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I : :: ~ 0 I ,~.~0 ~House2House Magazine is published 6 times a year ~y thf As _ dtfO f 0 (hurdies, 1019 Meredith, Austin, TX 78748. Phone512-282 2322. Copyright 2001 Hou,e2House. The views .and qHI nf.;" ex _ ess d by..ributing authors in articles do notnecessarily reflect the views and opinions of this magazi . F l' ioiit~n t!oni~ dVdilable online at www.house2huse.tv.

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Editorial by Dr. Tony DaleWhy is the Holy Spirit apparently moving in such power in the parts of the world that most of us will never get to? Why isit that what we long to see God do here seems to be out of reach? As the writer of Deuteronomy 30 commented, "It is nobeyond the seas, so far away that you must ask, 'Who wil cross the sea to bring it to us so we hear and obey it?' Themessage is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your hearts so that you can obey it". (Deut. 30:13-14 from theNew Living Translation)

So what is "this message" that we are trying to articulate in this new magazine? In essence, it could be summed up bysaying "the Bible works." Wherever you look and within whatever culture it finds itself, the church seems to work bestwhen it most closely approximates to the church we see described in the New Testament. This church is evangelical, evange-listic, Holy Spirit-powered, community-oriented, Christ-centered and "follows the cloud" wherever it may be moving.As the song from the 60's put it, "Allover the world the Spirit is moving, Allover the world, as the prophet said it wouldbe." New churches are emerging with explosive force in many parts of the world. In no previous generation (with theexception of the generation described in the Book of Acts) has there been such power, such growth and such persecu-tion of Gods people.What needs to happen in the West, and in particular in America (where this magazine is being launched), for the churchto see such growth and transformational power? The articles in this issue will attempt to set the scene and begin tograpple with these issues.This magazine wil not attempt to be dogmatic, but rather inclusive. Views from inside traditional churches will bewelcomed alongside the challenge that comes from the many who have been led outside of "the building." If one thingis clear, itis that none of us has a corner on truth except Him who is "the way, the truth and the life." It is the voice ofHis Spirit that we will seek to capture in the pages that follow in this and subsequent issues.Your response to this first issue will be crucial in the on-going story of "House2House." Please send "letters to the Editor"at letters(house2house.tv. This will let us know what you think and whether we are in any sense accomplishing our goalof serving you as we all seek to serve the Lord.Also, if you have not yet subscribed, please do so now, as your involvement in this way is crucial to the survival of thisnew magazine at the practicaljfinanciallevel. Thank you!

Editorial BoardTony DaLe, M.B., B.S., Austin, TX-Church planter, physician, businessman.FeLicity DaLe, M.B., B.S., Austin, TX-Church planter, physician.Jim MeLLon, Killeen, TX-Church planter, business owner, entrepreneur.David Underwood, P.E. Fort Worth, TX-Church planter, business owner.

Table of Contents =- l'A anaTony &~e 1 ty

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00 Revi

Worship 8 .:Ly n Redd ck, h.D.~

an nga rison

Advisory CommitteeDerek Brown, respected leader within the British "New Churches,"responsible for the King's Churches across UK.

Frank VioLa, church planter, author, Florida.John ReinhoLd, president of Christian Care Medi-Share, FL.Andrew Jones, Project director for the Boaz Project, NZ.John White, home church leader, Colorado.Nate Krupp, church planter, author, Oregon.Robert Fitts, church planter, author, YWAM Hawaii~Jim Rutz, founder of Open Church Ministries,author of "The Open Church", CO.

Lynn Reddick, President of Open Church Ministries, GA.Linda Reddick, church planter and author, GA.Jeff Lucas, author, Vice-President of the Evangelical Alliance, U.K.Tom PeLton, National Director of March for Jesus, GA.WoLfgang Simson, DAWN Europe, author,authority on church planting movements (not yet confirmed), SwitzerLand.

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world, such asap-

~" ..~I ,;:1I p; t~ (f y" .~~..Pradesh by the year 2007 (a mere 17,000 vil-lages!). What a challenge that one of theirladies started 50 churches last year. We heardvia the Southern Baptists of one of their newconverts starting 42 churches in the year fol-lowing his conversion. (See the article on"Church Planting Movements".) In Americanterms this would translate to a church in ev-ery apartment complex, neighborhood, school,retirement home, etc! And we thought we weredoing well if one of our home churches "mul-tiplied" once in a year!

Since India, a number of things have hap-pened. Stories from the people who attended~ """.V w

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the conferences have both humbled andblessed us. Within a couple of weeks of arriv-ing home, we were getting reports of multiplechurches starting. One lady, with a team ofyoung people, had started four or five churchesin the surrounding villages in just two weeks.Another young man had started two churchesamong his gypsy peoples in less than a monthfrom the seminar.Having heard these and other reports, we de-cided we had absolutely no excuse! So we tookthe plunge and have gone out in the last twomonths and started several churches; somefrom scratch and others where people alreadyin existing local home churches have had aburden to begin something new in their ownneighborhoods. These are very fledgling ef-forts at best, but at least they are there!

