House Churches!
Kyle Bartholomew
There some 20 plus passages in the New Testament alone that seem to confirm that our brothers and sisters met in each others homes for the purpose of fellowship, or as we would say House Church services. This method was a key in their ability to build small groups of disciples into tight knit families that would encourage each other as they worked to evangelize the world.
A common method of outreach for the first century Church was the practice of house to house evangelism. In Acts 5:42 the Bible states,
"Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ."
It seems that after converts were made, their homes were used to gather disciples together for the purpose of fellowship and prayer. Acts 12:12 states,"When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying."
In fact it had become so well known that disciples gathered in homes for worship and prayer that when Saul began to persecute the Church he knew exactly were to go to find disciples. Acts 8:3 states,"But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison."
After Saul repented and became the apostle Paul he too used this method as the Bible states in Acts 28:30,"For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him."
The Five Year Plan
Guest Editiorial: Kip McKean
“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3
Today marks fifteen months since the Spirit planted the City of Angels International Christian Church on May 6, 2007! Since that time God has added to our 42 member Mission Team from Portland, 121 baptisms and 62 restorations! In the past two months, 30 disciples have been sent out: Melina Zepeda to Santiago, Chile as a full-time intern; Kyle and Joan Bartholomew and the Honolulu Mission Team; and today DJ and Kacie Comisford and the New York City Mission Team. To achieve these dreams, nine months ago $71,000 was raised for the City of Angels Church to be self-supporting; then one month ago $126,000 was joyfully sacrificed for missions. Therefore, the Spirit has multiplied our one congregation into three, while taking on the support of Matt and Helen Sullivan in Santiago for $3,500 per month. Even after sending out so many powerful disciples, the City of Angels Church has 206 members with a weekly contribution of $8,500! Participating in these modern day miracles, Lu Jack Martinez, a disciple converted at Harvard in the early days of Boston, stated, “Never before, in my 22 years as a disciple of Christ, have I ever seen a single congregation do so much, for so many, with so little! Truly, these miracles of God – in the midst of Satan’s vicious attacks – evidence that we are not a movement of man, but a movement of God!”
Currently, the Sold-out Discipling Movement numbers 31 churches – 14 in the United States and 17 international congregations. Dynamically increasing disciples are the “new” church plantings: Los Angeles, Chicago, Phoenix, Santiago, Honolulu and soon New York City and Washington DC. The vast remainder of our sister churches are small, but heroic and resolved remnant groups – each uncompromising in the call to be sold-out disciples and more than willing to share their meager resources of people and money in sending out mission teams. Two long-established congregations that are to be especially commended are Portland, Oregon and Syracuse, New York! Portland has sent out Eugene, Phoenix and Los Angeles. From the 75 member Syracuse Church, with the assistance of Portland and Eugene, have come the Chicago and DC plantings, led respectively by Chris and Theresa Broom and Andrew and Patrique Smellie.
Church Of Dreams; If You Build It, They Will Come!
Guest Editorial: Evan Bartholomew
"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Acts 2:17-21
Let Your Light Shine
Kyle Bartholomew
"He said to them, "Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don't you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." "Consider carefully what you hear," he continued. "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you-and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him." (Mark 4:21-25)
In this passage, Jesus asked a very important question to his disciples in an attempt to help them understand a spiritual concept, "Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don't you put it on its stand? The disciples were fully aware that putting a lamp under a bowl or a bed was counter-productive and that a lamp was not designed to hide light but rather to radiate it! Jesus likens the lamp to evangelism and to the Christian example. Rather than conceal our Christianity we are called to bring it out into the open and let our light shine before men!