BY THE GRACE OF GOD, BECOMING TRANSFORMED INTO THE LIKENESS OF CHRIST
- Make Ready a People Prepared for the Lord - (Luke 1)
HOUSE CHURCHES
Canadian Regional House Church Network
UPDATES
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From CALGARY
I wanted to share with you some of the excitement of being involved in
God's work here in Calgary. This past Monday the leadership from a number
of house churches from various parts of Calgary met together at my home. There
was a lot of discussion on the future of house church ministry in Calgary.
We worked at defining the common DNA of our house churches. We prayed a lot
about what direction God would be leading us. By the end of the meeting we
had agreed on a plan to establish a Calgary Network of House Churches. This
Network would be for mutual support, resourcing, accountability and leadership
development. Praise God!
I would ask you to keep us in your prayers as we venture out into unexplored
territory. God has a plan and we want to be in tune with his leading. We will
be meeting once a month. The next meeting will be Feburary 3, 2003 at which
time we will invite other house church leaders to join us.
In His Service,
Rob R.
Internet Minister: http://www.cyberjourney.net
Calgary Network of Home Church Ministries: http://www.bivomin.addr.com
Cariboo Presbyterian House Church Mission
EMERGE - Surrey
Fraser Valley House Church Network
Greater Victoria House Church Network
Barrie / Greater Toronto Region / Hamilton / Mississauga
Good evening to everyone,
We had an awesome time last night at the celebration service. God always shows up in ways we cannot plan! We had a relatively small group with the holidays. That allowed us to relax and in a way it was like a big house church. We shared some information and were blessed with the presence of Sam and Lori Buick and Tom from Kichener house church network who shared with us what God was doing in their community. There was time to bless J-P. and C. as they are celebrating their first anniversary today. All joined around them and spoke and prayed words of blessing and encouragement over them.
J-P. then led the worship and R.D. spoke a powerful and challenging word. We asked R. and G. as well as the guests from Kichener to minister to people who want and need ministry. they first prayed for one another and R. was done for the night. The Spirit kept him and ministered to him. The Spirit of Prophesy flowed as Sam, Lori and Tom prayed for people and it was amazing to see. No one was in a rush to leave and our brothers and sister were not in a rush to do things. All waited as the Spirit released words of knowledge and prophetic guidance and wisdom to each one. It was one of the most powerful demonstrations of the power of the Spirit that we have seen and we simply sat back and gave God the glory. Lives were touched and transformed. In the end Eda and I were blessed too as they ministered to us. By the time we got in bed it was past 1 a.m.
The most important thing I see is how God is putting the
wider Canadian Network together. We know that God is setting up divine appointments
and the vision is similar with a real Kingdom mindset and servant leadership.
What the Spirit is birthing is so much bigger than any one network and it
is refreshing to meet people willing to invest in the Kingdom without building
their own kingdom. The one prayer we have is that there will be more networking
with like minded leaders throughout Canada. We pray for the divine appointments
as the new wineskin is being prepared. Jesus is truly building his church
and it will not be program based, but relationship focussed and a powerful
manifestation of the priesthood of the believers without the unbiblical division
of the body into clergy and laity. Many talk the talk, but we see more truly
understanding what this means and being willing to pay the price to walk the
walk.
We give God the glory and look forward to the next celebration
on July 26.
With this we ask a special prayer for Sam and Lori and Tom and the church
network in Kichener Waterloo. For those who want to find out more about this
network, visit http://www.dwellingplacehop.org
We also recommend www.housechurch.ca
to you to get a bigger picture of what this is all about and we bless Rad
and Jason and the network in Mississauga.
Thanks again for your prayers and support.
God bless,
Willie and Eda J.
Breakthrough Prayer Ministries
--------
Blessings to All of You!
