Last January, I attended the Grace Brethren Southwest Focus Retreat in San Juan Capistrano, CA. This annual retreat is always a great time of fellowship, worship, and time with God. At that time, I had been involved in a house church for over a year. I was disappointed by the absence of any representation or dialog around the organic or simple church movement. I know there are many within the Grace Brethren fellowship but they were missing for the most part.

After returning from this retreat, my journey took a turn and I started to hear about other house churches meeting all over Phoenix. A fellow named Henry Staggs kept sending emails out trying to connect with other groups. One night I called Henry and we discussed how things were going in our individual fellowships. And later I met Henry and John Rowden for coffee at the Coffee Cabana, one of our favorite meeting places. Our two groups started joining each other for our weekly meetings and eventually we combined our meetings completely. We now rotate our meetings among four homes.

It was about that time that God put it on my heart to join Vernie Abbitt on a trip to the Central African Republic to work on an orphan care center being built by Integrated Community Development International (ICDI). This resulted in my trip in October (see the picture above of us at Baoli Falls in the CAR). This has made me more aware than ever that I should be ready for whatever God puts on my heart.

There was the conference with Robert Fitts at the Kraemers' home in Surprise. Then Henry organized a Teen Challenge event and invited all the house church fellowships. I was out of town for business that night but I was able to hear part of the event through a phone call to Henry. I was able to hear part of the testimony time via cell phone while trying to find my hotel in Washington, DC. What fun! We were such an encouragement to the Teen Challenge folks and their stories certainly encouraged us.

In April, our group was visited by Lawn Griffiths of the East Valley Tribune who published two stories about house church. We did receive a fair amount of interest from phone calls but we have no way of knowing the true impact of the articles.

During this same time, Matt and Kelly and their six children (see picture) came to Phoenix on a temporary job assignment. They are part of a house church fellowship in upstate New York and connected with Henry on their arrival in Phoenix. They joined our fellowship for six weeks. It was such a joy to have a family so far from home find fellowship with our group here in Mesa.

Through several Greenhouse meetings taught by Ed Waken, we connected with other groups and individuals. At a meeting at Jeff Evilsizor's home, we met Darrell Kilcup. It is obvious that God has put on his heart a passionate desire to see a church planting movement here in Phoenix.

No one from our fellowship was able to attend the National House Church Conference in Denver but we did retreat to a friend's house in Forest Lakes during the Labor Day weekend.

In September, Ed Waken hosted a get-together of the house church leaders from around the city. It was a great time of fellowship and connecting with each other. It was good to discover even more groups from around the city.

Jeff and Marie Whiting made the news when they provided a home for a family from the Gulf Coast who had been displaced by Hurricane Katrina. They rallied their neighborhood to provide for all the needs of this family.

We met Brennan Basler at the Greenhouse meeting held at my home. Brennan has such a passion for revival and continues to be an encouragement to us. In September, he provided tickets for a large number of us to attend the Promise Keepers gathering in Glendale. Living Hope Baptist Church in Tempe was host for our first East Valley Gathering October 1. We had a very good showing of fellowships from around the Phoenix area. At that gathering, it was obvious that God is working in this city through our small fellowships.

As we continue the journey in 2006, there are many things in the planning.

Our first city-wide house church retreat with George Patterson (see picture) will be in February. This is happening at the Prescott Pines Camp in Prescott due to the work of Darrell Kilcup and Jeff Evilsizor.

A house church workshop with Steve Atkerson of New Testament Restoration Foundation will be in March. This is being organized by Henry Staggs.

And our second house-church-sponsored Teen Challenge event is scheduled for April.

I believe God is planning much more for this new year. Within our small group alone, God has planted the seeds of a food distribution ministry to reach out to our neighborhoods and an association of the house churches in the city for the purpose of combining their resources for a variety of outreach and ministry purposes. Many of us have committed to reading through the entire Bible this year ( One Year Bible Blog ).

I am sure that God has plans for each house church fellowship and my prayer is that 2006 will see God moving in our communities and our city in a mighty way. My prayer for this year is that we all become the true "revolutionaries" that George Barna talks about in his book, Revolution. Then we will see a revival in our city. We will see church planting movements multiplying all over Phoenix and Arizona.

If you haven't read "Revolution" yet, get a copy. Barna doesn't just go over the numbers, but it is a very encouraging and convicting discussion of most of us involved in house church. May I suggest that you go to our website to order the book. This way you will be helping in a small way to support the website.

Next month I'll report on the House Church Retreat.

If you have anything else to contribute, please email me.

See you at the Prescott Pines Camp !!

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