Right now I am on the plane looking out over Nevada. The puffy clouds beneath partially cover the dry looking desert plains. This is the last lap (of approximately 17) over the past 26 days that have taken us to Cleveland on business, and then on to the Philippines and Australia on mission. That’s a lot of take offs and landings, and not one late flight, nor lost bag! We have a lot to be grateful for, and many wonderful gatherings that have been a blessing to us and we hope to those who attended
Since I hardly ever write about ourselves or our travels, I thought that I would let this letter be an exception. Cooperating with the King is definitely an adventure, but that doesn’t mean that it is necessarily all easy to handle. The travel gets tiring, and the airports get old quickly. Waiting between connecting flights is boring, and trying to find Internet connections to keep in touch with the rest of the world is tricky. But the real joy is knowing that you are listening to the Lord and doing what He is asking you to do. And what blessing comes in such a simple life of obedience.
Everywhere we go we meet wonderful new friends. Our visit to the Philippines was to sit in on the Pilipino National House Church Leaders Summit. This gathering is a time for leaders from across the Philippines to spend time with each other, explore what is happening across their nation, and wait on the Lord together for plans for the coming year. This country of 7000+ islands, and around 90 million inhabitants is one of the key missionary sending nations of the world. But the missionaries they send are Pilipino workers who take up ordinary jobs around the world in their millions. So a strategy has emerged of training those who are going to be working abroad to go as intentional church planters wherever they travel. There is much to learn here for all of us. After all, whether it is a job change or a nation change that the Lord brings our way, our call is still to go out with the expectation that Jesus only sends us where He Himself plans to follow (see Luke 10:1). If all of us choose to live like this we will see churches established everywhere, just as the early church did as they scattered (see Acts 8:1-4).
Then came a whistle-stop tour of Australia. Towomba (outside Brisbane), followed by Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and finally Perth, in Western Australia. Six days of meetings in nine days in a country of this size leaves little time for site-seeing! But the truth is that we were there to work! As Jesus said, “Night is coming when no man can work.” Tiring it was, but also a great blessing. We had a real sense of the Holy Spirit on the move. The great “wild goose chase” (a phrase that originally meant following after the Holy Spirit) is gaining momentum across Australia, as growing numbers of committed believers are seeking the Lord for transformation of their cities as well as their churches. There were many highlights within these meetings, but a number specifically come to mind as I write.
- Oikos Australia has been gently and faithfully finding ways to support the house church message in Australia for the past 19 years. Bessie Pereira, their founder, has been willing to pay the price to pioneer, and her faithful work is now showing fruit all over the country. This remarkable lady, one of the first women Anglican priests in Australia, gave up her “fast-track” within the Anglican communion to follow the Holy Spirit on a remarkable journey that is now seeing house churches sprout up all over Australia.
- But it is not just Oikos as many other groups are being led into the challenges and the joys of simple church life. Whether it was Transforming Melbourne sharing the platform with Oikos for the meetings in Melbourne, or the wonderful leadership provided by Peter Streicke and other Lutherans and former Lutherans in Adelaide, we came away with the sense that there is a much greater openness to simple church concepts than we have ever previously seen across Australia.
- Tools that we produce here in the States are relevant and appreciated in many other parts of the world. We were blown away with how many had read our books, or used and passed on House2House videos and other resources. This strongly confirms our sense that we need to continue to produce the DVDs and other tools that go up on the web to be freely used by the Lord’s people all over the world.
So now it is back to the hustle and bustle of the daily work at our company, The Karis Group, and final preparations for the National House Church conference in Dallas this weekend, followed in short order by a trip back to the Far East to visit with Christian leaders in some countries where it is not easy to be a believer. What a privilege, and what a responsibility. We greatly value your prayers (and if you would like to receive the more detailed prayer letter that we sent out from time to time, just click here for e-mail or here for RSS.)
Thank you for standing with us, and next week this e-letter will get back to a more normal reporting on and linking you to great things happening through house church movements around the world.
Every blessing,
Tony and Felicity and the House2House team.
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Recent Stories:
Each week H2H publishes a story/article about simple church and/or living out our life in the Kingdom. Recent stories include:
- DISCERNING GOD’S VOICE by Vicky Porterfield
- Financing Apostolic Ministry: A Commentary on 1 Corinthians 9:1-14 by John White
- MEGA CHURCH TO META (BEYOND) CHURCH by VICTOR CHOUDHRIE
- Why link house churches into networks? by Rad Zdero
House2House is a donation supported ministry.
Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ JUST ADDED!
By Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola
Christians have made the gospel about so many things—things other than Christ. Religious concepts, ideas, doctrines, strategies, methods, techniques, programs, and formulas have all eclipsed the beauty, the glory, and the reality of the Lord Jesus Himself. On the whole, the Christian family today is starved for a real experience of the living Christ. We know a lot about our Lord, but we don’t know Him very well. We know a lot about trying to be like Jesus, but very little about living by His indwelling life. “Jesus Manifesto” presents a fresh unveiling of Jesus as not only Savior and Lord, but as so much more. It is a prophetic call to restore the supremacy and sovereignty of Christ in a world—and a church—that has lost sight of Him. Read this book and see your Lord like you’ve never seen Him before.
What’s With Paul & Women?
By Jon Zens
1 Timothy 2:11-12 has been used as a “clear” mandate to silence women in the church for over 1500 years. In What’s With Paul & Women? Jon Zens exposes the fallacies of this interpretation, and opens up the meaning of 1 Timothy 2:9-15 using insights gleaned from the Artemis-saturated Ephesian culture where Timothy was left to stand against false teaching (1:3). Going beyond 1 Timothy 2, this book covers the major issues in gender inequality with three Appendices: one on the Ephesian social world in which 1 Timothy was written, another on 1 Corinthians 14:34-36 and an extensive review of John Piper’s What’s the Difference? Manhood & Womanhood Defined According to the Bible. If 1 Timothy 2:11-12 and 1 Corinthians 14:34-36 have puzzled you, What’s With Paul & Women? will help in your quest to discern the mind of the Lord as the gender debate continues.
All Dogs Go To Heaven Don’t They? Just out!
by Maurice Smith
In All Dogs Go to Heaven . . . Don’t They? Maurice Smith uses his extensive years of scholarship to tackle a complicated and difficult subject that affects all of us — what happens to people after death. He writes with humor and clarity to make the Biblical position very plain and to refute the theory that everyone will eventually end up in heaven — however attractive a concept that might be. I recommend this book to anyone who is serious about holding a Biblical position on the subject.” – Felicity Dale, author An Army of Ordinary People and co-author The Rabbit and The Elephant.
House2House
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Clayton, WA 99110-0229
House2House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
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