Category: Unsung Heroes

It’s so great to meet wonderful people from around the world. Scott and Marla Schiele have been ministering together for more than 36 years. Without social media, we would never have had the opportunity to hear their stories. I pray these testimonies encourage you to keep meeting, keep searching, and start gathering. It’s difficult to do life together, but it is worth the effort.

We are Scott and Marla Schiele, and for the past 36 years, we have had the privilege of walking through life and ministry hand in hand. Scott was raised in Columbia Falls, Montana, and Marla in Caldwell, Idaho.

Our journey has taken us around the world, providing opportunities to pastor wonderful church communities – both traditional congregations and organic house churches – direct a year-round camp and conference center, and organize large-scale ministry events. Throughout these experiences, our passion has remained constant: equipping leaders, making devoted disciples, and teaching a Christ-centered approach to leadership across many nations.

When not traveling and ministering, Scott works as a skilled craftsman and builder. For more than three decades, he has specialized in constructing and remodeling commercial spaces, private residences, and custom homes. His hands-on experience has given him a deep understanding of every stage of the building process.

Marla comes from a rich heritage of faith, with five generations of believers preceding her. Through genealogical research, she has also traced her family lineage back to Roland Taylor, one of the martyrs mentioned in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Scott’s faith journey took a different path. Although he grew up attending a Lutheran church with his family, it was in his early twenties that he experienced a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ. The love of God and the transforming work of the Holy Spirit have profoundly shaped his life and ministry.

Whether we are traveling internationally to train pastors and leaders or gathering with our local house church each week, our mission remains the same: to see lives transformed by the power and love of Jesus Christ.

Family is one of our greatest joys. We are blessed with four incredible adult children and their spouses, all of whom love Jesus deeply and serve faithfully as leaders within their church communities.

Marla was raised in a rich spiritual heritage. Her grandparents pastored churches and Bible schools, imparting to her a legacy of ministry and a passion for investing in the lives of others. From an early age, she carried a desire to contribute meaningfully to the body of Christ and to help others grow in their relationship with the Lord.

Although she was raised within the traditional Pentecostal church, Marla eventually sensed the Lord leading her beyond familiar structures and into a more relational, organic expression of Christian fellowship. Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, she experienced freedom from many of the traditions and religious patterns that had shaped her understanding of church life. This journey was gradual and continues today, as she regularly seeks the Father’s wisdom to discern whether her perspectives and practices are rooted in tradition or in the fresh leading of the Spirit.

After they were married, Scott and Marla became deeply involved in the Word of Faith movement, which strengthened their love for Scripture and expanded their understanding of faith and God’s promises. Throughout their spiritual development, however, both sensed a consistent call from the Holy Spirit to influence, encourage, and disciple others.

From the earliest days of their marriage, they opened their home to host gatherings and house churches, a practice they have continued for decades. During an extended season of prayer, Scott became increasingly aware of God’s call upon his life to serve in church leadership. Over time, he also discovered a prophetic gifting yet found few spiritual fathers available to provide guidance and mentorship in that calling.

The lack of recognition for spiritual gifts and callings within many church settings, coupled with the absence of spiritual fathers intentionally raising and mentoring spiritual sons and daughters, became a significant burden on their hearts. These realities ultimately led Scott and Marla to reevaluate traditional models of church and pursue what they believe to be a more authentic expression of New Testament Christianity – one centered on discipleship, spiritual family, shared ministry, and the restoration of the original patterns of the early church.

Over the past 35 years of leading and participating in house churches, our understanding and practice of fellowship have continually evolved. In the early years, many of our gatherings functioned under the oversight of traditional brick-and-mortar churches. Some were structured according to the cell church model, which often felt like a scaled-down version of conventional church services. While these meetings provided meaningful fellowship, they could also become frustrating because leaders and ministers were expected to follow predetermined outlines rather than respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

One of the ongoing challenges we have encountered is ministering to those who have experienced church hurt. Many become what we affectionately call “Christian tourists” – moving from fellowship to fellowship in search of the spiritual encouragement that comes through corporate worship yet never remaining in one place long enough to develop deep relationships or be discipled. Others, after experiencing the freedom and presence of God in a home fellowship setting, mistakenly assume that proximity to God’s presence automatically qualifies them for leadership. Rather than embracing the process of preparation, character development, and spiritual maturity, they often desire immediate affirmation for launching their own gatherings. When we encourage them to wait for the Lord’s timing and further development, some choose to leave rather than submit to the process.

At the root of many of these challenges is the reality that people often bring with them distorted expectations of what healthy Christian community and servant leadership should look like. Many have been shaped by church cultures that differ significantly from the relational, Kingdom-centered fellowship we seek to cultivate.

