I want to use this post to invite those who attended the conference to share some of the insight that was gleaned at our House Church Conference.
Please DO comment and let’s collect, and share with others, whatever encouraged, blessed, motivated, and helped you…
If possible, include your first name and city at the bottom of your post.
Comments
22 responses to “House Church Conference Revisited”
I have been reflecting on Neil Cole’s first session on authority. He talked about four types of authority:
1. Positional, 2. Expertise, 3. Relational, 4. Spiritual.
Positional authority is the least type of authority. It just means that someone has given you a position… It is entirely possible to have positional authority without any spiritual authority whatsoever.
Expertise authority only lasts as long as you have something, by way of expertise, to offer others. It is short-term.
Relational authority is far more powerful. It can’t be stopped because it is based on love and servanthood.
Spiritual authority means that it is God’s words that are spoken through you… It is the most powerful.
Bottom line: authority is not something that comes from an organizational chart. It is something real and dynamic that comes out of serving relationships and the reality of God in our lives.
Roger
House Church Blog
I enjoyed the emphasis on prayer. I think out of the entire conference the one thing that I will walk away with is that prayer needs to play the number one role in our decision making and ministry building activities.
Go out! Go out! Go out! That is the message the spirit was speaking to me during the conference. I realized that it would be very difficult if not impossible to create an established house church environment that will attract non-believers. I need to go out into their environment and show them how God will meet them where they are at (not only spiritually but physically as well). I have been challenged to earnestly prepare myself (through prayer and study of the word) to be used for the harvest. I have decided that I can no longer sit back and wait for the “perfect” opportunity I need to step out in faith and God will direct my path.
I think another issue that came through was the need for more resources for simple churches / house churches that have kids. Go to http://youthandfamily.blogspot.com/2005/05/what-to-do-with-children-during-house.html to view some resources that I found on the web.
First let me say that ALL did an excellent job of bring it all together. I agree with Bill in that prayer and listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit is key! Praying for the harvest and GOING to the people more. We had gotten away from TRUE prayer recently and I remember seeing the Lord move mightly when we were actively praying in the Spirit. So we were renewed and have a refreshed vision of what the Lord is doing as well as a larger picture. Thank YOU!
The thing that touch me the most was how easy it is to fall back into the trap of traditional church. I need to be reprogramed and really listen and be lead by the Holy Spirit. Learning that there is no really wrong way to do chuch, if I am being lead by the Holy Spirit, and accepting others as they are being lead, it has really given me new light and freedom for myself and others.
I wish to comment on the house church issue. 13 years ago after 2 months of recieving Jesus, I start a house meeting with 2 people.. within weeks in homes this church movement grew to 40 person. Many of them develop into strong leader.
I belief that “exposure brings growth”. More is “Caught than Taught” Having “On the Job” ( OJT) Training program is a great means of developing new belivers and expanding the church . House church is closer to “Gospel work” than “Church work”
Thanks
Minister. Isaac Shadrack
Open Bible Standard Churches – Trinidad
Neil Cole offered 5 Apostolic Principles for church planting:
1. Practice of prayer. A church is conceived in heaven before it is birthed on earth… therefore “beseech the Lord of the harvest.”
2. Pockets of people. Bad people, where there is no witness, is good soil for the Gospel.
3. Power of Presence. All authority has been given to Jesus. “Where we go, the King goes; where the King goes, people bow.”
4. Person of peace. Find a person who is responsive, who has a relational influence, and a reputation– this person is the one who gathers others.
5. People of purpose. To have faith is to be people who step out and take risks.
Just passing along some of my notes…
Roger
House Church Blog
I liked the illustration that Felicity gave of how to use the Luke 10 Principle. Her courageous endeavor to walk into a housing project and pray along with others or by herself showed a heart for true evangelism. Her perseverance and patience to continue in prayer for several months without seeing fruit was such an inspiration. And then finally the fruit of her prayers was realized and that was such an encouragement. I have already begun to think about walking and praying in places in order to pray against the enemy and to prepare people’s hearts for hearing about Jesus.
Neil pointed out, in accordance with scripture, that we should beseech God to send the laborers out for the harvest. This was a revelation for myself and I will also apply that principle to my daily life. It reinforced my own belief that everything begins with prayer and overall the conference expanded my prayer list.
Lastly, being a rookie to the home church concept and an old-timer to the traditional church, I have been treading on new ground, so this was very motivating and encouraging to be around so many others who are on this same journey.
I was encouraged by the enphasis on being missional or apostolic. This is very important — realizing that we need to go where the people are, being salt and light, “as the Father sent me, so send I you.” As we are entering into the world around us, let’s not forget the larger world, unreached peoples, working with others in agencies, etc.