RECENT CONFERENCE UPDATE
We had our conference we Jim Rutz and it was really a time of making divine
connections with people from Ontario and the East Coast. It is amazing what
has been taking place. A lot of greater communication and unity and agreement
in the vision of simplicity and house church has really come forth. The similarity
of vision is testament to the reality that the Spirit speaks forth the vision
to those that are being called out and set apart for this very significant
ministry for this hour. New relationships, new paradigms, new understanding
and revelation concerning the nature and character of the church, is shaping
what is coming forth. NEW WINE DEMANDS
NEW WINE SKINS!
NEW BOOK COMING TOGETHER...HOPEFULLY TO THE PRINTER BY END OF SUMMER!
I just want to bring you to speed. I want to thank you for your prayers, as
the book that I am currently working on, FROM HEART TO HEARTH: Intimacy with
God That Releases Creative Redemptive Community, is coming together nicely.
Each day seems to bring a greater ease in forming and recapturing thoughts
and impressions of what the Father has been stirring and taking us through
the last four years. I believe this is an issue of TIMING. I realize too from
all my connections with people within the "house church movement"
that many people who have risen to the forefront, have never really had to
struggle through the issues that face us day in and day out. Many are writing
what God has given them, but much of it is NOT from the crucible of trial
and affliction that comes from having to live it out. This book is born out
of the furnace of affliction where God still CONTINUES to refine the vision
for SIMPLICITY. So please keep praying for us as we not only develop this
book, but I also sense the Lord giving six more titles of books that will
comprise a set on the theme of SIMPLICITY. This will include titles on "restoring
simplicity to ministry" and the "simplicity of the supernatural"
and themes of this kind.
NEW CONNECTIONS & MORE CONFERENCES
We have had three Return to Simplicity conferences now (since Robert Fitts
came to us in 2001). We are already planning for the fourth one next spring.
Jim Rutz came and spoke at the recent one, and I did a session on the 4 H
vision (house church, home bible colleges, houses of prayer, healing rooms).
We had about a hundred people, including three families that traveled from
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. I have
as a result been asked to do a regional conference on HC and the 4 H vision
in the fall down in Prince Edward Island and the Navigators are partnering
with us in this vision for simple church. We are looking at a date in October
for this conference. Please pray for us as the Lord connects this thing and
brings it all together.
NEW HOME BUSINESS
We are starting a home business in the process. We are going to register the
business, which will be a consulting and resource distribution via Internet
and mail of those things which promote simplicity. Lori who
homeschools the girls will work with me to establish this online resource
centre where we will provide books, tapes and such that promote "simplicity",
intimacy with God, communication, spiritual gifts, simple church and simple
ministry. There is NOT any of these kinds of resources distributed from one
place here in Canada. So, this is a major stepping out for us.
We believe that this will eventually release Lori and I from our secular jobs, and we will be able to do regional conferences across Canada, and set up book stores at each conference that will provide the resources that people need to support them in the "return to simplicity". Please pray for us as we work this out in the next thirty days.
DIVINE APPOINTMENTS AND CONNECTIONS: EXTENDING THE NET
There are divine connections taking place all over Canada and the US and this
is not by coincidence. Connecting with Jim Rutz was a prophetic thing and
seeing the upcoming conference in Dallas, where Lori and the girls will
be joining me, is another prophetic divine appointment. Being able to connect
with Robert <www.robertfitss.com>,
Neil Cole, Tony and Felicity <www.house2house.tv>
and Jim Rutz <www.openchurch.com>
again, is all the
"netting" that is being brought together by the Lord for the coming
REVOLUTION OF THE CHURCH. There is upheaval in our nations, and there
is a great shaking taking place in the North American church. We will not
and neither will the secular world recognize what will come out of it. I really
sense a clear cut divide coming that will be as radical as the break between
the Old Covenant age and the New Covenant age! There will be such a radical
break between that which will cling to the old and that which will cling to
the new. We are living in exciting times but times of great transition in
which ALL of us will be jolted!
HAVING DONE ALL, STAND!
Beloved, this is indeed an awesome time to be alive. We will be praying for
you, and I pray that you too will be praying for us. Let us pray and let us
stand in the power of His might!
