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I know that all 2 of you that will be reading this will be more curious about Javier than house church so I will just pass on the news that he is doing great and was smiling lots for me this morning.

House church has been a wonderful thing for me. I went into it pretty skeptical and didn’t have huge expectations. So far it has far exceeded even my deepest hopes, the ones that I didn’t let myself entertain. I feel at home, I feel comfortable, I feel challenged, I feel like I have bitten into a meaty morsel of faith every time that I go. We spend more time laughing than I ever would have expected to and I feel like the people around me are people that I’m getting to know on multiple levels. It has been good.

We have a meal together, we sing sometimes, we pray for each other, we study together. The thing that gets me most excited is that everyone participates. There is no spectatorship but there is also no push. People feel comfortable sharing and even disagreeing.

When I tell people that LT and I want to plant house churches, people ask what is the difference between house churches and conventional church small groups. I think that small groups could run like a house church but there with Small groups there is the feeling that the larger gatherings are equal or greater to the small group. On paper a congregation could be a “church of small groups” but it is fairly difficult to do. When the Lord blesses us with more house churches, we will have large group meetings 3 or 4 times a year for large group worship. A lot of the difference is simply in priority. Although, we also don’t owe anything in terms of debt apart from our mortgages.

So, I am thoroughly enjoying where we are at. I hope more will come who see this as a way that they can grow closer to God as well as those who want to plant churches themselves. For the moment we are just pleased with how God has been working up until now.

I should write about house church one of these days but for those who are very curious about what we are about, here is the proposal that we made. We haven’t held to it entirely but it has been a guide for the most part.

As Leighton pointed out at house church last week, we are not inclined towards mission statements and the such but we have sought to be culturally relevant to those who we were proposing this to. Namely the MB Conference.

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Mission Statement:

Organic churches reproducing faithful disciples

Vision:

To foster a discipleship movement through the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit resulting in an ever growing network of organic churches starting in Saskatoon reaching to the ends of the earth. These disciples will seek to incarnate the gospel of Jesus Christ among various people groups with a special focus on sub-cultures more likely to be reached through non-traditional approaches. In our approach we see leaders reproducing leaders, churches reproducing churches and disciples reproducing disciples. Our ultimate purpose is to be active participants, together with all of the saints, in the expansion of the Kingdom of God to the glory of the Father.

We affirm

The tenets of faith as communicated by the Mennonite Brethren Confession of Faith

We believe

1. In proclaiming the kingdom of God and good news of Christ’s life, death, resurrection and return
2. The scriptures are authoritative and best understood with a reliance on the Holy Spirit in the context of community
3. In going to and being with the people we intend to reach with the gospel and incarnating the life and love of Jesus
4. That every member is a minister and should be given opportunity to discover and exercise their gifts without restrictions
5. That the most effective ministry is found in the context of trusting relationships
6. In equipping people inside the local church for ministry
7. In raising the bar on discipleship - in continuous growth in discipleship
8. In an intentionally simple approach to church

Strategy

* Churches meet in groups of 4-16 adults in homes, cafes, campuses etc…

* Leadership team made up of 5 people representing the diversity of the network

* The network will have a website and will provide space for each church to have their own space on it

* Leaders of each house church will be mentored and equipped by the members of the leadership team

* Each individual will be expected to be part of a peer discipleship group of two or three

* In most circumstances local house church leaders will not receive remuneration

* Network leaders/mentors will raise support in a missionary model

* 3-4 times a year hold a whole network gathering in rented/donated space

* Local churches will have a great deal of autonomy and have flexibility to structure themselves around their mission

* The primary role of the leadership team will be ministry training and managing whole network activities

* Each church will be encouraged to practice regular corporate and individual rhythms

* A website will be setup to serve as a resource tank for network members to contribute to and use

* Once a year hold a conference on organic church and distribute resources to public via the Internet

* Church leader advisory board meets 2-3 times a year

Step 1: Establish a healthy relationship with the conference
Complete draft ministry plan and submit it to MB Conference. The plan goes through revisions with the feedback and input given by the conference. Work through issues of structure, accountability and funding. An advisory board is setup consisting of interested established church leaders.

Step 2: Recruit potential new leaders
Create promotional materials highlighting the aspects of the network. Speak in one or more of Saskatoon’s established churches about our vision. Local churches commission and bless people to plant organic churches.

Step 3: Train the church planters
The church planters form a house church with a specific shelf life. The participants will gain hands on experience in everything from one on one discipleship to facilitating meetings to the best ways to organize a small pot luck meal. Participants will be given required reading. In this phase each team of planters must begin to think through their church plant. Where will they meet, how will they organize, which people group will they focus on, how will they accomplish the mission etc…

Step 4: The planting begins
When leaders feel prepared they start forming discipleship groups and engaging in mission. When they have new people they start meeting on their own as a church.

Why Simple Church?

* It is more viable among the poor, special language groups, and other situations where a traditional congregation isn’t well suited
* To reemphasize the New Testament themes of spiritual gifts, the church as a body, the “one anothers”
* It has been very successful in the developing world
* With limited resources in the Saskatchewan conference we need to innovate new ways of planting churches that accounts for that reality.
* It is very consistent with the roots of Anabaptism
* It is an experiment with an aim to put the church back in a healthy growth position

Questions
How do we structure the network in relationship to the conference?
What is the best way to equip leaders and provide ministry training in a “organic” church setting?
How do we frame the project without coming across excessively critical of traditional church ministry?
How do we transition people to a completely different mindset to church?
How do we incorporate mission at the heart of church?
How do we incorporate children? How do we equip parents to disciple their kids?
How do we recruit leaders? Shoulder tapping or wide open? What discernment process is used?

