Noah + Kate Cremisino, who are part of a metro-denver house church, are moving to New Zealand in January. This Saturday they are hosting an open-house sale + furniture auction from 2pm-5pm. Come on out November 28 to support their move overseas. They will be engaging in house church planting in Christchurch + working with YWAM Oxford. See noahandkate.com/auction09 for details + pass this information along if you know someone interested!

Submitted by the Reiswigs and their new church family in Aurora:

Mario and I have been meeting once or twice a week for the past four months.  He’s a Peruvian with a strong work ethic and his first child on the way.  Mario is a young believer and is soaking up everything I can teach him about Jesus and this Kingdom way of life.

Unfortunately, Mario blew out his knee playing soccer and had to get knee surgery.  Their health insurance paid for the surgery, but didn’t cover his lost wages – Mario cleans commercial buildings.  So he and his wife were going to miss a full month of their mortgage and bills.

Now we had a choice… One could argue that Mario should have had enough in savings to handle this.  Or that there are other people in far worse situations we could help.  But Mario had become like a brother.  And we felt Jesus leading us to help.  So we asked our church plant if we could all listen to Jesus for a few minutes while we were together this week.  After that, each person came to me individually to donate what God had spoken to them to give.

Yesterday, I got to call Mario and tell him that our family of believers would be paying his entire mortgage payment!  We even had a little left over to help with a few bills and meals.  It was a little like witnessing the feeding of the five thousand… we are not a group with a lot of cash, but with everyone sacrificing and praying, God came through in an amazing way.

Mario was so grateful, and he told me that he “owes” us.  I told him this was not a loan and he is not expected to pay back a penny; that someday he’ll be in a position to help someone else.  He agreed to pay it forward.

This is the second time that our little group has been able to significantly help a brother or sister in need.  It feels so good to be obedient and used of God in this way.  We believe there will be many more of these stories to come!

This story comes from a brand new, unnamed church plant in Aurora, CO. Their church blog is HERE. They have felt called to plant a network of house churches in and around Aurora, and God is moving in their church family in wonderful ways.

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”.

An older saint told me a few years back we have more than enough money to go around in the body of Christ. It seems to me there could be no better time to share stories as to how God has lead you as a house church in giving and receiving. The early church was known not only by their generosity but the joy of transforming a culture from within by their sharing of wealth. The result was daily conversions to the Way of Jesus.

“The one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” Paul (II Cor. 9:6)

“There is one who gives freely yet gains more, but one who withholds what is due will surely become needy.” Solomon (Proverbs 11:25)

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

How often to pray for other believers? What do we pray for other believers?

For a long while now, I have felt somewhat inadequate in my prayers for my brothers and sisters in Christ. I want the family of God to be blessed and strengthened and helped… but what should I actually be asking God for when praying for them? I end up asking God to “bless them” and “help them,” especially when I don’t have any other specific needs I know about for these individuals whom God has placed in my sphere of influence. Of course there is great truth in “The Holy Spirit making intercession for (through) us, with groanings that cannot be uttered,” however, Jesus also instructed his followers to ask, and ask specifically.

I have also noticed this deficiency when praying together with my two young boys for a variety of other children (we take turns praying for the different children we know) – and that has proved the most challenging. How can I teach my own boys how to properly pray for others when I myself lack the right words? As it turns out, the scriptures have more than enough information on this subject within the epistles alone to give the believer the right direction they need when praying for the saints…

First of all, the most common greeting and prayer that the New Testament writers made known to their audience is that “grace and peace” would be given to them continually. Grace from God to help them at all times. Peace to keep their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. This request is mentioned so often and so consistently, that listing these verses would be pointless and repetitive. May the reader understand that this prayer, being so consistent in the epistles, might be the most important and most potent prayer we can pray for others in the body of Christ. Grace and peace continually.

Having that said, I have broken down the following scriptures into two categories:

1. Prayers for the Saints Everywhere

2. Prayers for the Apostolic Church Planters

The meat of this study is simply listing these excerpts below for the parousal of the reader. From simply reading through these verses from the epistles, a clear pattern becomes evident in their prayer requests for the saints. All excerpts below are from the NLT version of the Bible for simplicity of theme in this study. I have underlined what I have noticed are some common themes in these passages especially worth noticing.

Prayers for the Saints Everywhere:

Romans – So I pray that God, who gives you hope, will keep you happy and full of peace as you believe in him. May you overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 1 - Do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:

Asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you might grow in your knowledge of God.

I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called. I want you to realize what a rich and glorious inheritance he has given to his people.

I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him.

Colossians 1 – We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have continued praying for you ever since we first heard about you.

We ask God to give you a complete understanding of what he wants to do in your lives, We ask him to make you wise with spiritual wisdom. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and you will continually do good, kind things for others. All the while, you will learn to know God better and better.

We also pray that you will be strengthened with his glorious power so that you will have all the patience and endurance you need.

Epaphras, from your city, a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you his greetings. He always prays earnestly for you, asking God to make you strong and perfect, fully confident of the whole will of God. I can assure you that he has agonized for you and also for the Christians in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

Galatians 1 – Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. I always pray for you, and I make my requests with a heart full of joy

I pray that your love for each other will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in your knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until Christ returns.