'-By Tony & Felicity D

most exciting churches to us is in a local, lincome housing project that our church been praying for over a period of several mon(Lord, deliver us from nice white middle-cchurches!) There we decided to follow the pciples we had been teaching in India, usLuke 10 as the pattern. One day, Tony anwere prayer walking in the apartment compTony had specifically prayed that we would the "man of peace". We were caught in a dopour under a balcony with two ladies who lithere and started sharing with them whatwere doing. As a result, they invited us toand pray with them about some of the prlems the area was experiencing. Since then, bhave given their hearts to the Lord and hstarted to involve their families in a weetime together with us. Isn't the simplest dnition of church "where two or three are gered together in My name?"Another couple caught us by surprise a weeks ago. They had visited our Janumonthly celebration, where the various lohome churches come together. Subsequenwe didn't see or hear from them for two wewhile they were out of town. The next Thu

day night they came over for supper andshare what the Lord was doing in their heaImagine our delight when they mentionedpassing, "We're starting our home church Sunday." This is church planting going

of (our) control. Praise God!

The other thing that is happening is thatmost on a daily basis we are getting phcalls and e-mails from people all over the cotry saying that they are doing something slar! Here in Austin, groups that we had neheard of are emerging from the woodworkover this nation, people seem to be sayingsame things. And the interest expressed by mtraditional churches as well has been incrible. God seems to be challenging His peoto look at what the home church representfeels very similar to the early 60's as the Lbegan moving in power in England. This neeverybody, both those in traditional settinand others who have already launched out new paradigms of church planting.I enjoy body surfing. I never mastered the

Let me share a couple of examples. One of the thing standing up on a board! When you


5/18

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outside the medical profession. This booklet,in part, tries to understand the roots of thisperiod of revivaL. It seeks to explain why it hasproduced such long term meaningful change inpeople's lives, leading so many of our friendsand colleagues of those years to church leader-ship positions around the world. As I look back,

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Tony & Felicity Dale - "The Early Years"I realize there are many principles that welearned in those early days of working togetherthat are still applicable to church life today.We were a bunch of young students. We hadlittle idea of what we were doing or where thiswas going. However, we knew that the Holy

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Spirit was doing something wonderful andciting and we were prepared to follow whHe was leading.We now sense within ourselves a similarcitement over things we see emerging inUnited States as well as around the world. cent contact with friends from Britand an increasing opportunity to see

good things that God is doing in mparts of the world, give us great hfor the future of the church.

It has been said that the one thingcan learn from history is that we nelearn anything from history. The tragis that often this cycle has been replawithin Christian circles. In studyingvival, it is not unusual to find thagroup formed from a previous movthe Holy Spirit becomes itself an impment to any subsequent move of the HSpirit. In the United States there is crently a lot of interest in church pl

ing. Our prayer is that as new models areplored and as the Holy Spirit is allowed to hHis way in multiplying many churches acthe nation, those churches started in the great church planting wave will not be a brier to the new churches now emerging.Continued on page 21,

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6/18

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$ taken from Homes That Chan e The World by Wolfgang Simson)Church is a Way of Life, not a series of religious meetingsTime to change the system

House-Churchesa Pastor alone

the Church in the hands of bureaucratic clergy

people to church and start bringing the church to the peoplereal supper with real foodi non".iations t'U city-wide celebrations

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corporate spiritual echo. In the following 1/15 Theses", I wilElijah's sky. Others already feel the pouring rain.

I 1.in depth on three of the theses. In each successive issue we will cover more.",

aiWay at Life, not a series of religious meetingslive." The nature of Church is not reflected in a constant series of religious meetings~, .0nal cler~y ~n ~oLy r.o?ms specially reser~~d to exp~r~ence Jesus; it is in th~ proph.etic way followers o

most: in their homes.'-rt~ge \~e system

uniform, the Pentecostals anointed it and the Charismatics renewed it, but until todasuperstructure. It is about time to do just that.4

there was a recovery of a newa reformation of spirituality, the Second Reformation. Now God is touching the


7/18

o k vi wHouses Tha Change The World

by Wolfgang Simsonglobal perspec-

ty is not a series of religious

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"A monumental and marvelous piece of work!It is going to be a very important contribu-tion to the present situation faced by the

church." (RalphNeighbour, Author ofWhere Do We Go FromHere)E:!o3: r;on ()~~()

OUSESTHAT CHANGE THEWORLD:iov.mv.-i:r~()~fi-i:im

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"An excellent book,which goes to theheart of the structureproblem in our per-ception of thechurch. I completelyagree with the analy-sis and much appre-ciate the book andits message." (PatrickJohnstone, WEC,London)

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.... .-.. '" "Sure to be a vital el-ement in the explo-sion of the churcharound the world.Tremendous amountof great materiaL. Thevision and scholar-ship of this book is surely the wave of thefuture. This book is on the cutting edge ofthings to come. There is no question that ifwe are going to fill the earth with the knowl-edge of the glory of the Lord with millions ofnew congregations, we will have to return tothe New Testament model presented here."