A Brief History
As a leadership team we have been struggling through the issues of the church. We have been asking questions that many church leaders have asked throughout history: “What can we do to be more effective?”, “How do we reach people with the gospel of Christ?” and “How do we disciple as Christ has called us to disciple?”. Many people ask these same questions and come up with different answers. As we have looked at the history of the church and the cultures that are represented in Canada we are convinced that new strategies will need to be put into place to reach some of those who have not yet been reached by current popular church models. We see the need to move to a strategy that encourages equal participation, close community and strong personal ownership. Upon encountering the house church model we discovered something that simply made sense in the culture that is developing. We believe this to be a strategy that will allow us the opportunity to reach more and more people with the gospel of Christ.

Leighton Tebay
I became a Christian in highschool. Through a connection at highschool ended up at Central MB church and eventually became a member. Starting in 1992 I enrolled at Bethany Bible Institute and finished the Bachelor of Christian Ministry program. In the mid-nineties I went through a crisis of faith and spent a considerable time exploring what it meant to be a Christian. While enrolled at Central Pentecostal College several years of frustration with church came to a head and I turned away from full time ministry.

In the years following I pursued self-employment in the IT field and continued my faith exploration. Eventually that led me to the necessity of Christian community. In 2001 I quit my job and returned to Bethany to finish my degree with an inclination towards further study and becoming a bible school teacher. While I did very well in my teaching internship I sensed deep down that it wasn’t the right fit for me. The summer after my teaching duties were finished I started a house church with another Bethany grad. It was short lived and had its difficult moments but I caught a taste of something I really enjoyed. Since the spring of 2002 I’ve been a contract staff person at Bethany and participated in the mentoring program, spoke in chapel, and taught classes for faculty when they are away or on specific areas of strength.

In 2004 I helped another church leader plant a house church. This leader was ill suited for this type of ministry and alienated most of the people in the house church in a few short months. When that situation was resolved I became the leader and after 16 months of relative peace I encountered a very positive church experience. I personally observed deeply wounded Christians recover. I and others in the group sensed the mission of that particular church had to come to a close. Mark and I started planning what we now call the SeedLife Network.

I have a deep concern for the evangelical church in Canada. This concern led me to the scriptures to find the strongest themes in the New Testament that speak to our approach to church. I’m attracted to the simple church movement because I think it is a good option to live out these themes. My personal experience with this type of church has been very positive though not without pitfalls and difficulties.

Mark Trew
I am 30 years old and married to my beautiful Salvadorian wife Susana. I grew up in the church and discovered my desire to be in ministry after moving to Forest Grove Community Church when I was 14 years old. Forest Grove offered the opportunity to minister as a lay person for many years until becoming an intern and the Pastor of Young Adult Ministries. During the time leading up to becoming a pastor I earned a B.A. in Psychology from the U of S, spent a year in missions with Youth Missions International in Jordan, earned my M.Div. in Theological Studies from Briercrest Seminary, was a board member with the Board of Church Extension for the Sask MB conference for 3 years and spent many wonderful summers speaking and ministering in various Bible Camps as a speaker. After working at Forest Grove for a year as a pastor I moved to El Salvador to be married to Susana and remained there for over a year working as an international liaison for the Campus Crusade regional office which oversees Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean.

While discussing moving back to Canada, Leighton and I talked about planting a House Church network. I have wanted to be a church planter for years. Much of my current reading informs me that there were other ways of doing church and being the church. Although Leighton is far ahead of me in his knowledge and experience with new church expressions I am discovering that the Lord has been preparing my heart to be open to something which I would have never previously considered as an option: planting House Churches. Now it is time to step out in faith and embrace the new challenge of allowing the spirit to work through us in this faith venture that will, Lord willing, expand the Kingdom of God.

Well, this picture is a month and a half old. Javier is now almost 3 months old and sleeping like a trooper. Last night he broke his record for sleep time (by this I mean time that he is not begging for attention or food from Sussy or I): 7 hours and a bit. That’s awesome! He then followed it up by another 4 hour stretch. If Susana and I weren’t burning the midnight oil watching cartoons, we would have had a decent night’s sleep.

Javier is starting to show signs of being ticklish. He’s been laughing and smiling since the end of the first month but now he is responding to tickling sometimes. It is really cute.

It has been a while for the old blogging scene. Facebook has been the main hang out for a little while but now this can hit both mark316 and my Facebook.

Live is nuts. I love it. Little Javier is over 2 months old now and has chosen to be a little more fussy now that Susana’s mom left for New York. I can hardly blame him, I miss her as well.

House Church started almost 2 months ago. It has been awesome so far. Last week was especially great with a lot of praying for each other and studying to the point that I was corrected on a theological issue. It was really cool to God at work in that way.

I miss a lot of people. It is amazing how narrow a world can become when you focus on the family (someone should copyright that name). I’ve been working evenings and taking care of Javier and fixing up the house during the days. I miss people but I wouldn’t trade the life that I’m living right now for the world. I know that God still has lots planned for our family so I’m just enjoying the time that we have together right now.

Have a great time out there, all 5 of you that may read this entry.

We did some testing for lead paint in the house. We have good news and bad news. Everything that we had worked on to this point has no lead in it. The baby’s room appears to be fine. The bad news is in the porch. We have lead paint everywere there, except on the floor which is also good news because the lead paint on the walls are not chipping so we can just paint over it.

Things that you learn along the way. We were a little worried so we picked up a lead paint test from Walmart and went at is. It is a pretty cool set up.

I’m still in the midst of prepping everything for painting and life tends to get in the way of that. LT and I are still working on the House church network, we hung out with Grandma and Kirk this week. We have also entertained other people as well. It is hard to believe how many people one can have in their life. We have a list of about 20 people or couples that we want to have over and with working in the evenings, the time just drifts away so quickly.

Peace and love to ya’ll.