Over the past month or so I have told you about our planned outreach in the West Central neighborhood of Spokane. I want to spend this newsletter giving you a summary of how it went, along with some personal reflections. O.K. Take special note of the information on the upcoming National House Church Conferences! Also, as a matter of house keeping, we have added two audio files to the website under House Church Resources. One is a short message by John Wimber on what it means to be a supernatural church. Great stuff, even if it is 25 years old - Wimber at his best! The second is an addition to our School of 5-Fold Ministry material. It's a message by Graham Cooke on how the Prophetic relates to and interacts with the other 5-fold gifts. It complements the other material we've already included in the School of 5-Fold Ministry.

 

Blessings,

Maurice

 

Reflecting On Beginnings

 

Now, before I re-cap what took place last week during our outreach, let me bore you by re-sharing some background information I shared in a previous letter (or two - this is what's called "setting the stage"!). Back in March of this year I made a presentation to roughly two dozen ministry leaders from around the city. My presentation was entitled "Lessons on Leadership, Networking and Dining on Elephants." In it I offered my perspective on what God is doing in our city and the importance of networking together to implement a neighborhood strategy for community transformation ("How do you achieve community transformation? The same way you eat an elephant: One bite at a time!" - that kind of thing). Although I am currently updating and revising the presentation, the original Powerpoint presentation I used is still posted at www.spokaneblessingnetwork.org  where you can download and view it (minus the "Lord of the Rings" clips I included). In the presentation I challenged ministries to come together for a summer of outreach in the West Central neighborhood of Spokane (long story, tough neighborhood) to find ways of working together toward the goal of neighborhood (and eventually community) transformation. The response was nothing short of incredible - There was no response. Nothing. Nil. Nada. Zip. People told me what a great presentation it was. But no one indicated any interest in pursuing it. I walked away confused, discouraged and ready to throw my hands up and say "forget it." God let me "stew" for a few weeks and then gently nudged me with the question, "Are you ready to obey me now, even if you have to do it alone?" Don't you just hate it when He does that? So with no resources or money, two of us (myself and Mike Zorn, a PTSD vet who represents Point Man International Ministries and coordinates the Spokane Ministry Leaders Network) decided that we would implement the outreach strategy God had given us. Our plan was for a week of activities for neighborhood kids (we avoided calling it a "Vacation Bible School") at the West Central Community Center built around the theme of "Making Good Choices." Teen-Aid, an outstanding abstinence education ministry which prepares curriculum for use in public schools,  would prepare the curriculum, along with volunteers to do arts & crafts and local Christian Sports figures to do daily "clinics" and share personal testimonies of how their good choices (including their good spiritual choices) got them to where they are. The week would culminate in a Neighborhood Block Party in Canon Park with free food, booths, games, arts & crafts, music and an evening concert by "Scoob Serious," a former gang leader and now a Grammy nominated rap artist with a powerful Christian testimony of personal transformation and deliverance. Big plans for a couple of house church guys who, between them, didn’t have two nickels to rub together (or enough common sense to know they were in way over their heads).

 

In the weeks leading up to the outreach the Lord kept emphasizing to me Matthew 22:1-14 (and its parallel in Luke 14) Jesus tells two parables about "feasts gone awry."

Forgive me, but I believe the Lord wants me to bring home a harsh point by way of comparison. Think of this parable as illustrating the Lord's recent invitation to "the church" (broadly defined) to repent and join Him in the harvest fields of the Kingdom. The invited guests (that would be "the church") were either "too busy" or "too good" to come. So the master of the feast sent 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 available church (hopefully, that's us - specifically the house church movement) out into the streets of our neighborhoods to invite people to His feast. This was one of the things I heard through our recent "listening gathering" and I believe this was the heart of God behind our efforts in West Central. The Lord also said He was evicting the "Spirit of Control" from this area. These neighborhood gatherings would not be under the "control" of the religious establishment (A couple of churches did participate. We actually invited a local mega-church to participate, but they declined because they hadn't been in on the preparations from the beginning!). Thirdly, we heard that Jesus wants to go "net fishing" in Spokane. This neighborhood outreach could only be the product of several different ministries "networking" together to make it happen. It was completely outside the ability of any one to do it alone - it required cooperation and networking.

