leaves to their branches. It was a wonderful way to start off our gathering and include our 4 kids. We then moved into a time of sharing while we sipped tea and after a little while the kids retired to the basement for a movie. We adults continued to share and fellowship till almost 11pm!

Here’s our Family Tree

Our gatherings will be a bit ‘loose’ as we seek to listen to the Spirit’s leading. Our desire is to encourage spiritual gifts and give place and time for those gifts to be shared. We want to come together with something learned from the week that we can offer to each other. We desire transparency, honesty, respect, to honor one another and to grow in relationship with our father God. We will invite neighbors, friends and whomever God leads us to with no expectations other than to see what God has for us.

Our network will plan regular large gatherings, outings, trips, parties, outreaches, celebrations, ect…in order to stay connected with one another. Desi and I will host a game night once a month with the invite open to all the house churches and our neighbors. We are praying about various VBS’ put on the the various house church homes/neighborhoods for this summer to reach kids and neighbors with God’s love.

I wanted to share what we were doing and how blessed I am to be a part of something that has helped me grow in my spiritual walk more than ever before. I have been challenged to be an active participant in every meeting. To be open to different views, different people, different ways of interacting with God. We still have much to learn, will probably make mistakes, will start something- realize it doesn’t work- and change our plans, and that’s ok! I have so much to learn as a daughter, wife, mother, friend and neighbor. I am learning to be ok with the process, to enjoy the journey, to see events in my life as a small piece of a much larger picture, to see God’s hand of grace in every aspect of my daily life. It’s mind boggling really.

~Rose

A Miracle is something only God could do, and I can confidently say I have been blessed to be a part of a very unique one.

    Over a year ago, my family left our traditional church, feeling the call of God to start gathering from house to house in Aurora and east Denver – just as the believers did in the New Testament. When we first started, we did not know that there were so many others doing the same thing all over the place! A few months later, through a series of God-ordained events, we made our first contact with another “Simple church” in the five points area near downtown Denver. I remember emailing Desi Starr (I had found him by chance through house2house.org) and going over to their home a couple nights later to meet and share what God had been doing with us. This began a close friendship between us and our house churches, which shortly thereafter included a meeting with John White, local DAWN associate and house church friend.

    Well 4 or 5 months ago Desi, myself, and another brother started talking about the need for holding a larger gathering of simple churches every few months for support, fellowship, and a larger vision. We proceeded in presenting the idea to a few other simple churches we knew around here, and it seemed that nearly everyone was feeling the same desire to be connected to other simple churches around the front range. So back in October, on a Saturday evening we gathered for the first time in Golden, CO for an evening of sharing food, testimonies, and fellowship. We weren’t sure how many would show (at least 50 would’ve been nice!) but when the event arrived there were an estimated 150 or more people (not counting the kids) packed into this fellowship hall from house/simple churches all over the front range (from down in Pueblo all the way up to up in Fort Collins!). People from different denominations, different backgrounds, different beliefs – but all gathering with one purpose - to love Jesus and love and build up one another.

    What’s the miracle? The Christian church here in America has been segregated by denominations for so long, it is hard to see how it will ever regain its original unity (remember the wonderful diversity and unity of the “love feast” gatherings of the early church?)… Personally, in all my life I’ve never been a part of a church gathering with such incredible diversity and such incredible unity at the same time - but God is doing it, right here and now!  In our planning sessions alone between gatherings (of 8-12 people), we have at least 8 different denominational backgrounds represented (Lutheran, evangelical free, southern baptist, foursquare, presbyterian, campus crusade, grace brethren and united pentecostal). Imagine how many denominational backgrounds are represented when we come together in our larger gathering of 150+ people! What could people from such different backgrounds and belief systems possibly have in common? Well, at least 2 things: A sincere love for Jesus Christ, and a burden to see simple churches of all kinds in every neighborhood along the front range.

    You can experience this miracle as well.

Our next Colorado house church gathering is Saturday, January 12th at 5pm! (see below)

Much love to all the brethren :) 

-Sean Hyatt, Aurora CO, 303.523.2315

________________________________________________________        As always, we seek to keep the Head of the Church (Jesus) at the head of our gatherings, but here are the general details:

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34-35

Jesus message was startlingly simple. Despite our attempts over the past 2,000 years to complicate and obfuscate his words, they remain revolutionary. These simple words from a middle eastern itinerant preacher slice through time to remind us of a powerful truth: the world will know we are His by our love for each other.