(James Montgomery, Founder and President,DAWN Ministries, Colorado Springs, USA)

WOLFGANG S MSON,H_ ,Q0SE CHLlR,H~,:'

"A unique study, carefully studying New Testa-ment examples of church-planting." (Wes Wil-son, Vice President, Every Home for Christ,Colorado Springs, USA)"Ground-breaking! So new and fresh, that, tothe average reader, it will be quite revolution-ary." (Clive W. Clayton, Brussels, Belgian Evan-gelical Mission)

"Wow! This book challenges our understand-ing of church and how it's done. I stronglyrecommend this book to every pastor andchurch leader." (Eddie Smith, Coordinator, US-Prayer Track, AD2000 & Beyond Movement)

Prin US in anrl lana1- 3 $14.95 ea. $3 per order4-10 $13.50 ea. $5 per orde11-25 $12.00 ea. $7 per Ordl..25+ $11.00 ea. $10 per ordYou can pay:1. By sending a check made out in U~lars to the address below.Mke the check ouUo ~(W0lfgang Sim.?on"2. Transfer the amount directly to u-~rcount in the US and notify us of "t~ quio .~tity you order ' .4Bank Details 'f!f it~

;\lations BankBeltway Plaza Off.tt6038 Greenbelt Road ~ i-Greenbelt, MD 20770, USA

On the back of the check includ.e:..For Deposit only "4 ~-Acct if 391 5S9 4161

,. .Nations Bank of MaiLaaid3. You can send cash-bills '-ry westercurrency to our secure ma,i )'ng addressbelow. .r IPlease send your or~er tp~a) with indiction of form of payment emailaddress or mail to " \ -l

Dawn Inte nationaUN.etworkPF 2128212 N~uhaus~ 2Switzerland'

Other language versi,oias that already areavailable: German, Wutqi, Urdu., ,

" In process: Spanish, Portug,LIese, ChinesTamil, Siu'ghalese, Arabic, Norwegian,Telegu Croatian,'italian, Afrikaans,Indonesian, Swedish, Russian.

House 2 HOUie 7 March 2


8/18

Worship and -~. Open ChurchFrom Burning Bush t Boardroom...and Back

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Open Church: How We Meet"What then shall we say, brother? Whenyou come together, everyone has a hymn,or a word of instruction, a revelation, atongue or an interpretation. All of thesemust be done for the strengthening ofthe church" (1 Corinthians 14:26 NIV).Open churches-meeting in homes,church facilities, or anywhere-focus on"how we meet." There is open worship,open sharing and open ministry de-scribed above. Sharing and ministry flowfrom worship. One has only to recall theinstance when Jesus encountered thedemoniac who worshiped Him. He was

then told to share and minister to fily and friends (Mark 5:1-20).The origin of the word "worship" comfrom the Old English weorthscipe. word is actually worth-ship. To worsis to ascribe worth to someone or somthing. Ralph Martin writes: "To worsGod is to ascribe to Him supreme wofor He alone is worthy" (Worship in Early Church).

" From an open church perspectiworship-both personal acorporate-is shaped by seral factors:

WaLking with God Daily: PersonWorshipDaily living can be pictured as a waAt least thirty-six times in the New Ttament the believer's experiencecalled a walk. Prior to carrying the dignation "Christians," they were knoas "those of the way" (Acts 9:2).other words, they were known by thwalk. For the writer of Hebrews, thisa walk offaith (Halakhah). So it showbefore us. Who we are and what weon the walk when no one watchesthe essence of our being. We were cated to walk with the Triune God. worship comes from the walk; it is walk! "Enoch walked with God; thenwas no more..." (Genesis 6:9). Consithat his position of righteousness blamelessness resulted from his wawith God. Judson Cornwall says, "Goultimate desire is intimate relationswith His people. God wants to walk atalk with us as He did with Adam. Gwants us to enjoy His presence as Endid on his daily walks with God" (LUs Abide).(This article by Lynn Reddick, first apeared in Open Christianity, Winter 20edition, and 7S reprinted by permissio


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~.l .~" ? ; .f';~:., 'f'', p '''..1-.. i.Review f t~ ~ookl~t Written by David Garrison

,Churc plant in India wi h Tony and Felicity Dale

"A simple, concise definition ora~fhurchPlanting Movement (CPM) is: 'a rapi'cmulti-plicative increase of indigenous churchesplanting churches within a given peoplegroup or population segment'. "

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In this quiet way, the booklet, "ChurchPlanting Movements", begins to probe intothe recently recognized phenomena of rap-idly growing church planting movementsaround the world. And a fascinating lookit is! With many case studies and clearanalysis, David Garrison, Associate VicePresident of Strategy Coordination and Mo-bilization of the International MissionBoard of the Southern Baptist Conventionbegins to unveil a movement of the HolyS pi r itthat istruly im-pactingch urchesall over "t h ~;w'.c~world. \" ~You willrea d ofthe newconvert,who inhis firstyear af-ter com-ing toChrist,planted 42 churches. You will begin to un-derstand how in one Latin American coun-try the Southern Baptists have grown from129 churches in 1989 to more than 7000churches by 1999. Similar stories are emerg-ing from allover the world. I (Dr. Tony Dale)had lunch recently with a Chinese pastorwho told me the following story.