Blessings,
Sam
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Greetings!
I just want to take a few moments to express heartfelt thanks to the Lord for the awesome day we had in His presence today. We have felt for several years now that our primary form of building up, equipping and releasing the saints to the work of the ministry would involve the working out of a relational form of apostolic, and prophetic ministry (as well as other elements of the Five Fold). We have been sensitive to not force this in a particular form, box, or paradigm of our own choosing.
Over the last few years the focus has been in developing
creative, redemptive relational community. This is the essence of our own
understanding of what consists as simple church that gathers from house to
house.
We have a vision of RTS (Return to Simplicity) seminars
that are part of our ER vision (Equipping & Releasing) for the saints.
These should be home based and practical. Today, was our first such seminar.
We had felt that
the 4 H Vision was one aspect of what the Lord wanted to do, and now we know
that the ongoing component of building up and equipping and releasing are
these RTS seminars that we hope to host and offer on a monthly basis. These
seminars enhance and expand the ever growing vision of the multiplication
of relational house church communities.
Today Lori and I taught for five hours on living and walking
in the prophetic ministry as both a lifestyle and in relational church gatherings.
We had 19 people gather in our home...coming from (various regions)...Others
came from other house churches and networks, including Mississauga, and Cambridge
as well as our own house
churches here in Kitchener Waterloo. There was a spirit of unity and hunger
for the Lord that laid the table for what the Lord wanted to feed His hungry
children! Feed us He did! Not only was the teaching very fluid and
interactive with much participation, but it was also flexible enough to allow
us to sense to pray for needs s the Spirit led, and we saw before ushealing
and deliverance as a result of hearing the voice of the Lord and submitting
ourselves to His leading. We are trusting the Lord for great fruit from this
seminar. We had a time of impartation and release and some practical prophetic
ministry. We had to turn some people away who wanted to
come at the last minute! There is a real hunger out there for the practical
"stuff" of living by the Spirit.
Our gathering was very open and everyone was able to participate
and interact and much was accomplished throughout the day as each ministered
in teams into the lives of those seeking ministry. There was a celebration
of joy as one brother experience deliverance and freedom! Others were ministered
to in very personal areas of direction and guidance. It was a very heartening
day in the Lord and very beneficial. The Lord alone be
praised for the outcome!
We had a blessed luncheon together for an hour in order to relax and get to know one another in a deeper way. It was a great time of relationship building and fellowship.
This proved to us the need for this form of equipping and
also the context of the home being the key to doing so. Our context is in
the family of faith, and in our homes where we gather weekly as the church.
This showed us how easy it is to still be relational and how to be led by
the Spirit and still see people taught and equipped, and not only that, but
have the Spirit "interrupt" our flow with the needs of individuals.
This was a test to see
if we were tuned into His voice! This was awesome!
Even after we were done, we still had people who remained with us well after 6 pm! The Lord's presence was wonderful and His peace and joy was so evident! It was a great day.
I believe as we see the expansion of the Kingdom through house church networks that one of the ongoing things that will be needed are forms of these kinds of simple interactive equipping seminars that can compact the time of teaching, and be interactive, and then see an impartation and release to apply what was taught after the seminar. This kind of teaching is contagious! People were wanting to know when the next one was rightaway!! Such is the hunger and thirst!
We will be having a seminar in September, on Apostolic Ministry of Miracles and Healing. I think we will have a packed house again!!!
I will be doing a similar shorter seminar on intimacy in
Dallas at the House2House conference, and will likely use that seminar to
deal with the issue of intimacy in an RTS seminar this coming winter. I will
also be
doing a seminar on Harvesting Fruit Without Works: Simply Letting Jesus Manifest
His Life in and Through Us. I will be planning other one day sessions on other
spiritual gifts as well, and on Prophetic Evangelism as
well.
I am excited with what God is doing among us. I recorded these sessions on tape (3 tapes) and will be making sets for our Online Store, www.returntosimplicity.com. I also made a little booklet that goes with theseminar and audio tapes.