1 Corinthians – I can never stop thanking God for all the generous gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians – We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly.

As we talk to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and your continual anticipation of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

May the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until that day when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.

2 Thessalonians – We keep on praying for you, that our God will make you worthy of the life to which he called you.

And we pray that God, by his power, will fulfill all your good intentions and faithful deeds.

May the Lord bring you into an ever deeper understanding of the love of God and the endurance that comes from Christ.

Prayers for the Apostolic Church Planters:

Romans – Join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. Do this because of your love for me, given to you by the Holy Spirit. Pray that I will be rescued from those in Judea who refuse to obey God. Pray also that the Christians there will be willing to accept the donation I am bringing them. Then, by the will of God, I will be able to come to you with a happy heart, and we will be an encouragement to each other.

2 Thessalonians – I ask you to pray for us. Pray first that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you. Pray, too, that we will be saved from wicked and evil people, for not everyone believes in the Lord.

One brief observation to start, before summarizing a few of the main themes in these passages. It is telling to note that all the prayer requests the writers mentioned were for the spiritual well being of the saints. No prayer requests are mentioned in any of these passages for the physical or material blessing of the saints. This is not to suggest that they never prayed for these things, or that these things were unimportant in the lives of the saints – however one thing seems certain notwithstanding: if the material well-being of the saints was not mentioned once in any of the prayers listed in these passages, then it probably should not be the primary focus of our prayers for God’s people today, and it is not the main purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus taught about money and material possessions of course, but with the common theme of how unimportant these carnal concerns were in the light of God’s everlasting kingdom they were entering. The cry of the New Testament writers was solely for the spiritual health and growth of the saints of God everywhere.

Unceasing prayers offered: On the question of how often the New Testament leaders fathers prayed for the saints, it is clear that the writers strove unceasingly in prayer for the saints and churches they knew of. This they specifically stated in at least 5 different letters. Therefore first and foremost, consistent and continual prayers were offered up for the saints of God. This, it seems, was a foundational part of the apostles ministry to the churches. As they labored for the sake of the many churches they had planted, teaching and admonishing them to continue in the Lord, it was from a solid foundation of countless tears and prayers for them.

Giving thanks for the saints: It also is worth noting that thanking God for the wonderful work he had done and was doing in the churches and the saints is consistently recorded. Even when the writer had no immediate hand in planting a church, it is stated that he gave continual thanks to God for them when he heard about them.

That God would give them understanding: This is the most often repeated theme among all the verses listed above.

Prayers were that they would understand:

- the wonderful future he has promised to those he called & what a rich and glorious inheritance he has given to his people.

- the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him

- what God wanted to do in their lives – the love of God and the endurance that comes from Christ.

- what really matters

The end result of understanding these different truths is also mentioned:

- so that they might grow in their knowledge of God

- so that the way they lived would always honor and please the Lord, and they would continually do good, kind things for others. All the while, they would learn to know God better and better

- so that they would then live pure and blameless lives

For me, this verifies the idea that all that Christ has provided for His saints is fully at their disposal from the moment of their new birth into the kingdom of God. Unlimited power, wisdom, grace, peace, help from the Father – all these things and a host of others had been given to the believer from day one. The growing and maturing process in the Lord subsequent to initial faith in Christ consisted primarily in understanding more and more what they already possessed! We as believers today already have the powers and wisdom and character of the world to come, but only in the very modest measures that we can understand and handle. It would seem that the work of the enemy then, would be primarily focused on hindering our understanding of the great kingdom power and life we have in Christ.

This could be compared to the son of a great king. If he has no understanding of the royal blood flowing through his veins, then he might be found living as a pauper in the ghettos of the city. However, when he realizes who he is – what royal bloodline flows through his veins, what royal seal hangs upon his finger, the great authority in the name he bears – he will soon move into the castle with the king, begin exercising his royal authority, begin seeking justice for the weak and powerless with confidence, and begin driving out the enemy from his lands without fear.

What would happen if we truly understood what we have at our disposal! If only we would understand the reality of the eternal life we have been given! If only we would truly grasp the unlimited power we have through the Holy Spirit! If only we would begin to understand what God’s ultimate maturing work is aimed at – in each of our lives and hearts. We would begin exercising our God-given authority with confidence and soundness of mind, and resting at all times in the patient work He is doing in us.

Make them holy & complete: Another common theme was the perfection (completeness) of the saints. That God would make them worthy of the wonderful life he’d given them, make them holy in every way, that they would live pure and blameless lives, that the way they would live would always honor and please the Lord, and that they would do good kind things for others. The maturity of character (holiness) and a completeness of good works (love) of each saint seems to be the major end purpose of the gospel of God for his people while they are on this earth – and the NT writers seemed to verify this, always praying that the churches and the saints would eventually become complete in all that they were lacking, as they grew in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Other specific prayers are mentioned in these passages which may be just as important to take note of when praying for the saints, but for now I have only taken the time to cover the major patterns in these verses. I pray that this brief study may give the saints of God everywhere the right tools for what to pray and how to pray for other brothers and sisters! May the people of God labor in prayer for all people, especially for the saints of God everywhere!

—With a lot of love, Sean Hyatt (Aurora)