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He hadjust come back from meetings in Chwith house church leaders in a particulargion. One young leader shared with him private moment how ill-equipped he felcomparison with more senior leaders in movement. The churches under his care only grown from a handful to around 1home churches over the previous few ye"Am I doing anything wrong to see such sgrowth?" Wow!!The next issue of House 2 House will loomore depth at this whole phenomena. also the Bible study in this issue by Dr. Vtor Choudhrie, who with his wife, sincetiring from his prestigious surgical practin 1993 has seen over 3000 home churcemeracross StateMadhPradeIndia.

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to "get out of the way?" Get your free con the web at http://www.imb.org/Cdefault.htm

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House 2 House 9 Mar h 20


10/18

Postcard Prom The Cd 9 C...~!~ff Me A Soralong

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and what the word "surrender" has come tomean. Through tears, he tells of his 20-some-thing struggle with pornography, how he con-quered itfor a while but now is in the death gripof the addiction again. While his head hangs inshame and fear, the tattered and faded gather'round him.... each reaching out with a touch ofassurance, each bowing low in humility as theycarry their brother to the Father asking for Hishealing hand. God called and all did answer. "Be-

hold, how good and how pleas-ant for brothers to dwell to-gether in unity!" Psalm

133:1If there were one wordto sum up the en-

tirety of thePsalmist'swords

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in chapter 133, that word would be commu-nity. It is a commodity that most every humanseeks....a place of identity, security,encouragement...a place of true belonging Weall want it at some level; we all search for itfrom time to time. Some of us search with avigor and energy, looking most anywhere wesee something that might only vaguely resembletrue community. Some of us are so weary fromthe daily grind that we pull ourselves into a

by Shelly Berr hplace ortwo wherewe believecommu-nity mightfind us.

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Commu-nity isnothingmore thanlife to-gether; it ..is also ..nothingless than life together. To live togethertread through the commonness of life wothers, to encourage and champion, to walongside, to carry another down a bumroad, to share values and beliefs and fato be my brother's keeper - these are rare treasures and weighty burdens oftogether.... community. The one who entinto living community finds indescribableand enormous strength that is fueled oby the living presence of Jesus. Dietr

Bonhoeffer remindsthat this kind of "dfellowship of life wother Christians" is"unspeakable gif

God"! He writes, inbook Life Together, "It is easily gotten that the fellowship of Chrtian brethren is a gift of gracgift of the Kingdom of God tany day may be taken from us

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Even as "God is the giver ogood gifts" (James 1:17),are the keepers, the sowethose who are called tofaithful with the gifts Hbestowed. Living communone that finds it's origin, psion and life in Jesus Christ, is a gift to

cultivated and grown, pruned and deepenOne verse in the 2nd chapter of Acts hilights the how-to's that the early church ebarked on. "They were continually devotthemselves to the apostles' teaching andfellowship, to the breaking of bread anprayer" (v.42) Community is held togetby devotion/commitment to God and to eother. Community is grown and strengtheby spending time with one another and


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.. IlI\ II~ ..~ sy~ID II -We will welcome articles if you first write tothe editor to find out what the primaryJ theme of the next few issues will be. Allinformation to contact the editor is online

at www.house2house.tv. We cannot promisethat submitted articles will be published orreturned!""i"Stories about how you started home church,and what has happened are high priority tous. Let us know your experience - good orbad. :I i:Consider buying copies of the magazine inbulk to distribute to all of the Christiansthat you know so that word spreads quickly.-Good quality pictures of all areas of churchlife are greatly appreciated. Preference isto receive them in electronic form via emailin jpeg or tiff format with a minimum reso-lution of 300 dpi. Our email address forthis is pictures house2house.tv. If youdon't understand what this means pleasemail them to us. We will not be able to mailthe pictures back. .Subscribe!

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CD il Continued from page 10having meals together, even as our godly acestors modeled. Community is deepenthrough the power of narration and the coage to share.

D

EI Devotion, commitment, time and meals togetare all words we've heard and are familiar wiWhat in world is meant by the "power of nartion"? In Deuteronomy 6:7-8 it is writtenGod's words, "You shall teach them diligento your sons and shall talk of them when ysit in your house and when you walk by tway and when you lie down and when you rup. You shall bind them as a sign on your haand they shall be as frontals on your foreheaGod wanted the commandments, the judgments, the instructions and the numerous sries of His faithfulness and provisions for people to be told. So many times in the NTestament, Jesus Himself chose simple storto teach with - parables, they were called. Peowho heard these stories were often chanfrom the inside out. There is power in the lart of storytelling.

Ii

Living community is deepened immensely wthe brethren gather and share their stories. Tsharing is reaL, raw, uncensored and straifrom the heart. Can you imagine the conntion that is made when the hand finds out ia toe that's sitting next to it? Can you imagthe precision of function that occurs when seral parts of the Body welcome another npart and learn of that part's strengths and wenesses? Can you imagine the powerful praythat can be offered from a group of Believwho are truly family to each other? What a when God adds to our number another childHis! What a tragedy to spend time togebut never enter into life together! It is tifor us to strip away all pride and fear; timedo away with plans and agendas. An integpart of building real church is sharing our vown God stories. Stories of how He has brous, molded us, exposed us, loved us.