Finally, over the past several weeks I have referred to what I call 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.  If we as a house church movement do not become outreach oriented we will die. Simple as that. Several of you wrote in response to this statement, and many house churches are at differing stages in their growth and development. Some are in the "detox" stage while others are developing intimacy with each other and with the Lord. But eventually, our focus must become outward as opposed to inward. That was my point. After all, how many books can you read on how to get started doing house church? Get started, get going, and move on!

What follows is DEFINITELY not "the only way" to do outreach, but it is one approach. And it was done by people no more skilled or resourceful than you are. And you can see most of this in pictures by going to www.spokaneblessingnetwork.org/West_Central_Coalition.htm

"Net Fishing" In Spokane

When Wolfgang Simson was in Spokane a little over a year ago he told a story of a church at a crossroads which sought his input for what God would have them do. After much prayer & reflection they agreed together that they should shut everything down and do nothing "religious" for a year. They should simply focus on loving people and building relationships. As a result they did lots of BBQs and potlucks. But at the end of that year, when they got back together, they discovered that they had grown well beyond where they were when they obeyed God and stopped doing their "religious thing". They were now a growing & thriving church without the religious baggage that had previously stymied their growth. There is a lesson here which I am only beginning to understand, appreciate and apply!

Last year, working with Larry Whiston & Jan Foland of the Off Broadway Family Outreach, we conducted a Vacation Bible School at the West Central Community Center. While it was good, it was thoroughly "religious" (centered around the theme of "A Day In The Life Of Jesus"). While it was well done, and several neighborhood kids attended, I walked away from that experience sensing that we were still doing "religious box" things, only in a different box. So when we began planning for this summer's activities our team agreed that we should de-emphasize the "VBS" and focus on a broader theme, namely, "Making Good Choices." Rather than using a pre-packaged VBS curriculum (which every church in town buys from the same distributor) we asked Teen-Aid of Spokane to create five daily lessons built around "Making Good Choices." Teen-Aid is a local Christian-based abstinence education organization which writes sex-ed curriculum for use in public schools. Leanna Benn and Brian Mossey took to this project like a fish to water and did an absolutely superb job. They interspersed the lessons with testimonies by individuals who shared how their lives had been affected by good and bad choices (People like our friend Chuck Evans, who spent 20 years in and out of the prison system as a felon until God transformed his life and is now a prison chaplain. The kids loved him!). My wife, Gale, headed up a team which provided arts & crafts for the kids. And we brought in local athletes on three days to share with the kids how good choices got them to where they are. On the days when the athletes shared we arranged for the Community Center to bring in 50+ kids from their on-going day-camp to listen in (one of our long-term goals is to build a close working relationship with the Community Center so that we can cooperate on some joint projects)! The week of daily activities was a success and even the Community Center took note of what we were doing, allowing us to hang a 4X10 foot banner about the week on their fence outside the Center (something they just don't usually do!).

The week culminated in a Neighborhood Block Party on Saturday in Canon Park. On Thursday evening several of us, including Neil Gamble who came up from Oregon to help out, gathered at our home for prayer. During the prayer time the Lord delivered a prophetic word through Kitty Shipley. Kitty looked at me and said, "The Lord is about to do some amazing things in West Central, and it isn't because of you." Ouch!  Isn't it amazing how God can stick His divine pinky finger right into the sore spot of our pride and twist so it hurts!  If that wasn't enough, a few hours later at around 2 AM God placed an exclamation point at the end of His prophetic word - I came down with the nastiest case of stomach flu I have had in ages! I spent Friday on the sofa too sick and weak to do anything but watch Fred Rogers re-runs on PBS (I was too sick to turn the channel!). By Saturday morning I was "alive" and vertical, but functionally worthless. I attended the block party, ran what errands I could to help, but spent most of my time sitting in a chair, handing out flyers and watching God do miracles around me. I watched as Jesus went "net fishing" in Spokane.