In response, we have become increasingly intentional about teaching and modeling the love of Jesus and the values of His Kingdom. We place a high priority on the presence of God, making it the central focus of every gathering. We carefully guard the atmosphere of the meeting, seeking to remain sensitive to the Holy Spirit and gently redirecting the group whenever necessary to align with what He is doing in the moment.

Another challenge involves individuals who unintentionally dominate discussions through lengthy testimonies or extended personal stories that draw attention more to themselves than to the goodness and faithfulness of God. In these situations, we have learned to graciously redirect the conversation by celebrating God’s work in their lives and then inviting others to contribute. Over time, this creates a healthier culture of participation and mutual edification. Those who embrace the culture grow, while those unwilling to do so often choose to move on.

We are intentional about ensuring that every person has an opportunity to contribute during our gatherings. Whether through a testimony, prayer request, question, teaching, encouragement, or insight, everyone is valued and given space to participate. We have found that this approach fosters genuine community, promotes spiritual growth, and encourages every believer to discover and develop their unique place within the Body of Christ.

Authentic relationships have provided others with a unique opportunity to see the bigger picture of Christ’s salvation and the unwavering faithfulness of God. In the context of genuine fellowship, it becomes possible to live transparently and openly, allowing others a glimpse into how both hardships and victories play a vital role in developing a steadfast, unshakable faith.

As we reflect on God’s goodness and give thanks for His faithfulness, we are continually transformed ourselves. Looking back, we can clearly see His hand at work in every season and every circumstance of our lives.

All four of our children were raised in ministry alongside us, traveling to the nations and sharing the Gospel from an early age. Today, each of them remains actively involved in ministry. They lead their own home fellowships, serve in worship leadership, and continue to carry the Good News to the nations. Seeing the next generation embrace the call of God on their lives has been one of our greatest joys and blessings.

Leading a house church is both a privilege and a challenge. It requires leaders to embrace the heart of a servant and genuinely place the needs of others before their own. If we measure our effectiveness by a single meeting or a particular outcome, we are likely to become discouraged. Ministry is a lifelong journey, and lasting fruit often develops over time. In God’s wisdom, some of that fruit may remain hidden from us for a season, protecting us from immaturity and pride while deepening our dependence on Him.

Therefore, be confident in the gifts and calling God has entrusted to you, and minister with generosity and grace. Remain faithful to the specific role God has given you; you are not called to meet every need or carry every responsibility. Learn to delegate whenever possible, empowering others to grow and serve alongside you.

From the very beginning, clearly communicate the purpose of the gathering: to glorify God, to see people restored and healed in spirit, soul, and body, and to raise up, train, and equip disciples who will, in turn, glorify God and make disciples themselves.

House churches that endure are led by men and women who choose to love people first, seek the Lord daily, and prioritize His Kingdom above all else. When Christ remains at the center and love guides every decision, healthy and lasting spiritual communities can flourish.

Longevity in ministry is a choice. Make a lifelong commitment to becoming more like Jesus and to never giving up, regardless of the challenges you face. Embrace the way of the cross, recognizing that every trial, disappointment, and setback serves as fuel in the refining process God uses to prepare and mature us for His purposes.

Hold firmly to the conviction that God can work all things together for our good. Remain teachable, willing to release inaccurate or incomplete teachings from the past and stay enrolled in the school of the Holy Spirit. Allow Him to continually shape your understanding and lead you into greater truth.

As leaders, our motivations must remain pure, and our desire to obey God must always outweigh any fear of man. Ministry was never intended to be a solitary journey. Seek out like-minded leaders who share a common vision and heart for the Kingdom. Together, build as a spiritual family, encouraging one another and advancing God’s purposes in unity rather than isolation.

Scott & Marla can be reached at 918-938-3021 or outpouringintl@gmail.com. Check out their website at www.outpouringintl.com.

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In Western society it’s difficult to do life together, but it does happen, it can be sustained and it can be life-changing. I pray these stories encourage you to keep meeting, keep searching and start gathering. This story is told by Chris Jefferies. Check out his link for a free download of his book.

I’m Chris Jefferies, I grew up in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England, UK, a small town (about 20-21 thousand people). We don’t call that a city here, it’s an ancient town, founded in Roman times in 75 AD. I studied horticulture at Bath University and worked at a research station just outside Bristol on pollination and fertilisation of fruit crops including apple, pear, gooseberry, but mainly plum. I married my first wife, Judy in 1970; we became close friends during our final months at school. Judy developed bowel cancer in the 1990s and died in December 1995 when one daughter was at university and the other one finishing at school.