The Lord is opening up other opportunities to share the house church vision. Lori and I have been asked to go to Coboconk, Timmins, Halifax, Prince Edward Island, Sarnia, and Michigan. This is all in the last month!!!
Please pray for us as we will need the Lord to bring the finances to travel and for the resources we need to go forth and equip and release those He is calling into this kind of ministry in their homes!
The Lord bless you all! Be encouraged the Lord is doing a mighty work and wants to perform His word in and through your lives!
Sam and Lori Buick
www.dwellingplacehop.org
CONTENTS
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Hi Beloved Brothers and Sisters!
Just wanted to pass on our greetings to each one of you!
The Lord is moving powerfully here in Dallas. There have been some key connections with people that I believe will have a significant impact for the Kingdom in Canada and the US.
We spent last night and most of today with Robert Fitts and Mike Steele from DAWN (Discipling A Whole Nation). My heart has been broken by the state of the church in Canada, and as if for the first time, the condition of the church in the US. I have had to do an attitude check and a heart check as well. I have had to repent of some things. I really needed to be here (And the conference hasn't even begun yet!).
I feel that some strategic changes will be taking place when we come back home, and these are going to be truly exciting times.
THE DAWN VISION:
The three legged stool - Prayer, Research, Strategic Goals
I have to say that even though I did not perceive of it, I am already in this DAWN vision. I really believe that the existing networks that we are in relationship with are going to move into a visionary strategic alliance where we will be able to co-labour for the sake of the Kingdom in a greater measure than ever before.
Some of us are already in a deeper relationship, and that relationship is going to deeper and expand, and I believe as we labour together there will be many more who come alongside and join in the manifested vision of simple church. I desire that we walk together, and that we pray and grow together, and that we ask the Lord for strategic communities where we can pray and seek the man of peace and seek to labour together and see simple churches formed by the Spirit for the Kingdom.
Please pray into that with us. I want to work with my brothers Jason, Rad, Willie, Richard, and Alex. We are walking together already. Let us seek the Lord as to what He desires and how TOGETHER we can see His Kingdom come in greater fullness in our midst.
Will write back again soon.
Blessings,
Sam Buick
ONTARIO HOUSE
CHURCH UPDATE
3rd Annual Ontario
House Church Conference
June 20-21 saw the third annual "Return to Simplicity" conference
happen in Newmarket, Ontario. This house church conference featured main sessions
with noted author Jim Rutz (The Open Church) and eight workshops (facilitated
by local house church practitioners) dealing with various aspects of biblical
church such as starting a house church, developing community, one-to-one discipleship,
initiating another reformation movement, kids in home church, worship, the
five-fold ministry, and intimacy with God. Attendees came from as far north
as Sudbury and as far east as New Brunswick. Many key connections were made.
About 100 participated.
Wolfgang Simson will Visit
Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vancouver
The well-known author of the book Houses that Change the World: The Return
of the House Churches will be visiting Canada this fall. Visit the sponsor
website for details:
www.outreach.ca/housechurches (click "housechurches" and then "event")
HouseChurch.Ca NEWZFLASH!
NEW BOOK:
The House Church Manifesto
I (Rad) am pleased to announce that my manuscript, The House Church Manifesto:
A Guidebook for the Global House Church Movement, has been accepted by William
Carey Library (Pasadena, California, USA) for publication. The contract has
been signed and the process is now underway for the book to hit the streets,
which may happen as early as this Christmas. There will be updates on our
website www.housechurch.ca concerning its release.
Another Mississauga House Church
Planted
After some delays, prayers, tears, planning, flyer distribution, talking it
up with people, and an evangelistic neighbourhood study group, God saw his
way clear to allow me (Rad) to plant a new house church in my section of Mississauga,
in the little town called Port Credit (pop. 12,000).