Simple…Powerful.

In the house church, or “simple church” movement, we carry this spirit of powerful simplicity into our ecclesiology (what church is).

As my mentor in organic church, Neil Cole, used to say, complexity is not always good. As a certified techie and owner of a web design company, this is most certainly the case in my field. There are literally dozens of available technologies for every client we work with. We select the tool that not only has the features they need, but is simple enough for them to use effectively. Regardless of the features a tool possesses, if it is too complicated for our clients to operate it has become useless to them.

The same is true in how we do church. I recognize the usefulness and blessing of a variety of church styles and expressions. However, for too long we have required a particularly high level of complexity in our church expressions. It requires an almost “professional” class of highly trained Christians, which is neither biblically required nor practical.

“The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.”
Acts 4:13

Jesus disciples were anything but trained, professional, clergy. If we desire a worldwide movement of Christ, it will require lowering the bar of what it means to do church and raising the bar of what it means to be a disciple (from “Organic Church” by Neil Cole).

In closing…apologies for my incredibly cheesy article title. What can I say, I’m a cheesy guy

I originally wrote this for my personal blog back on July 2, 2007.  I thought it would be nice to share here.  ~Rose

As I sat at our house church gathering yesterday I looked around the room to see who had arrived. Close to 10 of our “regulars” were gone on vacation or for some other reason. People were chatting and enjoying fellowship. We sat in an oval in the Duell’s living room. Bruce & Karen were still on vacation, but their daughter Amy had offered to host since our kitchen was all torn up. I looked around and saw people varying in age from a few months to 88 years old, various skin colors, varying economic backgrounds and in different stages of their walks with God. To my left sat a young single mom and her baby girl, a single 40yr old woman who’s impact on our youth is such a blessing, another single mom of two teenagers who are away at their dad’s house all summer, her niece visiting from Arizona and next to her a junior in high school who’s home life leaves MUCH to be desired (to say the least). Next to her sat my husband and next to him a lady in her 60’s who used to be homeless- God has done amazing things in her life and she’s such a joy to talk to. Next was a single 24 year old who blesses all with his wonderful attitude and encouraging words, next to him another young adult just graduated from college and is mentoring a few of our high school girls. Next to her was another young single adult who shared a few beautiful songs with us, next to her an 88 year old originally from Scotland who has walked with God a long time and has wonderful words of wisdom and encouragement. To hear her talk about God and pray is simply beautiful. Her son sat next to her. He is recovering from heart surgery and lives with his mom who is such a help to him. He has an amazing story of how God redeemed him from a life of drugs and self-destruction. Next to him was a man in his 50’s who is single and one of the sweetest guys you’ll ever meet. He has an amazing ability to remember scriptures, addresses and phone numbers. He recalls scriptures that are blessings to us all.

We had a beautiful time of prayer, looked into a few chapters in Revelation, discussed what God was teaching us, asked questions, tried to answer them, encouraged one another, shared a few songs and had lunch together.

Last night Micah was over to watch a movie with Desi and I. Half way through the movie we paused it to answer a phone call. We started talking about our gathering earlier that morning and how much we loved it. Micah mentioned that as he looked around at all of us gathered there, he realized that if we all went to institutional churches we’d probably all go to different churches. It’s amazing to see how God has brought us together and over the past 9 months or so how close we have gotten. I am thankful for our differences in our lives and see the handiwork of our Creator in those differences. We are learning from and encouraging one another regularly. Just wanted to give you, my blog readers (and friends), a view into one of my favorite days of the week.
~Rose

How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!
Psalm 133:1

As I sat in a church nestled in the breathtaking hills of Golden, it was a realization of a deep desire. I have longed to see simple churches across Colorado united in worship of our God. Saturday was an awesome time of worship, sharing, and prayer.

Isn’t it great that we can celebrate the unity of Christ in the midst of great diversity? We dress ourselves different, we worship in different styles, we have different colors of skin and come from different neighborhoods. Saturday night was a time to celebrate the common thread of God’s love that is woven through all of our unique stories. This love, this unity of Spirit is what will make the world say…wow. I want that. Look how they love each other.

By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
John 13:35

We had a small taste of that on Saturday night, and I’m already hungry for more! I would love to see opportunities for training in the principles and practices of organic church, dreaming about the marvelous things God wants to do here in Colorado, and praying to see it come to pass.

What do you want to see? We want to hear your input, so leave a comment and let us know!

Look for more news coming soon about the next gathering!