I think I first experienced Father’s presence as a deep voice like thunder when I was just outside my junior school, aged perhaps 7. It seemed very significant at the time. There were no words, but there was a powerful presence and I knew it was real, significant, and the voice of the Most High – as if I was being given an important job. I did not experience the Son, Jesus, until much later, when I was about 19 or 20. I’d begun a kind of searching. I was confirmed as an Anglican when I was 14 though that had meant nothing to me. I went through the process because that’s what my parents expected.

The time of searching continued after Judy and I married and we discovered the Plymouth Brethren in Bristol with their ‘Open Meetings’ where any adult male could help lead the meeting in a cooperative effort that reflected what I’d read in Acts and in Paul’s letters.

We moved to Yatton, a village near Bristol, where we took out a mortgage and bought our first home. And it was here that I was introduced to the Holy Spirit in a real way.

Judy and I began meeting with friends from very different backgrounds – Anglican, Catholic, Baptist, you name it. The thing that bound us together was the ongoing move of the Spirit. This began in 1975 after the birth of our first daughter. Organic meetings have come and gone from that time on, but they’ve always been what I’m most comfortable with. No rules apart from the rule of love amongst his people! HalleluYah! There were many challenges, described in this series of posts.

I’d say the biggest changes have been recognising more and more clearly that the way things were done in the early church works really well, while none of the human-managed approaches have worked out effectively. At present I’m part of a Baptist Small Group; I don’t attend the Sunday services, just the home group. I’ve tried for 8 or 9 years to explain the difference between a friendly Bible study and a family/community, but I seem not to be getting the message across fully. They value my contributions and are happy for me to take them off-piste from time to time, but they’re chained to the system apart from these infrequent excursions. My daughters have not benefitted much from the meetings we had while they were growing up. Debbie is open to talking about spiritual things, Beth (3 years younger) is a firm atheist as is her husband (who has a degree in theology!).

I’d point people to look carefully at the great commission in Matthew 28, and to read Ephesians 4 several times. And I’d say that struggling with a group (unless you feel called to do so) is likely to be ineffective and frustrating. Starting a group? Anyone can do this, especially if they already have like-minded friends and/or family. Keep reading the gospels, keep reading Acts, keep reading the letters. I’d remind people that we all have the APEST gifts (I call these the gifts of service). But we don’t have them all to the same degree, that’s why groups are important, in part. What I lack will be someone else’s strength and vice versa. We serve one another. If you feel you should start a group, if Jesus is calling you to do so, just make a start and see how it goes. For more I’d point people to my short book, JDMC.

The group Jesus started on the shore of Galilee, lasted only 3 years. Lasting is not a bad thing, but neither is it a necessary thing. I wonder how long Corinth lasted? We don’t know. Lasting too long can be a problem; maybe it’s a sign we need to be doing more planting. The body of Christ has existed in one form or another for nearly 2000 years. But that has been achieved by reproduction. It’s how life itself continues, many, many new beginnings, as long as births exceed deaths life will grow and extend. Same with meetings. What we need to avoid are bad endings where brothers and sisters fall out over various issues. The group may end or divide (another form of multiplication) but everyone should remain on good terms and continue loving one another. Groups should never get too large. Ten to fifteen people is good, but the dynamics change as the numbers increase.

This is so important. Jesus is the person who ultimately organises the group (I will build my church.) Jesus expresses himself as leader, guide, facilitator through the distributed gifts of service (APEST again). We all serve one another, Jesus decides how to hand out those gifts.

You can check out Chris Jefferies blog here. Download a free pdf copy of Jesus, Disciple, Mission, Church here.

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In Western society it’s difficult to do life together, but it does happen, it can be sustained and it can be life-changing. I pray these stories encourage you to keep meeting, keep searching and start gathering. This story is told by Joel Davis.

Some 18 years ago, a friend and I who were both trained as ministers and on staff at the same church began sensing that there was “something more” that the Lord was calling us to.  We just could not grasp in that season what it was, and truthfully, it would have destroyed us had He exposed us to the entirety of it that early on.  We were determined to reject the notion that whatever was the next thing, we must NOT get credit for it, nor be seen as the “leaders” of it.  We already knew the pitfalls of that approach.  It’s why I’m extremely reluctant in one sense to be featured in this segment of “Unsung Heroes”.  There is nothing heroic about embracing a moniker or even a sentiment that anything I have ever done for the Lord came from me.  If it inspires people or orients people towards the glory of God, then He alone gets the glory, not me.  Which leads to me to the crux of my story.   

