Exercising Appropriate Spiritual Oversight

This is the title of a article written by Rich Hagler featured in the latest edition of the House2house e-newletter.  Rich shares correspondence and counsel sent to some friend on this subject.  This looks like sound advice for anyone involved in house church.  See here for the article on the House2house website.

The kingdom of God is like leaven.

I have not been able to leave these words.  They haunt me.  They linger as an unsolved mystery.   I have chosen to believe that what Jesus says is true.   I think He probably knows about such things.  How is it true? How today is it true?  How in Phoenix is it true? How is His Spirit freed to move unhindered?  How does His life, love, light, healing, service, and transformation spread, rapidly infecting Phoenix?   I long that He spreads Himself through us. 

 

I’ve been meeting with M1 and M2 now for approximately 6 months.  Jesus has been generous and faithful to them.   Their kids still have a needy medical condition.   Yet, faith has increased.  Hope has increased.   Love has increased. They now know God and are understanding His ways.   God has been meeting them at every corner and they are different people.   The family is a different family.  Thanks for your prayers.  Our labors in prayer have born fruit.

 

Last night M2 shared that they were at a social event and were in conversation with others going through difficult times.   He was able to appropriately and naturally share their journey of transformation through Jesus and the close presence of God in their world.   Others joined the conversation with openness to the spiritual.   Three individuals from different family groups expressed interest in joining them to hear more, exploring the With God Life.

 

Pray for P, M3, and M4 – that God draws them, that His Kingdom enters them, that they become sent ones.   Pray for M1 – that he is able to step up with confidence, passing on what He is understanding of God. Pray for God’s continued blessing on them, that they may bless others.   Pray for wisdom.  As these others are drawn to God, does He wish them to be added in fellowship with M1 and M2?  Or, does He desire that M1 and M2 become sent ones.  Does He desire that M1 and M2 serve these others in love, going to their homes and to their social networks to demonstrate the Kingdom, such that the kingdom continues to spread.   Pray that we hear God and follow Him as He brings His kingdom among us.  Pray for me as this is a transition point, now assisting and watching M1 and M2.   Pray that I leave at the appropriate time.   Pray that mentoring chains for ongoing encouragement, instruction, etc permeate this new growth of His body.  

 

There is much to interact with God on.  Thanks for joining me.  Any words from Him are welcome.

 

The kingdom advances one life at a time.  Continue to ask for Phoenix. 

 

Jeff

March 2007 Newsletter

Tonight, the March newsletter was sent.  If you are reading this and didn’t get one, you know you want to see what its all about.  Just click on the green box in the right sidebar to subscribe.  You can also see this issue and previous ones on the News page.

Also note the new entries in the Blogroll.  Be sure to check out the Arizona Jesus Follower Gathering discussion group.   Also check The Everywhere Church, a flexible template for simple relational churches.

Valley Wide House Church Event – Spring 2007

When:  Sunday March 18^th (pretty darn soon)

3:00pm – 7:00 pm (will be a fire pit for those wanting to linger)

Where:  City of Phoenix Squaw Peak Park (Apache Pavilion – where the park road dead ends)

 

Who:  All House Churches – We are expecting family from Apache Junction, Goodyear, Buckeye, North Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale, Mesa, Gilbert.   There may even be a house church from Tucson coming to be encouraged. 

 

Why:  We are part of a larger family.   Let us worship Him with and experience Him through this wider community of Jesus followers.   Come expectant that Jesus will use this time for His purposes, building His community.   Plan on listening for Him through each other and plan on being strengthened for action in His world.   You will have opportunity to share, pray, and minister with each other.  

 

Food and Drinks:  The host group will see that sub sandwiches are ready for consumption.   Please RSVP estimated attendance numbers to jeffevilsizor@gmail.com   Everyone is to bring their own drinks (no glass containers).  Every family is to bring a large dish (cold something) to share.

 

Parking:  Will be a challenge.   Carpool with as many as you can.  Let the driver be someone willing to drop off people, pray for a parking place, and then hike back to the party.   This is a handicap accessible pavilion.

 

Men – make sure this gets into the hands of the women in your household.  Men and women, thanks for all you do.   If you know of other simple groups following Jesus not yet in fellowship with the wider house church community, please get this to them.   Any questions, e-mail or call 602-510-9006.  

