Didn’t get to make it to our last Colorado House Church Worship Nite & Teaching sessions event? Well listen in as we look back at a truly edifying and encouraging day. We arrived at the community center in Globeville on an overcast Saturday afternoon...

 It was a tall, aged brick church building in the middle of a fairly low-income neighborhood just southwest of I-70 and Washington street. A crew from Ancient Paths house church network (who hosted the event) had been there since 10am cleaning and setting up the downstairs area for the teaching sessions and the upstairs area for the worship nite.

A group of 60 or 70 excited adults (plus children) had gathered there for the split teaching sessions. The entire group joined together in prayer there in the wide basement of the old building to kick off the afternoon. The children went into the side nursery area for childcare at this point. Then Michael McGrath, holding a lantern and dressed like a crazy man from a centuries=old Europe, performed a five minute skit from Nietzsche’s “Parable of the Madman”. His voice echoed among those gathered there as he passionately acted out his opening scene. Everyone applauded and was grateful for Michael’s passionate opening skit.

From there we separated into three circles of chairs in different corners of the room for the first round of split teaching sessions. The first three were “Effective Parenting”, “Listening to Jesus”, and “Experiencing the Felt Presence of God”, each led by volunteer teachers from house churches all around the Denver area. The sessions went very smoothly and were each well-attended. Then we took a 5-minute break and started the second round of sessions. These were “Teaching the Hebrew Way”, “Church As A Family”, and a special session for the children. Again, the sessions went smoothly, and the children had a blast during their time together with Brittani who volunteered to teach and work with them. At the end of the second round of sessions (which went long because the teaching and discussions were so lively), the group came back together and a couple of announcements were made – one regarding “School on the Way” and the upcoming college-level class offerings from Jan & Tina Cowles, and another regarding the October experiment with “Churches of Two” from John White. We again prayed together and gave thanks to God for the wonderful afternoon, and then dismissed for dinner break. Even during break, folks were hanging out and enjoying one another – some with food from home, others with fast food takeout.

At seven, we met upstairs for the worship nite. The crowd had changed – some from the afternoon sessions had left for the day, and others who hadn’t come for the afternoon arrived for the evening. The intimate sanctuary of the old church had been decorated with Ceiling hangings, candles, and even a small makeshift cross from one of our artists at the front. Acoustic guitar in hand, Shannon Rants led the evening worship time. She was accompanied by other volunteers playing an electric guitar, electric bass, drums, an African Djimbe (bongo), keyboard, and even an electric violin. Songs were sung and the evening of singing, worship and sharing began. The music soared and people clapped hands, lifted hands, swayed, prayed, cried, danced, and the like. The Holy Spirit definitely was moving in our midst.

Halfway through the time of singing, Shannon opened the floor to anyone to share with the whole body of worshippers what they were hearing from the Lord. Slowly but surely a number of different folks present took their turn at sharing what they were feeling and hearing from Him. What a wonderful time of edification and worship! God spoke to us in beautiful ways before the night was done.

Throughout the event, we had a donations box set out to help pitch in on the costs of the venue, the childcare, and the materials and supplies that went into it. 175$ was donated, and was just enough to cover everything! Thanks to everyone who gave for the cause – this was another confirmation that the Lord was with us, and provided perfectly for the needs of this important event.

Throughout the day, a handful of individuals mentioned that they so enjoyed the two parts of the event that they asked when we were going to do it again! What a joy to see such a successful gathering of organic church families at such a crucial time in how God is moving along the front range. All glory to Him for his grace and peace that He continually pours out upon us and our efforts as we seek to follow Him in every great and every small thing.

It is important to note that this event was not initiated, planned and run by one individual or church group – but by a growing network of leaders and church families from many different backgrounds who have been connecting together on a monthly basis all around the city. A handful of different individuals from different church families felt the Lord’s direction on this, and together worked hard to follow that leading and make this event happen. What a joy to be a part of a body made up of such a diverse group of believers, all supporting one another in the different purposes and focuses that the Father Has called each of us to.

If you are a house church leader along the front range, and would like to connect with other leaders in the area, or if you or your church family would like to help with organizing or volunteering for corporate events like this in the future, take a moment to shoot us an email at info@coloradohousechurch.com.

In His name and for His glory!

Below are some thumbnail photos from the event – for larger pics, click HERE for the full slideshow on facebook.