Not long after we stepped out of our traditional church setting, we came to embrace the idea that even though we were meeting in our homes, it was not “meeting in homes” that our Lord was passionate about.  Jesus words to seek first his kingdom Mt.6:33 burn deeply in our hearts.  Our pursuit is not a location, a program, paradigm or model.  Neither is it a “pattern” of activities that we see in the NT as if we could simply “do what they did” and repeat their behaviors.  The tribe we came from were famous for that, we had to do “everything by the book” or as we always said, “We speak where the Bible speaks, we are silent where it does not”.  We certainly continue our deep conviction about the high value of Scripture, but the Lord has taught us that it is HIM and HIS KINGDOM that are the totality of what Scripture reveals.  HE (not the book that reveals the HE) is the actual and final authority and His divine life (the indwelling Holy Spirit) is what makes it become the very thing He is dreaming it will become.   

We have discovered that this pursuit of Christ is both the most difficult AND the most glorious thing we have ever determined to pursue.  Some say its simple to “start” a house church, and we agree, anyone can do that.  On the other hand, what Paul says about the “foundation” being laid (1 Cor.3:10) requires something outside of ourselves that none of us can replicate.  It MUST come from the Lord, it cannot be manufactured by human effort.  It is, as Paul says, only “given by grace”.  It begins with an earth shattering, soul shocking revelation of the KINGDOM GOSPEL of Jesus Christ to a people.  The people falling down in humility, picking up the mantle of suffering and death and joining Jesus on the altar….sounds like Jesus words in Mark 8:34.  There is no other way to arrive at this beautiful “ekklesia” that Scripture says will become a a home, a temple, a bride, and a body for Him to express Himself on earth.  So much to unpack in what I’m attempting to describe here.  If you want to learn more about how God is establishing Kingdom community in our little neck of the woods, reach out to Joel Davis at: 

twindaddyjoel@msn.com 

941-224-3848 

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In Western society it’s difficult to do life together, but it does happen, it can be sustained and it can be life-changing. I pray these stories encourage you to keep meeting, keep searching and start gathering. This story is told by Art Mealer. You can read an excerpt from his exceptional book The Servant Community here.

I became a Christian as a young adult in the early seventies. In the beginning, I loved everything about church: from its high ceilings and imposing pulpit to seeing friends dressed up and smiling in its pews. During those first few years, I read the Bible for hours nearly every day. Although I was hungry, I never felt dissatisfied. Then something changed.

Do you remember seeing one of those images you can interpret in two different ways? At first, your brain registers only one image, such as the face of a young girl. Then, suddenly, another image – say, a much older woman – comes into a new focus from the same lines. That happened to me one day, as I sat in the pew, everything I’d been reading in the Bible seemed to stand out differently from what I experienced during our week-by-week meetings. Between the hymns and the collection that Sunday, my perception suddenly shifted between two images. One had well-dressed rows of people sitting quietly, stiffly attentive to the minister at the front. It had the feel of listening to a professional lecture at a university. The other image that came into focus was glowing with cousins and aunts and uncles enjoying one another – laughing, chatting, and talking as if enjoying a barbecue at a casual family reunion. While the view seen in the traditional church models remained clear, I’d been blind to another equally evident vision reinforced by the very same Scriptures.

Once I saw that second image, I couldn’t ignore it. By the end of the sermon, the disquiet in my heart shifted all I knew about the church into this alternate image of sacred, familial, simplicity. I realized that what we’d traditionally dismissed as the “primitive, early church” appeared now as the natural and normal church of relationships -maturing and nourishing one another – just as we see described in scripture.

That event was over fifty years ago, and I still can’t unsee either perspective. As a result, I’ve pursued that fresh, alternative biblical church experience without animosity towards my traditional friends. This return to the scriptural pattern had no name or books describing it. Since the 1990’s it has been known as the small church movement (variously called the New Testament Church, house church, organic church, micro church, simple church, and so on). Over the past 50+ years I have experienced deeply peaceful house churches and a few splits and schisms as well as a few helpful traditional churches. I continue today to be part of a house church. I recently thought to set down all I had learned over the years into 20 brief chapters and published, The Servant Community. One among 100’s of good house church related books available today.

Various house vs traditional models will continue to point out the “errors of the other’s way,” charging each other as being “unbiblical.” But hold on. Can you tell me of a more unbiblical organization than the synagogue? Not found anywhere in the Torah. No instructions for their practices. Used by the diaspora Jews as a place of prayer, beginning a few hundred years before Christ, until this very day. Yet, we read: “He (Jesus) went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was His custom.” – Luke 4:16

In spite of setting out yet another detailed house church resource, my encouragement to you is “grace.” At the end of the day, be free. Set others free. God used the nation of Israel in spite of their failures to “do things right.” Stay humble. Jesus had a habit of attending the unbiblical synagogue. Pursue His leading. Our God doesn’t fit into anyone’s box.