Thank you, everyone, for the way you contributed toward the Lord’s continual working.
It was the first time I have seen that many organic/simple/house church people at the same time. I use to talk and practise this principles with only a few, mainly because most of my friends don’t know what it is all about.
I liked Neal’s explanation about today’s church leaders in bondage. I can see that. Many of them are wondering: is this it? and some of them have already given up on ministry and church. This movement is a fresh wave into these people, but also a release for laymen to be priests, practising the old beliefs of Luther.
I curiously follow, and participate, the new networks of churches that are expanding. My passion is to see it in Europe and Scandinavia too. I wrote a summary and more personal reflections from the weekend on my blog (click my name).
It was so wonderful to gather with like-minded Brothers & Sisters and hear from some wonderful speakers
…But I still found my self asking the question “What is Church?”.
The difficulty for me is that I have the picture of the Church in America stuck in my head because I see it everywhere I go. The one thing that I feel could have been stressed more at this conference was how simple Church can be. Neil Cole brought this point out and I think that more could have been said on this if time would have permited. Neil’s Awaking Chapels represent a good model of church at it’s most basic and simple form – I only wish that he could have spent more time explaining it to the conference.
To read more of my rants and ramblings on this subject, check out: http://www.geocities.com/gathered_in_his_name
Kevin – Paso Robles, CA
I wanted to expand a little on Claire’s insights. I (we) have struggled with the same things. It is VERY difficult to discern sometimes whether something you are doing is coming from past learning or from God. The one thing I have learned is PRAY, PRAY, PRAY! We are still figuring it out and learning that we still have to UN-learn. The other thing is the prayer walking. We started out in the beginning with lots of prayer and walking areas etc, but at some point, discouragement set in and we slacked off. We fell into the old routines that were comfortable. Isn’t that what the traditional model does; they begin on the right track and then if things don’t begin to change right away, they decide that it must not be the will of God. DON’T GIVE UP! Another thing that I gleaned from this conference was that the Spirit of God is still moving and we just have to be faithful to pray it through! He is waiting for faithful servants.
Roger, something I forgot to put on my eval at the end (I was SO tired at the end as I’m sure you were too), was that I think we might have benefited from more “connecting time” rather than lecture style, kindof like we are doing anyway. If we had one large group at the beginning of the day and then small groups the rest of the day or large worship on Fri. night and then smaller groups ALL day Sat and a large group worship at the end, we would all get to share more. Sitting in a chair for that long, reminded me of the institution that we are trying to get away from to begin with. I am an imaginative learner and I need to talk things out to learn; that is why a house type church works so well for me. I for one like to find out others learning styles right away in any group that I lead so I know how best to design the group: activities, discussion, visual… (children too). I’ll say it again though…YOU all did a great job!!!
I agree with Kevin on the issue of having more time for interaction. I have a strong desire to “compare notes” with brethren of like mind. Many of us have been through the wars and have struggked long and hard to arrive at this point and I would like feedback, wisdom and prophetic insight from others. One of the things that seemed to be missing was the deeper issues of what God is saying to the church and the implications of this message. This whole issue is much deeper than a creative shift to a more Biblically based pattern church relationship. I for one have serious doubts as to whether the church in America can ever successfully make the transition. The traditional model of church, whether it has been Romanized, Protestantized, modernized or contemporized is essentially the same. Those models are so culturally and socially ingrained in the fabric of our life it seems to me God will have to do some serious shaking to get American churches to come out of the program driven churches of today. Meanwhile, the rest of the world moves forward in God thriving under the pressure of persecution and poverty while the properous Laodician church of America continues with bussiness as usual. These and many more issues concern me and I would like to feel the pulse of others who have responded to the urging of the Holy Spirit. Feedback would be appreciated
I appreciate the comments evaluating the conference. I have only done a cursory review of the evaluations that were turned in. All input is helpful. In designing a conference, especially one this short, one always has to make choices to include something that precludes something else. We did focus more on information in this conference because we did want to provide a place for people who are new to the paradigm shift to get their feet wet… And, it can always be done better– so the feedback is appreciated.
One initial thought I have… that we will be praying about. Perhaps OUR next effort at providing support would be to host a smaller, more organic gathering for those who have already been involved in this movement… and then, the following year, provide a “basics” forum again. Just a thought.
Any more reflection on some of the more helpful conference content? I think it’s helpful to remind each other some of what we have learned.
Roger
House Church Blog
I feel that there are two very important issues in developing an effective house church network.