IIIn closing, Bonhoeffer says of sharing our rselves rather than our ideal selves, "Thus very hour of disillusionment with my brotbecomes incomparably salutary, because ithoroughly teaches me that neither of us ever live by our own words and deeds, but oby that one Word and Deed which really bius together - the forgiveness of sins in JeChrist. When the morning mists of dreams vish, then dawns the bright day of Christian lowship" So be it!

D

II

House 2 ouse 11 March 20


12/18

CONSUMER REVIEW - IJBEARING ONE ANOTHERS (HEALTH) BURDENSby John Reinhold Ph.D.

onemail in the hope of

formalized and ex-large instead

sharing one

thatwas ex-they

could invest it, pay the medical bils and makea profit. With the Medi-Share concept we addup all the monthly medical bills of our mem-bers and simply divide by the number of shar-ing households. We send a sharing notice tothe member and each "kicks-in" their share.One would think that the monthly amountwould fluctuate, but when large numbers ofpeople are sharing it remains very steady.I was concerned about a close series of major,catastrophic bills flooding us, possibly increas-ing the monthly share to a level where peoplewere forced to drop the program. To guardagainst such an event a trust was formed with

ealarPrice Waterhouse-Coopers in the British Com-monwealth to which all of CCM members auto-matically belong. That trust contracts for "spe-cific stop loss insurance" with a multibilliondollar carrier. If one of our members medicalbills goes over $50,000, the trust's stop losspolicy covers it up to $5 million. The trust isin the British Commonwealth because the trustdoes discriminate against applicants who donot follow a biblical lifestyle and does not wishto come into conflict with some state stat-utes.

--./f'~L ~i

...,~ ~!f~A ~I"'v

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,f.'~'.,l~,

"'In planning for the Christian-Care Me

Share Program I was concerned abaccountability. Hundreds of Chtian ministries exist with no oside accountability. There a sharing ministry I knabout that had only insideon the board, handled milions and never had anyooutside of close relatives the budget disclosureswent to the head of oneAmerica's largest foundtions and asked what criria they used to determiwhether they could consida grant proposaL. "Thrthings are essential," he sa"They absolutely must haveoutside board of directors; thmust have annual certified audiand they must be verifiable bo

again believers." I asked him if he wooutline a system of accountability whereif we ever came to their foundation for funwe would be considered. He recommendan outside board of at least 12 overseethat would scrutinize certified annual as was quarterly audits. He recommended a woing board of no more than eight unrelatindividuals, at least five of whom were non ministry salaries. We appointed 55 mebers of the Board of Overseers representi13 denominations, only three of whom aon ministry salaries. We hired Carlson aFredrick, CPA's to do quarterly and certifiaudits, all of which have been availableall members for the asking.


13/18

Two years into our Medi-Share Program,we found out we were doing it all wrong.Our concern was paying medical bills whenit should have been preventing them fromhappening.' When we found out that al-most 80% of all diseases are ones we chooseby what we eat and by how we choose tolive and think, we came to our senses. Westarted a proactive wellness counseling di-vision that is now made up of 17 physi-cians who are up to date on more natural,less intrusive modes of cure. We've inves-tigated and approved 9 lifestyle centersto send our members to for reversing coro-nary heart disease, diabetes and severalother western kiler diseases. We actuallyfly the member and spouse to the lifestylecenter for a full 19 day program and flythem home, at full sharing expense, Wewould much rather pay $8,000 to teach amember how to reverse coronary heart dis-ease than $40,000-$70,000 for a bypassthat treats only the symptoms. We haveone of the nation's largest libraries onlifestyle medicine and a book store formembers to buy books at cost. At anygiven time we have over 500 health courseson video being taken by members. Mem-bers can call in 24 hours and talk to aphysician.Prayer is an essential part of healing, CCMhas a 24 hour prayer hotline. Members areassigned a segment of time each week topray about members' health concerns, Mem-bers call a toll free line to get the latest,most urgent requests. The time segmentsare assigned so that prayer is going uparound the clock for requests.What happens if 40,000 Christians shareone anothers medical burdens? They havethe satisfaction of knowing that theirmoney is not subsidizing lifestyles theyabhor, Members save $3-5,000 a year onmedical budgets. Members come to under-stand that care is part of the Christianlife..,Christian Care. Information is avail-able at www.tccm,org or by calling toll free1 800 PSALM 23,

