Like the swinging of a pendulum, it is my observation that those gifts which have been overemphasized in the institutional church have been under emphasized in simple church. Because these gifts have been expressed in the institutional church as the participation of the few with a room full of passive participants, I believe it is difficult for us to imagine them any other way. So when we create gatherings that emphasize participation, we have sidelined these gifts not because of biblical guidance, but perhaps more a lack of imagination.

The two types of gifted people I’ve seen that struggle most in simple church are those passionate about teaching and those who love to lead music. For me it’s very personal. My close friend left simple church to become a pastor, I think in part so he could use his gift of teaching again. My wife worships through music in a powerful way, and like many I’ve talked to miss the experience of a gathering of many souls lifted in song.

In discussions recently in our church, we’ve also seen some interesting anecdotal evidence. Those who grew up “in the church” do not miss the sermons in institutional church, as it became a stale monologue that cultivated spiritual passivity. Those who did not grow up “in the church” miss sermons greatly, as they long to understand the great stories of the Bible, the context of books of the bible, and teachings that challenge them spiritually.

Hear are the questions I have formulated, and I would love to hear your input

• How do we see the gift of teaching exercised in the NT? How about music, what role does it play in gatherings?
• How does your church provide opportunities for these to be expressed?
• Using biblical guidelines and simple church philosophy, what are creative ideas on how we can allow our gifted teachers and musicians to bless the greater church body in Denver?

For those who want to dig deeper, here is some of the research I’ve done in scripture so far

Teaching

Scripture does not place teaching as the primary purpose of our gatherings, but it certainly is part of church life. From scripture, what is the role of teaching in church gatherings?

• Ephesians 4 tells us what all the gifts were intended for: ” ¹¹It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, ¹²to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
• In Acts 13, Barnabas, Saul and others were called prophets and teachers. What if any difference is there? “  ¹In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. ²While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” ³So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.”
• 2 Timothy 4: ” ¹In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: ²Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. ³For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ⁴They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. ⁵But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”
• We can also see how seriously the apostles took this gift of teaching. 2 Peter 2 is a seething condemnation from the heart of a protective spiritual daddy: “¹But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. ²Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. ³In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.”

Music

Worshiping God through singing is a central thread through all of scripture. In fact, there is an entire book of songs, Psalms, which contains some of the most heartbreaking laments and soaring cries of joy in all of scripture. What are some examples of song at the center of our community experiences.

• 1 Chronicles 13 contains record of a cacophony of worship. It seems in simple churches, unless you play acoustic guitar you are out of opportunities to make music with God’s people: ” ⁷ They moved the ark of God from Abinadab’s house on a new cart, with Uzzah and Ahio guiding it. ⁸ David and all the Israelites were celebrating with all their might before God, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, cymbals and trumpets.”
• Psalm 47 contains one of countless calls to worship for God’s people: ” ⁶ Sing praises to God, sing praises;
  sing praises to our King, sing praises.”
• In a chapter that calls us to live as children of the light, Paul encourages us in Ephesians 5: “¹⁵Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. ¹⁷Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. ¹⁸Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. ¹⁹Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, ²⁰always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
• Colossians 3 continues in a similar vein: ” ¹⁵Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. ¹⁷And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

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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