Posts for category ‘House Church’

Later this week we’ll be launching a new aspect of our ministry here in Joinville. We’ll be asking people to open their homes for teams to come and pray with them. In many places in the world, houses of prayer play a very important role in house church networks. I have not done any research to learn what exactly those houses of prayer entail. In fact, I had heard about two different places using houses of prayer. I thought, “That’s there. That isn’t here.” And, I did not pursue the idea.

After I had let the idea slip into the back of my mind (actually, I had completely forgotten about it), God brought the idea back to my mind. That’s when I knew it was God’s time for houses of prayer here. I didn’t know when, where or how we would start houses of prayer. That’s where it is good to have team members. God was giving those answers to members of our team.

A few years ago, when I was on staff at a church in the US I had a small group that met for prayer. Our prayer time there was developed from a prayer group in which I participated in Bulgaria. The houses of prayer that we begin here will be based on both of those prayer ministries, though it will not be a copy of either. “Prayer is learned by praying.” I do not recall who wrote that sentence, but it is true. So, we want to teach people to pray through houses of prayer.

I’m adding an article to the “Articles” page here on the blog. I wrote it in 2002 and never put it online. However, I’m making it available now so you can understand a little better what I hope God does through houses of prayer. Please read “How Our Small Group Prays” on the articles page or by clicking this link How Our Small Group Prays.

Blessings – Stan

Since our move to Joinville 3 months ago, we have been doing more observing than anything. Why, because we can’t assume that what we know about planting simple churches where we were will work in the cultural context we find ourselves in now. What we are finding is that even though Joinville was founded by Germans, the city itself is very Brazilian with an international feel to it. Some of the cities surrounding Joinville also have distinct cultural identities.

For the past 5 weeks or so, we’ve been getting to know a house church in a city about an hour from Joinville. In the past, we said that we have experiences from which they can learn and that they have things to teach us as well. This past Sunday they invited us to share the Lord’s Supper with them. It was a great day – we shared a meal together, praised the Lord together, and continued to get to know each other. It has been very good seeing the way they share life together. The leader of that house church was talking with another guest they had invited that day – we were sitting around while the food was cooking. He said something along these lines, “I don’t know Stan yet. All I see is the perfect Stan who comes to visit. The others in house church I know because I am with them all the time.” He was not slighting me in any way, but rather stating the reality of our relationship. Only when we spend a lot of time together, hours a day, week in and week out, do we get to know the real person. This is life together. This is what house church is all about. In fact, it is Christianity as Jesus intended it to be.

In our three visits with this house church, maybe 15 hours together, God has been showing us how He wants us to go about planting simple churches in Northern Santa Catarina. We want to plant organic (Brazilian), reproducing, simple churches through the making of disciples. Do we have it all worked out? No, but we are getting there. God still has a lot more to teach us, but He is answering your prayers already.

We asked you to pray that God would bring us a man of peace in Joinville. We believe that God has brought him into our lives.

About two weeks ago I received an email from a colleague. He had been at a meeting of Baptist pastors. On Friday, September 18^th, he sent me contact information for three pastors in this region who were interested in meeting with me to see if we might be able to work together. To my surprise, the following day one of those pastors (who lives in Joinville) was knocking on my door. I met with him yesterday (Wednesday, September 23).

Normally when I explain house church to members or pastors of institutional churches here in Brazil they look at me with blank stares, as if I were speaking another language. But, I really am speaking Portuguese with them. The blank stares almost always turn into rejection of house church as a valid form of church. Very few Brazilian pastors, in my limited experience, accept that house church is truly church. And, of the few who accept it as legitimate church, none that I know have embraced it as the path they want to follow for church planting. So, I was not overly encouraged going to meet with yet another pastor to talk about reaching Joinville through house churches.

I was well received by this pastor. He truly has a desire to see Joinville reached. He’s been reading a lot about how to go about that task. He already understood that the usual approach of institutional churches in Brazil isn’t going to reach the city – the birth rate minus the death rate is still greater than the growth rate of the institutional churches. So, he had been trying to figure out if the answer would be found in small groups, a cell church model, or even in house churches.

I laid all the cards on the table. I walked him through house church in the New Testament. I explained what I see as God’s purpose for the church and how that is fulfilled in house church. I explained how leadership functions in house churches and house church networks as I am learning it from the Scriptures. There are still a few places that I’m sorting through things, but much of it is coming together. Usually when I lay this all out people just don’t get it. This truly is a different language than the language of the institutional church. Each step of the way he either had already seen what I was explaining in Scripture, or understood it as I was explaining it – the pieces were fitting together, the light bulbs were coming on.

When I finished explaining these things to him, he simply asked how we get from where he is – institutional church – to what we see in the New Testament – house churches networking together to make disciples in cities and regions and among all the peoples on earth. That’s the part I didn’t have an answer for yet. Nonetheless, he wants to walk this path together. He wants to reach Joinville with the gospel of Jesus Christ and he is willing to lay down his traditional ways of doing things in order to accomplish this task. He asked if we could start next week.

I believe God has given us this man of peace in Joinville. But, God did not give us this man of peace until He taught us some very valuable lessons. God’s timing is perfect in every way. This pastor is new in town. God brought him here about two months ago, just about the same time He brought us here. The road ahead will not be wide and smooth, but narrow and rough. But, the burden of my Savior is light and He does not leave me to walk it alone.

Thank you for your faithfulness in praying for us. We will keep you updated as we walk this road.

Blessings – Stan, Wendy and Ariana

Hello everyone! I hope your week has been a good one.

Last Monday we went to visit with some house church leaders in a city about an hour from Joinville. They had contacted us about 2 weeks ago, the day after I put contact information on the Portuguese language blog. However, we were all sick then. After getting well, we called them and set up a time for the visit.

We spent about 6 hours with them, including a tasty lunch that they served us. It was so very good to talk with folks who understand house church and the struggles that come in Brazil from pursuing that return to the New Testament church. It was a great time of mutual encouragement. They were able to confirm some aspects of the culture in Santa Catarina that I thought might have been different from the culture in Rio Grande do Sul, where we had been working to make disciples and plant house churches. Even though they have been meeting as a house church for a couple of years, they don’t have much experience outside their own house church. Since I have been through thick and thin with several house churches, I was able to share insights into questions they have been struggling through. It was a great time.

In the past, we’ve noticed that a sticking point in developing a house church network was the lack of biblically qualified leadership in the house churches. The Brazilian culture does not lend itself to nurturing the kind of men Paul described to Timothy and Titus. From all appearances and throughout our time last Monday, it is apparent that God has raised up several families in that town who want to be more like Jesus every day, and not just in word, but in deed. This is an incredible answer to prayer. In our meetings last month with our colleagues, this was my prayer request – that God would give us biblically qualified men to lead the house churches.

When we scheduled our visit for Monday, we did not realize that their house church meets on Monday night. That night, the leaders shared with the house church many of the things we had talked about during the day. The information was well received by all.

This small group of believers has a vision that goes well beyond their own group, beyond their own city, beyond their own state, and beyond their own country. They have some ideas about how to develop house church networks that I had not yet considered. And, I have some ideas about training house church leaders that they had not yet considered. So, there are a lot of ways that we could work together in making disciples and planting house churches. I’m not sure exactly when we will visit this house church again. And, I’m not sure what God will do through this connection. But, we are in contact on the phone and by e-mail.

Please praise the Lord with us for His making this connection. Please pray that all involved will be able to discern what God wants to do through us.