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change gears agam. ___,Opp_o uj y for p 'g s es nope '(lg the ministry to-th-e ordinlY C riStia ' t esame manner that-our ancesto s 0 ened Bib e re " .n9 0 eordary ( _ 's ia_n. To do thiS mea s, 0 e sen~theinau9uratipn of a new eformation, 'Le m a otll, 'tmeans,the Log'caL'Gomp etoii oft/iei ea ier Refo tOIl 'whic the imp3cions of the posjP: ,taken wer, _eit efu: Ly underscood no oyaLLy 0 Lowed. - ,_ . l"ton 'eb od 1_ _I ,I -" - 'I-~- -' ~I -The hi. k ~_ w ic created t e p~ ems we) hav d!y- sinsufff:'et to so ve them-- - + ~..-1 I 1__Lbert f' ste' - - .=: J-- ,- ____I ) - II - -Perha ,s_the cure, in any areas rn!f be smal before'tcan~besubstant aJ y stronger-; '_ ll ~E ton jrueb ood -= =- ===' I .-1here -is a ew style of cure ife tat: \so! i~ i:",p e-gates the mo e c urc _as_we kl1O!' ~ but Iso i t re" 'tcan't e put n 0 "oLd wi esk s~ --" ~.eig bO - I' ~ --+ ,~.CD i I

e see nd co ,ing of the Church wl be less of a, 'nve tioof,~, nstiank~~ an a!etur!!~o "!-!i-r,~- Chrs~'arl in'songmaL form"1' -~" u ~~__n_" -- L J :DFrom The Secohd (OnIi~~=Qf:th;e=~-l'tlr~~'~~-1!_~ 9_1_ ltrn~L , 1 i l - ihe e wa::i ~ ~t o,f a a ~re~ur.,n t~-'imp/;;iJ;okJ_ thel_

Commums.ts, as_w~have seen, to b- e dlDwiithe. ..mJ~Ia-tionaL stlctures-of t e chufchn ~ina~ 1Th~irfi~dea was-ta- v 1 J . L I , iorce oeLie'lers!into the common m d 'of th'e-Ttre ,L

I patriotic-;M~~.t~en. r0iny~Ehri~til!s-.ref~2~d !rb';- iorcedFami ies Ijregantto meet in their hOles,,fr-pity~r-_ EfbLestudy.J Ot/:eTrsbegan to find one anqtRkr1in ~ ne~ ation-=~i W' ~ ~hip. Gore was The=Qid-western den)mmatinal i/o( eskin;-=aLtho ph 'mil tf the 0 d form was bEgng resurre -= jr-the

- brefU),elt 1T0yement. _ll ke tech rdr.es_pf the ~t ~- ,e -feb nk, e,ltqDirtYr-stn.ctur, e_, these., , pJ~rS, ~ed beLieYe~ow hadwasf~n~_~f-g~rit s'mgf(ty. Ij:-iNa;, t1=sfructure t tLomewhehMert rs-+nitted _w5th hea'n:j= andl uhit~j~J(j Iby --,he actioM=oft_e HoL~=Spirit:. -_~~y d,is-c~l~edJ__a__ i_kind

?t joining t(j_g~ther is t ,~h~y,~~_?l- ~?1l, ih~~!~~~ ,_e~~~Godis p ea~ed-~t~'t'_:~L by hi~~~~n_t_ ~::_ _L_ ~ -:--'- r-;ir~_tom _Cri~~f.ir~~~., a b~~k-~~~c!!~i3~: ~ ~-i:i~~-pU- _i:;e ~h _r~~ ~~Y-rrm~~_~- n ChmaJjl-~~llfr ,~ ,,1=f:=l ~1-~-- - ~ ~ -l,J _~ _I';. ~ iHouse 2 House March 20

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14/18

Why The House Bible Study by Dr. Victor Choudhrie

Church~sur-

past 7represents around 3000

2)

22:7-13)J

Most of the miracles took place in homes.place in a house.

mon greeting of Saint Paul to various HouseChurches started by him (1 Cor. 16:19; Col. k.4:15; Philemon :2, Rom. 16:5 and so on).He visited house to house and taught themeverything (Acts 20:20.).original New Tes- L.

tament Church. The disciples went to thetemple regularly and taught the people,bringing the seekers to their homes. They m.gave them food and disci pled them (Acts2:42). Soon they were jailed and punishedby the temple authorities and banned en-try into the temple but by then they hadreaped a large harvest and many House a.Churches had been established. "And theLord added to the Church daily those whowere saved." (Acts 2:46-47, 4: 1-4).

provided the ideal situation for interac-tion, resulting in the rapid conversion andmaturing of believers into discipl-ers. Mul-tiplication of discipl-ers led to explosive c.growth of the church (Acts 6:1).The informal environment of the HouseChurches gave opportunity for rapid ma-turing of "lay leaders" like Stephen whowas the first Christian martyr and Philipwho was the first evangelist to evangelizeSamaria. The net result of handing over ofthe baton to the seven Greek speaking or-

tr-

dinary men resulted in the conversion ofpriests which in turn caused exponentialgrowth of the church. (Acts 6:7.)The rapid growth of House Churches (Acts8:3) resulted in severe persecution of thebelievers and Peter ended up behind bars.The Church gathered in the house of Marythe mother of John Mark for an all nightprayer meeting which led to the dramaticrelease of Peter from jaiL. (Acts 12:5; 12).There was no formal Sunday service. Themeeting could last all day and all night.Believers therefore came equipped with lampsfor such an eventuality. (Acts 20:7).Signs and wonders including raising thedead Dorcus took place in homes.Baptism of the household of Cornelius andthe Philippian jailer took place in theirhomes