A net consists of many strands woven together into a single functioning unit. You can't understand this block party unless you understand that this is what God did. Jan Foland & Larry Whiston of the Off Broadway Family Outreach kicked off the Block Party by leading 40+ people on a "unity walk of love" through the West Central neighborhood on Saturday morning. The Spokane Dream Center sent their Men's Discipleship group to help with set-up, setting up tents, hauling supplies, etc. The Lord's Ranch sent men to help out. Truth Ministries (an awesome ministry to homeless street people in Spokane) sent people with Health Department food cards to run the kitchen and serve food. Another ministry sent a portable stage and sound system for the music & concert. Calvary Baptist Church sent their men's singing group (The Gospel Cavaliers) to perform. Bruce & Alice Preston from Post Falls, Idaho came and brought people from their house church to help out. Jim Helgeson came and taught kids how to do "spin art." Volunteers did face painting and helped kids with arts & crafts. Another volunteer filled balloons with helium donated by someone else. We raffled off two boxes of groceries supplied by The Women's and Children's Free Restaurant which serves meals to women in crisis (and their children). And on went the list (did I mention a bouncing castle for the kids). But the really awesome "surprise" was the response of the neighborhood.

Our park permit was for a gathering of 300 people. Little did we know. Mike Zorn & his kitchen crew fired up their grills & began cooking BBQ chicken and hot dogs around noon, with a goal of starting to serve around 2:00PM. I left to meet Scoob Serious at the airport (can't have a rap concert without an artist!). I returned around 2:30. As I pulled into Canon Park I heard myself audible exclaim, "Holy Moly! We're not going to have enough food!" The park was full of people. The pictures which you can see on the website don't really do justice to what I saw in the park. By the end of the day (we stopped serving between 4:30 and 5:00) we had served 1,000 plates of food. We estimate that we served 800+ people - nearly 3 times what we originally planned for! Mid-way through the afternoon, with a food line that seemed to grow rather than shrink, I spoke to the crowd after raffling off a box of groceries. I reminded them of the story when Jesus fed 5,000 people with a couple loaves and fish. "I've looked at the crowd and I've looked at the food, and now would be a good time to start praying that God would begin multiplying some food!" I was being half-serious! But the food didn't run out until everyone who wanted something to eat were served, and all was well (OK, there was some left over, but not 12 baskets full!).

Shortly after 6:00PM Scoob Serious began his concert and did an awesome job both with music and with the story of how God delivered him from a life sentence in prison. Several hundred kids & others listened, and afterwards dozens responded to his call.

At the end of the day we were exhausted. I left before clean up. I simply couldn't go any further!  But we knew that we had "hit the bulls eye". How? My wife overheard a neighborhood woman comment to a friend, "This is exactly what this neighborhood has needed for a long time." Yep, God had let us "hit the bulls eye." Our goal was not to be "religious" in the park, but to connect with the neighborhood in a meaningful way and to lay the groundwork for neighborhood transformation. It was a beginning, not an end. We have over 100 response cards to follow up on, and I am now planning a follow-up dinner in September to invited people to come, eat and talk about "Safe Houses of Hope & Prayer" (what we are calling house churches in the neighborhood). And the River flows on . . .

To see pictures of the week go to www.spokaneblessingnetwork.org/West_Central_Coalition.htm

 

Personal Note Regarding Upcoming National House Church Conference(s)

 

If you haven't yet made plans to attend one of the two upcoming National House Church Conferences, well, what are you waiting for! Our friends at House2House are sponsoring two National House Church Conferences this year, one in St. Louis (August 25-27) and the other in Denver (September 1-4).

 

My wife & I had planned to attend and I was (am?) scheduled to do a couple of workshops (including one about outreach based on what we just completed). Unfortunately, at this point it looks like it isn't coming together. These are expensive ventures (minimum $2,500 for us to come, and that's probably unrealistically low), and so far the funds simply haven't come in. That could certainly change, but at this point it isn't looking like we will be going. But don't let that discourage you from going! You'll have an awesome experience and it will jump start what God is already doing in your house church journey.

 

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