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Phoenix Area House Churches Newsletter
News from the home-front of the house church movement in Phoenix, AZ.
Greetings!
Greetings and welcome to summer in Arizona. Last
month we were enjoying the spring-like weather. But
here it is June and we have been in the triple digits
for several weeks already.
Last month we celebrated the moms in the family with
Mother's Day. Today is Father's Day. Do something
nice for dad this weekend.
Things seem to slow down a bit around Phoenix this
time of year with many people taking vacations in
cooler places. This week my employer sent me to a
three day workshop in Seattle. The weather there
was exactly opposite Phoenix, damp and
overcast. Its nice to see a lot of green, but I did
miss
Arizona. When I travel I always miss my wife and
church family. One of the things about house church
is that the families that you meet with, you share
your life with and they are truly an extended
family. I believe this is the kind of church that
Jesus spoke of when He said they would know you
because of your love for each other.
This week one of our own, John Rowden, went to
Little Rock, Arkansas to attend the Lion's World
Services for the Blind, a 9-month course of study
learning to teach the visually handicapped how to
use some of the resources that are available to
them. Please pray for him and for his new bride,
Debbie, during this time. Even though they were
married only a month
ago, they believe this is God's plan for them and will
ultimately provide employment for John that will allow
him to use his gifts.
As I was finishing up this newsletter, John called
and told me that he had attended a Bible study
tonight. Moved by the Holy Spirit, he offered to
lead the meeting each week as they study through the
Bible. The others in attendance were very receptive
to his offer. John is very excited about being able
to do this and we are hoping that some will come to
know Christ as a result.
Next weekend, Sue and I leave for vacation to
celebrate our 25th year together. We will be
driving to Monterrey, CA and will spend the week in that
area while exploring the California coastline.
Please pray for our travel safety and that God opens
doors of opportunity to share our faith.
Larry
Luke10:2b
Prayer Requests
From the Phoenix house churches
Please remember these requests during your daily
prayers:
- For the 16 year old daughter of one of our
brothers to come to Christ.
- For house churches in Phoenix to continue to
connect with each other for edification,
accountability, and fellowship.
- For the continued success of the Alpha group being
taught by Darrell of Big House.
- For a family having financial and relational
problems.
- For a family who needs the head of the family to
come to Christ and for a job that will provide for
their needs.
- For God's will for John and Debbie while John is
away in school.
- For John as he leads a new Bible study each
Saturday night at Lion's World Services for the
Blind in Little Rock, Arkansas.
- For travel safety for Larry and Sue next week
while on vacation.
- For safety for any others that are traveling for
vacation or the Independence Day holiday.
If you have a prayer request that you would like to
send to the Phoenix Area House Churches, please send
an email to me
and I will be glad to send it out with a newsletter.
Whats happening
Within the house church community
June 25: Housechurch Potluck,
5:30-7:30 p.m.
at New Life Church Kids Room, 8155 W Thunderbird Rd
Peoria. This is the 2nd year for this gathering.
We will eat, play and have a time of worship and
encouragement. Each housechurch will have a chance
to share how God is moving and any needs. Please
bring a main dish and also a salad, side dish or
dessert large
enough for your family. If you have any questions,
email Sylvia
Miller or call at 602-973-0907.
June 26,27, July 10,11: Air Assault on the
Kingdom of Darkness - Monday/Tuesday prayer
nights every two weeks continue for the house
churches in Phoenix and the East Valley. For
location information email Darrell for
Phoenix or me
for the east valley.
Darrell reports that the west valley prayer
nights have been very powerful although only Big
House has been attending.
Larry reports that the east valley prayer
nights have been powerful times with most of
the house churches in the east valley represented.
July 4: Independence Day - If you have
church or outreach related plans for this time,
please drop me
an email.
Aug. 25-27, St. Louis; Sept. 1-4, Denver:
House2house National Conferences. If you are
planning to attend one of these please let me know.
Here are some blog links to take a look at:
The lighter side
A little humor for the month
Copyright Gospel Communications International, Inc -
www.reverendfun.com
Here are some websites for church humor:
What they are saying
About house church
The following article is from a recent Pastors
Weekly Briefing published by Focus
on the Family. I solicit your comments on this
article for a future newsletter. Please email your
comments to me.
Home-Grown Churches Becoming Popular
Analyst George Barna, founder of The Barna Group,
says millions of Americans are breaking from
traditional church settings and choosing to attend a
home church. These Christians, he remarks, want to
"be" the church, not just attend church and are
seeking greater depth in relationships and more
commitment to spirituality.
Barna, who became a home-churcher last year,
estimates that, since 2000, more than 20 million
Americans have begun exploring alternative forms of
worship, including home churches, workplace
ministries and online faith communities. Although
many Christians still participate in their old
churches while trying out a new one, Barna predicts
that over the next two decades, traditional churches
will lose half their "market share" to these
alternative start-ups.
The Orlando-based Dawn Ministries, however, places
the number of home churches in the United States in
the tens of thousands, based partly on the size of
online directories and attendance at home-church
conferences. These churches are usually
nondenominational and consist of a dozen or so
friends or family members who often meet without an
ordained pastor. Dawn Ministries has about 2,000
volunteers working in about 150 countries. Over the
past year, the organization has increased the number
of coaches working in North America from about five
to 70, mostly in the Midwest, California, Texas and
Colorado.
Greg Windsor, real estate developer and former
megachurch member, says that "the person sitting
next to you in the pew could be close to dying, but
people don't really know one another." By abandoning
the steeple, the pastor and the crowds of people,
Windsor said, his tiny home church congregation is
trying to live according to the New Testament. "A
lot of embellishments happened over the centuries."
The modern Christian church is "like a photocopy of
a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy ... it
starts getting distorted and changed."
Critics of the home-church movement warn that, by
meeting only in small groups with lay leaders,
Christians could become disconnected and stray from
orthodox beliefs. "We human beings are prone to
error; we need each other," said Scott Kisker, an
associate professor of evangelism at Wesley
Theological Seminary in Washington. Even the early
home-based churches, he said, were connected through
the apostles and "many books of the New Testament
are letters from the apostles calling churches to
more faithful doctrine."
But, George Barna acknowledges the challenges.
"You've got the possibilities of bad teaching and
errant theology creeping into the process, but we
already have that happening in churches today. So
we're going to have a lot of the same challenges
that we've always had — it's just an issue of who's
going to resolve them."
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phone:
602-524-9400
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Summer is upon us here in the desert. Its hot and
many are getting away to cooler places for vacation.
But even so, we still need to stay networked and
continue to encourage each other in the house church
movement. Please communicate often and
keep me up on whats going on in your individual
fellowships. The website and the newsletter are here
to encourage and edify the members of the house
churches in the Phoenix area. We need to know what
to pray about, what to praise God about, and how and
where we can help our brothers and sisters. Lets
keep the communication going. Don't forget to go to
the website for your gift purchases to help support
the website and newsletter. See you soon.
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