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

What to do about giving?- How one house church sent out 8 people to 9 countries while helping start over a dozen house churches at home

When we started the adventure of house church 4 years ago there was a question of what to do with our finances. We wanted every one to pray and ask the Lord what we should do. Every one in our house church agreed that our giving should first and foremost go to me. The joy every one was getting from supporting me was humbling. It began with a small percent of a salary and within six months our one house church was giving me as much as 60 % of a salary. My ministry had already expanded way beyond our house church to coaching and helping others start house churches. Tina, my wife, and I felt that our personal giving should not go back to the same pot from which my salary came and we began to pray about where to give. There were opportunities for giving to the poor and those needing funds for counseling and other ministries. We had faithfully put our 10% in the offering plate with some sense of satisfaction all our Christian lives. Now, a sense of excitement began to take the place of mere satisfaction as we committed to sending our portion out. Once we began giving directly to people, we experienced more deeply than ever before that it is more blessed to give than receive. As for the whole group, when some one had a personal need, or was going on a missionary trip we found our selves giving beyond our normal portions. We found ourselves talking about how to come up funds, even selling things to help support the need/trip. Beyond giving me a good portion of a salary, helping each other and giving to the poor, we helped support 8 people to go to 9 countries for total of 28 weeks. All of this was in about 18 months. We were the missionary church. I remember thinking to myself that we could not have done this when I was pastoring a church of 120 people. I am still supported financially and this has allowed me to be a catalyst to over a dozen house churches in the Denver area. Meanwhile I have had the privilege of being part the Denver network of housechurch planters as well as having a role in seeing three different networks of housechurches from around the state. Not to mention a trip to Kenya training brothers and sisters that has resulted in 100’s of housechurches starting in the last 15 months. For more on information on Kenya click on http://www.simplechurchescare.com/reports.html. Lastly, because of being supported, we have been able to launch The School on the Way. School on the Way is a New Testament household community model of Education. We offer a high level of scholarship in a Hebrew style of dialogue and interaction with an emphasis on listening to and obeying what the Spirit is saying. At present we feel this is very strategic time for training others in the spontaneous expansion of housechurch. For Courses and more information – www.newwinecommunity.org It is simple math that when you reduce the expenses of running a church to zero, you have a ton of money to give directly to ministry and needs. Not only is this the New Testament model but it is a wise use of money.

Learning as we go,

Jan Cowles – House Church coach

Getting the word out — the next Colorado House Church Gathering will be (Lord willing) …

When? Sunday, May 4th at 3:00pm.

Where? Under Cheeseman Memorial Pavilion at Cheeseman park in Denver (see map and pics below).

What we doin?

• 3-4pm – Hangin out, eating together
• 4-4:45 – Brief house church demonstration, followed by open Q&A
• 4:45-5:30 – Split session discussion groups on a variety of topics around house/simple church
• 5:30-??? – Playing music/worship, hangin out, eating together

What should I bring? Picnic blankets or chairs, food for yourself (picnic lunch or BBQ – bring your own grill), sports equipment (a volleyball net will be setup), and all your friends!

What else should I know?

• If you have a burning question surrounding house/simple church that you would like to add to our list of split session discussion group points, please contact Desi Starr with it at desistarr@gmail.com or 720.629.3149 ahead of time. We would like anyone with burning questions on anything regarding house/simple church to have the chance to leave this gathering with some answers.
• For interested musicians, please contact Jan at jancowles@comcast.net or 720.252.4675. Before, during, and especially after our scheduled events we would like to be sensitive to the Lord’s leading concerning worshipping the Lord together in song – we will have 1 amp with a keyboard, and people are free to bring acoustic guitars (or any portable instruments) with them to the park. Instead of having a worship “team” this time, we are opening things up for anyone (or any group) to prepare a song to ahead of time to bring and share as we feel led during our gathering (but you need to let Jan know ahead of time that you’d like to share a song)…

Click Here to see Map of Cheeseman Park and Cheeseman Memorial Pavilion *

Please help us get the word out! Any and all house/simple church people out there (or even anyone interested in knowing more about it) are invited to be a part of it!

When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church (1 Cor 14:26)

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Eph 4:15-16)

House churches are founded on the concept of the priesthood of all believers, the headship of Jesus in gatherings, and utilizing the gifts the Spirit has given to each participant. This transition is a blessing for those used to leadership in mainstream churches where a handful of people are tasked with keeping hundreds of people engaged for an hour…not an easy task.