HISTORY:It is significant that other than teachingand confrontation with the temple authori-ties by Jesus and the disciples, no note-worthy activity, not even worship or prayer,took place in the temple precincts.

b. In the church's first three hundred yearsthe entire Roman empire was Christianized.The church was severely persecuted until310 AD when King Constantine becameChristian and built the first CathedraL. Paidclergy were employed, one of whom laterbecame the Pope. Constantine converted"Daily Christians" into "Sunday Christians"by declaring Sunday a holiday. He also gaveChristmas and Easter festivals to Christians.Constantine was only a nominal Christianas he built other pagan temples as welL. Later

1i"

a spate of cathedral building took plain Europe with domination of the prfessional priesthood, resulting in the dmise of the House Church movement. Tchurch then went into dark ages for mothan a thousand years, looting and king ordinary believers. It is estimatthat the established church killed million people calling them "hereticThe church today is truly founded the blood of the martyrs. No well meaing man has done more damage to Chrtianity than the king Constantine. Bfor him the world would have been evagelized a long time ago.

d. In the last three hundred years of actiProtestant missionary activity in Indwe have only reached 2.5% with lukwarm Christianity. It is said that in tbest churches in India there are not mothan 2 or 3% of Great Commissionerwhereas in the persecuted Chinese HouChurch model there may be as many 80%. What can God do with lukewaChristians except spit them out. In efect there are hardly any quality Chritians in India today.

OPTIONS:a. India lives in Vilages. There are six hu

dred thousand villages. Additionally mof our cities are a conglomeration of lages. As of today we need at least omillion (Ten Lakh) churches. Many vlages are big and have many castes ing in them and therefore the real nuber is substantially higher. No one, neven Uncle Sam has the capacity to buthat number of church buildings. Nor we have the capacity to maintain theeven if someone gave them free to uBut we don't really need them as all t


15/18

houses we need are already available tous in villages and in the cities. Being theBride of Christ, the house churches rap-idLy multiply so we do not need bighouses.

Finance is also not a prob-lem as most House Churchesrun on "low" or "no" budget.There are simpLy no mainte-nance bils and salaries to bepaid. So instead of frequentlysermonizing on stewardship and tithing,the leaders can focus on completing thetask of the Great Commission of makingdisciples of all nations. (Matt.28:18-20.)

born in a cowshed thenwhere is the problem with thehumble House Church? Thefirst worship of Jesus tookplace in a cowshed church.We also need hundreds ofthousands of Pastors/Eldersfor the church who cannotbe produced in seminariesbut can easily be equippedin the House Churches.

A House Church does not produce luke-warm Christians but quality Christians whoquickly Learn to be fruitful (Acts 16:5.)This is because peoples of other faiths

f..

'" '''~-,-" '"' ;l.., 1r. _~.,- , ~~"" ~ "'. f.i~"' ~ ~ '---~~j;~-~ - ~""" ~ ti,",'f'f". W.:~ Ii,i' .L .~-:l

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~'~~;A ~i..House church meeting at a park under the gazebo.

We all know that the congregatmodel has failed and the denominatmodel creates division within theof Christ. The empty cathedrals inrope are silent witnesses t

barrenness of the church. Whytinue to imitate a failed mo

g. The seminaries equip tors for a single congregation house churches follow the 222mula (2 Tim. 2:2). They equipciples to plant multiplchurches by multiplying leaderh. The House Churches are filling the mandate of our Lordreaching the "ends of the eaTherefore, God is bLessing tBarrenness is a curse in the BTherefore, The Bride of Christreproduce, multiply and filearth. The House Church is bture an immensely fertile mode

find it easier to go to a friendly housethan a formal Sunday church service whichin any case does not cater to them. (Mark11:17.)

Let us pray to the Lord of hathat He will send forth His laborers intery village and every colony of every tand city to establish His Church.

House 2 House is March 2


16/18


17/18

Tony & Felicity Dale

Maybe

meaningfullonged

~~..

'4

,

ap-ChristiansChurch.

all evangelical churches to stand up and becounted for the Kingdom of God? Recognizingthat our current church institutions are notreally touching society, could this transforma-tion pave the way for society itself to be pro-foundly impacted by the Kingdom of God?

~

In this context, what could two British medi-cal doctors possibly offer that would help any-one understand church planting in the UnitedStates? The first thing we need to say is thatour experience is clearly very limited. We havebeen privileged over the years to see a numberof churches start and to see those churchesexert an influence that is greatly dispropor-tionate to their size We have now lived here in

the United Statesfor nearly 13 years.Early in our stay wewere part of fourdifferent ch urchesof a more tradi-tional nature. Thoseyears of imbibingAmerican cultureand Americanchurch life havebeen very formativein what you will seewritten here It wasat the last of thesefour churches,Northwest Fellow-ship in Austin, TX,that the pastors,Trey and Mary AnnKent, strongly en-couraged us tothink toward start-ing something ourselves in the part ofAustin where lived.We were privileged from work with them and

watch the very effective way that they weregrounding new believers. When that churchmoved to the very opposite end of town towhere we lived, it did seem that the timing wasright to start something ourselves.

