Yea, I know. It's been a month since my last newsletter. As a result, I’ve gotten several e-mails from friends and family wondering what we’ve been up to and why no newsletter recently. The answer is: "We’ve been swamped!" The food rescue charity I lead has kept me moving (more about this later), sometimes requiring 15 hour days (no that isn’t a typo). But it has been gratifying. Add a new book project to that list, on-going house church responsibilities and, well, you get the picture. I apologize for neglecting these letters. I hope to get back to a more consistent writing schedule when my Americor/Vista assistant comes on board with Feed Spokane in July. By then I’ll definitely need the break!

House Church Musings On A Summer Afternoon

Summer has finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest, and we’re all breathing a collective sigh of relief. We literally had snow (!) in early June this year. We skipped spring and went straight from winter to summer in a week. I am now attired in my preferred summer "uniform": sandals (which I bought for Hawaii last year) a "Carolina Tar Heels" polo shirt and cargo shorts. I plan to stay this way until the first autumn snow (which may come in August - that’s how strange this year has been).

We had a house church potluck last Friday evening with about 20 people stuffed into our apartment. Grilled hamburgers & hot dogs, ate way too much and just enjoyed hanging out together. The occasion (in addition to being our regular Friday night meeting) was to say a fond "good-bye" to one of our families. Matt and Jessica Roberts, and their daughter Karis, joined our fellowship roughly a year ago after they moved to Spokane so Matt could take a one-year visiting Professor of Philosophy position at Whitworth College (now Whitworth University). Recently Matt & Jessica added to our house church with the birth of their son, Lucas. Matt, Jessica & family are moving to Virginia where Matt is taking a permanent position as Professor of Philosophy at Patrick Henry College outside of D.C. Blessings & travel mercies go with you.

I am continually amazed at our eclectic house church community. In addition to the Roberts family we also have a Southern Baptist church planter & his family who are now working to plant house churches.  As I look around the room I see a dear couple in their 80s who were at Wheaton College with Ruth & Billy Graham (Yep, no kidding!). They both earned masters degrees in geology, ran a Christian guest ranch, helped us in an hour of need, and bring a grace and maturity to our fellowship that is a blessing beyond description. As I continue to look around I see the senior prophetic person in our fellowship who sells mattresses for a living, a City Bus driver who is a prophetic intercessor, our young disciple & friend Jaime who is growing like a weed, a friend and volunteer from the men’s shelter where I serve, a wonderful couple who have a prophetic gift of prayer for healing & deliverance (he repairs welders for a living, and restores classic cars in his spare time) and more. Missing and unable to come were Marty & Julie, the directors of the men’s shelter whom God is calling into the HC movement to plant organic churches among the homeless community. Others on the outer circle of our community were present in spirit, but unable to attend. Wow. Only in house church could such a diverse group come together in your living room and become a community. Isn’t the Kingdom of God an amazing place! There is a lot going on within this diverse group, and we have a strong sense that we are on the verge of a significant "break out" of house church planting activity. We fully anticipate planting half-a-dozen reproducing house churches before the summer is over, so pray for us.

I haven’t talked much lately about the food rescue charity which I oversee as its Executive Director. I regard my work with Feed Spokane as an extension of my organic house church work. As I like to tell my sometimes overly-religious Christian friends, sometimes the Kingdom of God looks, smells and tastes like a hot meal. I often think the world would take us and the Kingdom of God more seriously if they saw us tying on aprons and serving dinner to the homeless and those in need more often than we do. What would Jesus do if He were to visit your homeless shelter? He would probably put on an apron, help serve dinner, tell fascinating stories about the Kingdom of God, and then, to cap off the evening, heal somebody. Hmmm. Maybe we should give that a try? (Actually, that’s kind of our plan, but now I’m getting ahead of myself. Shhhhhhh!). Recently, the finest 5-Star hotel in the city joined our food rescue work. I now pick up from them two or three times a week (from their banqueting kitchen). They give us things like prime rib, salmon, basil cream chicken and more. Last month they donated nearly one ton (actually 1,800 pounds) of this kind of food. Finally, I couldn’t resist the temptation any longer. When another large pan of prime rib came through I snagged it, along with a pan of seafood and a few other items. That Thursday night, instead of chili dogs, I served the 30 men at the men’s shelter prime rib, mashed potatoes, vegetables, croissants and chilled shrimp/prawns. Men stared at their plates in disbelief. Marty, the shelter director and a good friend, joked with the men, "I don’t eat this good at home!". It was a great evening, and weeks later the men still joke about it. When it comes to telling stories about the Kingdom of God, you get more mileage out of prime rib than you do hot dogs. And I have a basic rule. If I wouldn’t serve it to Jesus or my own family, why would I serve it to "the least of these" whom He has called me to love in His name?

I’ve decided not to write anything more about the Lakeland Phenomenon. It has simply become too polarized and too polarizing. None of the concerns which I expressed in my e-letter of May 27 (Posted on our website at http://www.parousianetwork.org/Newsletter_Archive/Parousia_Weekly_E-Letter_For_05_27_08.htm) have changed (if anything, some of them have grown). Yes, I've heard about the endorsements and commissionings by such notable people as John Arnott, Bill Johnson, Rick Joyner, etc. But God doesn't need any endorsements, and He doesn't need our commissioning. The issue isn't who endorses it or who commissions Todd Bentley. The issue is "What is God doing?". If it's of God then it doesn't need any commissioning by anyone. If it isn't of God no amount of human commissioning of it will change anything. So, let's wait and see what God does. Having studied the history of revivals going back 500 years, I know that the genuine "fruit" of any move of God is known only over time, seldom if ever "at the time". So let's wait and see what the lasting fruit turns out to be. But when we are unable to observe, critique or express concerns about life in the Church without being publicly called a "pseudo intellectual who uses his intellect to disguise the reality that he is a wounded, bitter and angry bigot" (yes, I’m quoting from an actual response to my letter), all in the name of "loving Jesus" and "embracing this move of God" then something is desperately wrong with our lives, with the Church . . . and with the "move" we claim to be supporting. So, for now, I am willing to be like Habakkuk and to stand in my watchtower, watching to see what will transpire, all the while praying, "Lord, I have heard the report about Thee and I fear. O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, In the midst of the years make it known, In wrath remember mercy." (Habakkuk 3:1-3).