In Matthew 22 and Luke 14 Jesus tells two parables about "feasts gone awry" in which the invited guests are either too busy or too good to come. So the master of the feast sends his servants out into the streets and lanes, the highways & hedges to compel "the poor and crippled and blind and lame" to come to the feast. I believe Jesus is once again sending his church, specifically the house church movement, out into the streets to invite people to His feast. This is one of the things I heard through our "listening gathering" (see last week's e-letter). I believe this is the heart of God behind our upcoming efforts in West Central. It is not an "evangelistic drive by shooting" but an opportunity to connect with the neighborhood, to invite them to a feast that God Himself wants to present, and to engage in genuine house church outreach.

Let's face a harsh reality. When all the latest books on house church (or simple church, or organic church, or campus church, etc.) have been read & digested, and all the latest house church conferences have been attended, at the end of it all there remains one brutal truth. If the house church movement does not become an outreach-oriented movement that actively, prayerfully and creatively seeks the transformation of neighborhoods, then we will perish as a movement . . . and rightfully so. We cannot and will not survive as a "Honey, I shrunk the Church" movement (I stole that from John White in Denver!) that simply reproduces what we have traditionally known as "church" on a smaller scale behind the four walls of a house. There is much talk today about 24/7 houses of prayer and how they compare to the early Moravians. There is a lesson here for the house church movement. Like the rearly Moravians our house churches need to become centers of prayer and fasting where we spend time praying, fasting, seeking and listening to God. But the Moravians then sent out an impressive number of missionaries/evangelists, people like Peter Bohler who befriended John Wesley and became instrumental in his eventual conversion. To me this speaks of concerted prayer COMBINED with intentional outreach. If we as a house church movement do not become outreach oriented we will die. Simple as that.

This is your invitation to join us.

• We need house church people who are serious about being Luke 10:2 Christians, connecting with people and planting Safe Houses of Hope & Prayer (Yep, Module 5 of our Equipping Workbook);
• We need people who are willing to do arts & crafts with kids and to connect with people during Scoob's concert;
• We are inviting ministries & churches to co-sponsor, to come, hang out, set up information booths and to find creative ways to engage the neighborhood;
• We are also aksing God to raise up a house church planting team to seek out "persons of peace" in the neighborhood;
• We need a team of house church intercessors to join us in prayer-walking the neighborhood.
• We need house church believers who are willing to set aside one day each week between now and the end of July to fast and pray for the event

Are you and your house church ready to go net-fishing with Jesus? Let me know (via REPLY or call me at 509-475-8797). You are welcome and invited to attend our weekly planning meetings at The Service Station in north Spokane every Thursday morning at 7:30 AM.