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For two years we had been leading a Bible studygroup for business people to help them under-stand the importance of Biblical principles indealing with finance. This had grown to theplace where all of our non-Christian businesscolleagues who were coming regularly to thisstudy had found the Lord. We then added achildren's Sunday morning Bible Breakfast Clubthat we began for the sake of our own children.This group was made up of our own kids andtheir friends in the neighborhood. Most of thosekids also became Christians. Various neighbor-hood friends who were parents of these kidsalso found the Lord. So we then brought both

of these groups together and start actucalling this "church." When that outgrewhouse, we multiplied out into other ho

We recognize that what we are currentlying in South Austin, in the heart of Texasjust one expression among many that the Spirit is using to birth churches acrossnation. It appears to us that the Holy Spis stirring many in this country to seeneed for new churches that follow new terns. Ordinary people are recognizing they have been called by the Lord tointo all the world and preach the gosmaking disciples." The B1ble has never knany distinction between clergy and laity. the giving of the law at Mount Sinai (19:6) it has been clear that God desirkingdom of priests. There was never antention of separating out lay from prosional, full-time from part-time folk. All oare called to "seek first the kingdom of GOur desire in the publishing of this boois to help enable and empower the thousaof Christians who have pretty much giveon church, but who are stil totally comted to following Jesus, that they can goand start churches. In these churchesfocus will not be on buildings and progrand professionals, but rather on enabevery member ministry. Instead of precresources being almost entirely used innally to maintain staff and building, tsame resources can be used to fund missand mercy ministries to a world that is wing to see if the church can be relevant.

So lets read on. What would be possible of God's people got involved?

The booklet w1ll also be continued in Issuof this magazine.

Web Site Listhouse2house.tv - This magazine

austinfellowshi .com - Dale's home chur

openchurch.com - Open Church Ministrintrf.org - New Testament Restoration Foudationthemagdalenepro~ect.org - The MagdaleProject1mb.org - International Misson Board the Southern Baptist Convention

tccm.org - Christian Care Medi-Share

pioneer.org.uk - Jeff Lucas

House 2 House 21 March 20


18/18

~""~ .or'l~k~ '" .,

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driver. I've not been

What

the worship

not easy drivingshout at other driversyour

the toilets,

the night screaming

bet-on "Christian" holidays.

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It

(' '\\t'~!~ ~ ~, '\.lScrooge-like criticismsBut it's a great idea to get away, sing new songs,get inspired, and cremate some barbecuedchicken with friends. And God seems to workovertime as people take time out to meet withHim.In my early days as a Christian, I attended achurch youth camp on the Isle of Wight. Itchanged my life. I was somewhat zealous in myresponses to the nightly preaching. Eager foranything God had for me, I'd go forward afterevery sermon. But that event played a forma-

rit't ,,* l-~4#" .1IL'f~1~-_ ~. ' ,

"Bringing in the Kingdom" exists becawe've decided we want to be together,travel in friendship and partnership. Witour different ministries, emphases and visiwe've determined to turn our back on ipendence. So please be there.In May the New Testament Restoration Fodation will hold their 8th Annual SouthHouse Church Conference. You can learn athis on the web at http://www.ntrf.o2001HCC.html. Many have been profounimpacted there

... Back on the Interstate, I've just responded to anotheC n"st1Gn stic er- hon your horn if you ove Jesus. I've obe-diently honked. But judging by the swif gesticulation fromthe d 'ver, I must assume he's not a Christian. Sure nor.

tive part in my Christian experience.

A few years ago, I was speaking at a church onthe island. I had a spare morning. So I visitedthe field where they used to hold our youthcamp. I worked out where the large tent usedto be, then found the spot where the pulpitused to stand, where I'd responded to God 20years earlier.Surrounded by bemused catte, I knelt downand remembered those heady, naive days whenI told Jesus I'd give him everything. I wasn'tbuilding a shrine, but renewing the vows of myyouth. That's why I'm convinced these eventsare so usefuL. God goes along to them, too."Bringing in the Kingdom" hits Waco, TX overthe Labor Day weekend. (See opposite cover)It's an opportunity to take time out, re-alignourselves with vision, refuel our emotional andspiritual tanks, and pick up on relationshipsthat have become important through the years.

... Back on the Interstate, I've just responto another Christian sticker: honk your hif you love Jesus. I've obediently honkBut judging by the swift gesticulation frthe driver, I must assume he's not a Chrtian. Surely not...

Jeff Lucas is a respected leader within the NChurch movement in the UK. He is the VPresident of the British Evangelical Allanceis also the Chairman of the Spring Harvest pning committee of the Evangelical AllanSpring Harvest sees around 70,000 British Ctians going to a residential week of worsand Bible teaching each Easter. Jeff is the mspeaker at this year's Labor Day Conferen"Bringing In The Kingdom" (see opposi

H k' Honk!n . - t-r ~ ~~O 0

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