The first is the ability to truly facilitate gatherings that are participatory and Spirit-led. Tony spoke somewhat on this issue… And one key question was asked: “What is the primary role of a facilitator?” The answer, of course: “To help others get involved and use their spiritual gifts. I believe this is an area that we all need to develop our skills in so that we get away from anyone (including our self) dominating. I want to see gatherings that truly reflect 1 Cor. 14:26(“everyone brings a….”) and that are thoroughly Spirit empowered and led.
A second key issue is our ability to be truly missional. This topic was covered in more detail, particularly by Neil and Felicity. Felicity did a presentation on Luke 10 in which she affirmed that Jesus had a strategy in mind when he sent the disciples out– even telling them specific cities to go to. She then made four excellent points for following the Luke 10 missional example:
1. Prayer– (everyone remember the Luke10:2b virus prayer?)
2. Go NOW. We don’t invite others to leave their comfort zone and come join our group, rather, we get out of OUR comfort zone and go to them.
3. Stay with the person of peace. Take time with the person that God has directed us to.
4. Heal the sick. Ask God to do awesome things through us– demonstrate the Kingdom– and then it’s easy to proclaim that the Kingdom is here.
The more we transition from an invitational mode to a going mode, the more power we will see in our efforts.
Roger
House Church Blog
Another thought on the conference is that Prayer is critical. I know that I said it before, however this emphasis is so important. I had a chance to talk with our Christian brother from Thailand, Sin Chai. I am convinced that if we dedicate ourselves to prayer and reading the word together as believers, the Lord would reveal how to best reach the people in our communities. This was said in many ways throughout the conference, however I like to put things in simple language…
Just Pray…Read the word…LISTEN!
God is faithful to reveal himself to us as we are faithful to live our lives directed towards Him.
Bill
Paso Robles, CA
Roger,
I like the idea you put forth about a more “organic” gathering.
I appreciated the work and effort that went into this conference. My husband and I attended a house church conference 4 years ago in Santa Cruz and it is amazing to see what the Father has done in that short period of time. It would have been nice to interact with others while there, but we knew the purpose of this particular conference was to download a ton of information. The nature of a “conference” is to glean information. My husband and I were humbled and blessed by all that was presented. We had a house church in our home in Indiana back in 1995 that started with 4 people and grew to 30 within weeks, and went along happily with the presence of God for 6 months, (it was mostly newly saved young people who then brought their parents and friends) but because of our lack of understanding of what the Lord was doing in our midst, we allowed a local pastor to tell us we needed to come under his authority. Of course shortly there after it came apart. We were so grieved and learned a hard lesson. We moved to California in 1999 specifically at the Lord’s direction. We have started praying with another couple here in Redding with a burden to see a house church network in the North State established and since the Monday after the conference we have started walking our neighborhood and praying for our neighbors. We are expecting Jesus to do great things. Authority has been something I have prayed about for a long time. Authority, as I believe Jesus taught us, is not to be used with our brothers and sisters but in the realms of darkness and in warfare.Why would we need it among the brethren when we are called to serve one another?.(Mt. 20:25,26). “Behold I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpians, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you”(Lk. 10:19). We should walk quietly and softly (harmless as doves) in the earth, but in the realms of darkness, powerfully and with a loud voice of faith and authority. That only comes from personal time in the presence of God.
We have registered for the Denver conference and are looking forward to gleaning more of what God is giving to his people. Blessings to you all.
The conference reinforced and gave clarity to the church, us, and me, being a witness for Christ. The training I received in traditional church however has tended to influence my witnessing, my time, my story, even my outreach and house church. For example, I witness in theological language and invite people to church type meetings. At the conference, I learned to go to them with help and love and not try to draw them away from their comfort zone.
In response to Bill, about the transition of the American churches…which seems impossible, but God is already at work and indeed has been working at this difficult problem. Except for Him it is not so difficult. People are waking as if the prophetic scripture, “Awake O’sleeper, arise…” has now been initiated by the Holy Spirit. People will stream out of the Old Wineskin because many are of the New Wine and will get that they belong in a New Wineskin. I like Neil Cole’s wave dream and his admonition for us to be ready for it. It will come. It is visible now, rising up out of the sea of America…The only question is who will be ready and know what to do?
Here are some quotes that I liked… I tend to think in smaller chunks of energy since my baby was born…
Programs are what we start when the Holy Spirit has left the meeting. (Unknown… don’t remember…)
Lower the bar of how we do church
Raise the bar of what it means to be a disciple.
And the result will be….
We will raise the standard of what church is.
(Neil Cole)
Commit your works to the Lord and He will fulfill them.. Roll them to the Lord! (Neil Cole)