More and more I hear from people wanting information on house churches. It seems that even though these house churches are cropping up all over the place, few of us (including me most of the time) have much of an idea what to do with them.  What that has lead to in the body of Christ around the nation is the raising up of anyone with an experience in this lifestyle to a place of leadership.  This is understandable and probably healthy for the vitality of the house church movement.

What that has lead to for me personally, however, is a couple of people (literally maybe two, so it’s no big deal) have been trying to track me down because of my involvement with house churches.  My temptation has been to turn this blog, which I love so much, into a house church forum or some sort of billboard for my ministry or something crazy like that.  But the longer I contemplate that change the more and more it rubs against everything I want to be.

The funny thing is, house churches are all about what is organic and inspired by the Lord.  And I love them as a format to advance the Kingdom of Heaven and build God’s family here on Earth.  In fact, I love talking about them and God has called me to both build spiritual families this way and call others to this type of lifestyle.  But when we begin to set empires around them and promote ourselves, we miss exactly the point of what they are.  House churches are about relationships and what God can do with simple people following Him.  We need fewer gurus and more apostolic fathers, building Jesus’ kingdom from the ground up.

So if you’re interested in chatting about house churches, get a hold of me.  I’ll probably teach about house churches either here or at “Jesus, The Church, and the Coming Kingdom” at some point.  As a general rule, however, I want to resist using this blog as a resource.  This is about my journey pursuing Jesus by becoming me and not about me developing a ministry. For that very reason, most of what I discuss here about house churches will fall under “House Church Chronicles,” because I want people to connect with more than the information.  I want them to connect with the real people and the real lives that it took to discover any truth we find.

Forgive me for ranting a little…I’m resisting a lot of internal and external pressure that I’m feeling to be certain things.  You can now carry on with your regular reading….

Travis

For those who are curious…you can check it out here.

Travis

Things are changing.  I can’t entirely articulate how things are changing but I feel something different happening in the spirit over the lives of Christy and myself.  It’s the spiritual version of smelling something different in the air, and I’m sensing it now.  Practically, I don’t know what it will look like.  We’ll still be here in Cedar Rapids, we’ll still be part of the house church, but new things are also coming. 

Pray for us.  The last time I had this sense, I had more of a firm vision for where it was leading and I had language to articulate the shifts that were coming.  But I’m sitting here sensing some shifts coming that I’m not prepared for in my secret life.  I haven’t been given the language for the next steps.  Maybe all this is good…it keeps me leaning on the Lord.  But I don’t want to be unprepared for a wave that is coming and be knocked down by something God planned for good. 

Your prayers count…and we could use them.

 Travis