This new home church has been meeting for about a month
and involves a whole new set of people. We are just getting off the ground,
sort of like a baby just learning to stand and balance itself, before it actually
takes any steps forward. Please pray for our house church's group unity, solid
relationships, paradigm shifts, passionate spirituality, participation during
meetings, group ownership, and a vision for outreach.
So far, the home church involves 8 people, plus a few other interested friends.
We may outgrow my living room soon enough.
I continue to get the word out using flyers, posters, word of mouth, and just plain old relationships, as I seek to connect with the lonely, the ill, the disenfranchised, and those who are simply open to what God may have in store for them, both Christians and non-Christians.
HouseChurch.Ca Network Retreat
At the end of this month, about a dozen from our little house church network
will be going on a camping trip outside Guelph for some food, fun, and faith.
Pray for unity, learning, fun, safety, and a clear vision for the future of
this fledgling network, which includes house church groups in Brantford, Kitchener/Cambridge,
Mississauga, and Port Credit. Pray for the upcoming opportunity to plant another
house church in Brampton.
Rad Zdero
To be added to the RAD IDEAS newsletter/mailing list, check
out the web site:
www.housechurch.ca
God's 'Houses of Change' are Sweeping through the Nations!
European House Church Conference
The 2nd European House Church Consultation was held in
Prague, Czech Republic, 22-24 November 2002. The purpose of the meeting was
to connect 'apostolic facilitators' in the European house church movement,
to build friendship, to learn from each other and discern God's strategy for
saturating and transforming Europe through radical, home-based church planting
movements. A special homepage has been set up for sharing resources, stories
and experiences.
Source: Joel News International, Nov 2002, www.joelnews.org,
www.shareonhousechurch.net
Uncle L. and
China's House Churches
When evangelists in China's H. Province leave their house churches to evangelise,
they have many old 'aunties' backing them up: elderly women with such a passion
for prayer that they often spend hours face down on the floor with tears streaming
down their faces. These women literally live for prayer and worship; they
do not stand behind the evangelists, they 'lie behind them'.
Uncle L., himself an elderly Christian, visited an unreached village near
A. with such support. With a warm heart, he knocked on a door and asked whether
he could explain the Gospel. The people chased him out of the village.
Unimpressed, L. withdrew to a quiet place, prayed for the family, which had
driven him away, and went back to the same house. This time, he was soaked
with water and again chased away. He didn't give up, but prayed for them again
before returning to tell them how important it is for them to repent and believe
in God's son. The family beat him with their staffs, cursed him for his obstinacy
and again drove him out of the village, bloody and bruised. L. waited seven
days while his wounds recovered before returning to the house.
Astonished at his return, the owner relented and called the family together
to hear what he had to say. When Uncle L. preached the Gospel, the entire
family was shocked and convicted of sin; every single member decided to follow
Jesus.
Source: Asia Harvest,
Fax (+66)-53-800665, www.asiaharvest.org
Many Afghanis Open their Homes for the Gospel
"Preaching and following Jesus is somewhat dangerous
in a Muslim culture," he continues. "A friend and I mingle with
the people, drink tea and keep an eye out for others who are open for spiritual
things. We then spend more time with them, discovering who is open for the
Gospel. In one area, we had two hundred contacts, and can now go to start
a house church. People in Afghanistan have had enough of the Taliban and Muslim
extremists, that's clear. They are ready for Jesus Christ and the Gospel.
Some people tell us that they know four or five others who think similarly
- and the movement spreads."
Source: 'Offene Grenzen' 1/03, www.offenegrenzen.ch
India: 7,000 New Home Churches
We counted 8,500 churches in Punjab, 500 of which were planted by the O.A.
team in 2002 alone. The house churches in Uttar Pradesh are spreading rapidly:
in the past two years, prayer groups have started in 17,000 houses, and around
7,000 house churches have been formed.
Source: FridayFax@bufton.net,
Issue 1, Jan 3, 2003
We do not necessarily agree with everything we have linked to
as we have not had time to read through all of the articles & sites