However, for those used to monologues, leading discussions can be mystifying. Here are some ideas on how to lead a discussion effectively, the “ABC’s” of facilitating discussion.

• Ask good questions: Ask open ended questions, rather than yes and no questions. For example, if you are talking about the parable of the Good Samaritan, a poor question would be “Did the Samaritan show love to the man who had been robbed?” All people can do is mumble yes or no. Instead, ask a question like “How do you think this act of love impacted the man who had been robbed?” That is a rich, open ended question that helps people place themselves in the shoes of the characters of the story.
• Be patient: This is the most important step of the three. It seems that somehow we decided as a culture that silence is bad. From cover to cover, silence is revered in the Bible. We are consistently admonished to meditate on the Lord and his word. When you ask a question, wait AT LEAST 15 seconds before issuing a follow up comment or additional question (time yourself if you need to!). Statistically almost half of your church is introverted, meaning they need time to consider the question internally before speaking. If you rush into another question or cut off times of discussion at the first sign of silence, you can ensure certain people in your group will almost never share.
• Cultivate interaction: draw people out in your group without embarrassing anyone. Simple questions like, “How about hearing from someone who hasn’t shared yet?” ensures that outspoken people (like me) do not dominate the discussion. Have someone who is tending to dominate times of sharing? Pray that God will place it on their heart to join you in drawing out each individual in your church. Then you might consider approaching them: “I want to thank you for always being ready to share your heart. It blesses me that you are always ready with thoughts to share in our times of discussion. I’ve noticed that a couple people aren’t sharing as much. I was wondering if you could help me by sometimes waiting to answer until a couple others have shared. I want to make sure we are drawing everyone in our church out.” Then maybe pray with them for each of the individuals in the church, model for them what it means to be a shepherd.

What are your ideas? What have you learned? Leave a comment for us all to benefit from your experience.

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

Thanks to a collaborative effort, here are photos I took from last Saturday evening. Click on “show as slideshow” to enjoy a slideshow or click on a single thumbnail to see it larger.

I really enjoyed bringing our dinner to have a time of fellowship to start things off. Everything from the wonderful times of worship, to breaking up into discussion groups to drawing our thoughts on paper and having a time for people to share was tremendous. I have been blessed to be stretched in my journey of following God the past few years. Going from traditional mega church in CA, to struggling to plant a church here in Denver to discovering that God was leading us to house church, Desi and I sure have learned a lot. I think one of the most beneficial things for me has been to be open to the unfamiliar, different or unknown. It’s been amazing to see that when I am open, these differences (whatever they may be) have been catalysts for my personal growth. I love to hear people share their story…their struggles, questions, answered prayers…what God is doing in their lives. It’s times like these gatherings that show me how much BIGGER the world (and God for that matter) truly are. Thank you to all who participated and made this gathering come together for a second time. I look forward to the next one!

~Rose

p.s. thanks Brian for helping me get these photos up and doing so much for this website

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:

Come one, come all to the next Colorado House Gathering!

Some background…
House church network leaders from around Colorado gathered this week to share what God is doing in our lives and our churches. We rejoiced at a variety of stories from the revolution, stories of the kingdom of God at work here in Colorado. It was truly breathtaking.

We also marveled at the amazing encouragement and fellowship in our last gathering. It seemed good to us and to the Spirit to get another such gathering on the Calendar!

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

5pm: Sharing a meal around the tables. Bring your own meal.

5:45pm: a few songs from the worship team

6pm: “World Cafe” We will have some key questions prepared about what God is doing in your house church, obstacles for growing healthy churches, and more. Around our tables, we will share with each other from our hearts and experience. Call it eavesdropping on the Spirit of God, it is going to be an awesome time of sharing.

7:30pm: worship through some amazing music. If you were there last time, you will remember how wonderful it was to be in the midst of 100′s of brothers and sisters praising the Lord. We are going to sing until people don’t want to sing anymore. So stay as long or as short as you want!

The location is the same: Hillside Community Church, 103 N Ford St, Golden, CO
However, we will be in the big room this time to avoid standing room only like last time!

***Have suggestions of questions you want us to discuss? Leave a comment to this post with your ideas!

Look forward to seeing you there!