(See here for a map)

Phoenix prayer

So much to ask prayer for.

Luis is 14 years old.  He witnessed some significant violence done to his father by others in their apartment at age 5, newly arrived to the States from Mexico.  Since then, he has been a more angry person. Over the coarse of his years in school he has begun to get into trouble. His grades are declining.  He is artistic and has gotten into graffiti – only sketching in notebooks as far as his mother knows.  By God’s grace, his father came to Christ 3 years ago.  All in the family have embraced Jesus, except Luis.  In fact, his parents are part of the leadership of a new traditional Spanish church plant in Phoenix?  What is God wanting as his people love, serve, and walk alongside the least?  Jesus may Luis experience your healing and your forgiveness moving into all that you have for him in this world.  Jesus may we in Phoenix learn how to love as You love and how to make disciples that are sent ones teaching others to obey all that You command.

Norma is the women whose husband passed away suddenly at age 36.  She was part of a healthy goal directed family one day, and finds herself lonely, scared, and grieving the next.  I have identified some good resources for helping work through grief and hope to visit her family with a grief recovery specialist that is a believer.  Two days have passed since leaving the initial message and another was left today. My hope is that Christ becomes her hope and that of her family.  What will be her needs?  How would Christ respond in tangible self-sacrificial ways?  What is true religion?  She was open to prayer at the initial clinic visit.  How will God use this openness to bring more of Himself into their lives?  Jesus, we ask that you become available through your body to this family.  Open the doors.  Create the opportunities.  May you be recognized.  May it result in you being recognized and worshipped in a new part of Phoenix among a network of relationships that currently are living in the dark.

Oricio and his wife Pilar are painters in Phoenix.  Oricio came from Mexico to get away from a cocaine addiction, after his brother passed away from an overdose.  The have been in the states a while and he did well for a while.  Oricio is now disappearing for 3-4 days at a time whenever he has money in his pocket – finding himself struggling again with cocaine.  Pilar is increasingly hopeless with the repercussion of the addiction on their family and business.  Their 14 year old daughter Candy came home drunk the other night.  She is obsessed with boys, looking for love in all the wrong places.  You all have prayed for Mario and Mireyva.  They are beginning to look outward and want to take the hope of Jesus to this family.  Pray that there is openness in the family.  Jesus, would you allow Mario and Mireyva to go in your name and power to minister your love and healing to this family?  We ask that you empower them to radically love and serve in your name. Glorify yourself.  May there be this year, second generation disciples through Mario and Mireyva.  May you be named as the Most High God over every ruler and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age but in the age to come.  Be merciful and gracious to Oricio and set him free.  May this family be joined to your family and walk in the light of your kingdom.

When will Jesus be known and the madness decline? The madness will decline as the church stands up.  The church is to take the place Jesus has given it – loving God and their neighbor as themselves, laying down their life pursuing the kingdom, accessing the resources of the present Kingdom of God in battle against darkness.  Jesus, help us to die, becoming alive to you.  Teach us your ways.

Sorry for the lecture, I am singing to the choir. Thank you for your prayers for reproducing communities of disciples of Jesus here in Phoenix.

These are real people who may one day soon experience with their closest relationships this food of heaven.  They along with their closest relationships could one day soon be able to share that food with others.  Come Lord Jesus.

If anyone has suggestions on how to make these postings more effective so that more prayer is taking place, I am open.  I am new to focused diligent prayer and new to expanding a prayer base for a work of God.  Please pass on your insights.

Jeff

Bible illiteracy

A new survey by Back to the Bible finds that although the number of modern Bible translations has increased in recent years, it has not resulted in more Christians reading God’s Word.   Many Christians are stuck in “spiritual infancy” and not really maturing spiritually.  Read the report from OneNewsNow.com .

This may surprise some, but it doesn’t surprise me.  I think it would be difficult to find many large churches that actively promote Bible reading within their congregations.  With the normal audio visual aids that these churches use these days, there is hardly any reason to bring a Bible to church.

In the house churches, we need to stay in God’s Word and continue to mature in our faith.  Be as the Bereans and examine and study the scriptures daily.