This is the title of the latest newsletter from House2House. In this edition of the newsletter, Tony Dale says ”One of the great potential benefits of the simple church revolution is the redirection of financial resources. Hundreds of millions of dollars, once spent on buildings and pastoral staffs, can now be released for mission of all types (care of the poor, church planting both locally and globally, etc.). Unfortunately, this shift of resources isn’t happening yet on a large scale. At least one reason is the lack of models – examples of simple churches who are handling financial resources well.”
Tony then revisits the model used by Jim Mellon and the Association of Home Churches in Killeen, TX.
Jim summarizes their model: ”Over the last 17 years we have been able to deploy approximately one million dollars away from building payments and salaries towards benevolence and missions. We have helped plant over 450 churches in India, influence our community, and save a life through benevolence giving.”
Tony has begun a discussion thread on the http://www.simplechurch.com website. I encourage everyone involved or interested in home church to visit this website and join the discussion. Especially, take a look at the attached TheBigBang1.doc that explains some of the ways their pooled resources have impacted their city.
Here in Phoenix, I am very interested in how the various house churches, that don’t have buildings and don’t pay pastor salaries, spend their resources. I know in our group, each family supports ministries or causes that are dear to that family. We have occasionally pooled our resources toward a specific ministry or family need.
Please shoot me an email with any information on how your house church handles its financial resources. I will post the results in the future but I won’t indicate anything specific unless requested to.
This is Good Friday, or the day Jesus was violently hung on a cross over 2000 years ago to suffer the pain and humiliation for our sins; your sins and my sins. The crucifixion story is very familiar to all Christians and many non-Christians. We have seen it played out on many stages and in the movies. We know how cruel and violent it was based on historical accounts of how the Romans practiced crucifixion. But have you ever thought about why the Bible isn’t more descriptive of the actual act. See the following verses.
And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. (Mat 27:35 ESV)
And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. (Mar 15:24 ESV)
And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. (Luk 23:33 ESV)
There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. (Joh 19:18 ESV)
The Bible spares its readers the cruelty and violence of the actual act of crucifying; nails hammered through the flesh of the hands and feet. Movies such as “The Passion of Christ” give us an idea of what it was like. Perhaps God wanted us to focus more on the redemptive purpose of Christ’s death on the cross than the actual cruelty of it. Of course we need to remember what Jesus went through on the cross. But the real message is more than that. Its God’s redemptive plan to substitute His Son for our sins. Can there be any truth more powerful that that?
With everyone planning family get-togethers on Sunday, our fellowship decided not to meet. Sue and I plan to go someplace where we can watch the sun come up Sunday morning. As the son comes up, we will be reminded of our risen Saviour who took our sins on himself on the cross on Good Friday, but rose again three days later to defeat death and who now sits at the right hand of the Holy Father. Praise God!
Last weekend a very unique movie opened in theaters to very little fanfare.
THE CROSS is the story of one man carrying a twelve-foot wooden cross on a pilgrimage around the world.
Arthur Blessitt’s story began with a simple act of obedience…making a large cross to hang on the wall of “His Place,” a Jesus coffee house he had started in Hollywood, California. Then, in 1968, he began taking short trips with the cross along the Sunset Strip, giving out food to hungry hippies and telling them about Jesus. Soon, he began to feel Jesus calling him to carry the cross across America. He left Hollywood on Christmas Day 1969, beginning a journey that would see him walk across the entire country to New York and then on to Washington, D.C.
In 1988 he felt Jesus tell him to carry the cross in every nation. In June of 2008, Arthur finally completed his mission with the faithful assistance of his wife, Denise, who has been with him in 291 of the nations and island groups he’s visited.
We saw the movie this weekend and I recommend it to every Christian. Arthur’s story moved me. Praise God for the “million miracles” that sustained him during his travels so his story could be told. I came away with the knowlege that if God calls you to a mission, no matter how difficult it is, He will make sure you complete it.