To purchase Art’s book, click here.

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In Western society it’s difficult to do life together, but it does happen, it can be sustained and it can be life-changing. I pray these stories encourage you to keep meeting, keep searching and start gathering. This story is told by Leo Castillo in Silang, Philippines.

I am Leo Castillo, married to my wife Nina. I grew up in a Roman Catholic family, studied in a Catholic school and ended up taking a civil engineering degree in a state university here in the Philippines. It was in that school where I got to know Jesus personally and where I was involved in a Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC, now Cru) movement.

It was also at CCC where I was introduced to small groups and where I learned how to disciple others. My spiritual growth during that time was influenced to a large degree by my relationships with fellow believing students. We became involved in each other’s lives and many of them became my lifelong friends.

At the same time, we were encouraged to become part of a “local church” besides our involvement with the campus movement. Being a submissive young Christian I complied, choosing to join friends from CCC who went to a small church near our campus. Church life for me, however, was something I found strangely wanting. Sitting passively during worship services was something I had to endure more than relish. There has got to be something more to church and the Christian life than worship services, I thought.

When I entered the corporate world after graduation, I also became involved with a CCC ministry among working adults in the workplace. And like the ministry at campus, the CCC professional ministry had at its core the same small discipleship groups. At the same time, I had been hopping from church to church, still searching but never settling down in one.

But even before I started working, I had begun a house fellowship at a depressed area near my hometown. (This was back in the early 1980s.) I was sent to this place by my former church even though I was no longer part of the said church. This house fellowship involved two families and would constitute what people today would call a house church. After two years, this same group began to reach out to their relatives in a remote town in the province of Cavite. I had equipped them in sharing the gospel and discipling others – something we were trained to do in CCC – and they were able to subsequently start 5 house groups in that town.

Back then, I did not know any better and wrote the Assemblies of God, asking them to take over these house groups. They were somewhat taken aback by this, remarking that it was the first time they had been offered a church that others had started. One of the guys I was discipling subsequently became a pastor of the traditional church that was formed in that town composed of believers from the house groups.

After working for about 6 years, I quit my job to join Campus Crusade as a staff member. I was initially assigned to the professional ministry in Metro Manila. It was here that I met Nina and we got married in 1995. We eventually got involved in helping CCC ministries in other countries start ministries among working adults in their cities. Afterwards we got assigned to CCC’s Southeast Asia Area of Affairs. Our involvement in these ministries exposed us to various expressions of Christianity – in communist countries and countries with predominantly Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist populations. More than anything else, this exposure helped us to become more principle-centered in our approach to Christian life and ministry.

During our last 5 years with CCC our teams began talking about house churches. Christianity in many of the countries we were helping had taken an underground approach and believers there were meeting in small groups and often in houses. This would have a profound impact on us. But we had also began to look beyond the forms organic/simple/house churches have taken to realize that in effect we had been doing “church” all these years when we disciple people and meet them in small groups. Even if these groups were all outside the institutional church.

We eventually left CCC 18 years ago. We felt the Lord was calling us to focus on simple, organic churches and working with the poor in our country. One of the first house groups we started was composed of people who have been believers for several years and have been disillusioned with the institutional church. Inevitably, our meetings at home always turned into discussions on what was wrong with the traditional church. We would sometimes talk about our struggles but, somehow, we never related to each other in a deeper way. Inevitably we went our separate ways.

At the same time, Nina and I reached out to poor communities in my hometown. We started by offering scholarships to young people who wanted to go to college but were unable to afford it. We later expanded this to helping people start small businesses but this did not work out well. We concentrated on education for young people in these communities, expanding our help to providing school supplies for elementary and high school students as well as extra-curricular help for them through educational workshops and visits to museums in the city. 

From these outreaches we were able to form several house churches in my hometown and in another town north of Metro Manila. Most of these were organically formed. We never required the families whose children we were helping to join these gatherings. Even though we were still following the format of our discipleship groups in CCC – such as using bible study materials and training them in evangelism – we began to see that we needed to focus more on how believers in these house gatherings related to each other.

It wasn’t always easy especially when conflict arose between some of the people in these small groups. But these believers were already a community even before we met them and the only change needed was in their hearts as they learned to trust God and to love one another. Conflict was an inevitable part of community life and were glad when we saw them handle such conflicts in a Spirit-filled way over time. We also noticed that poor people tend to relate to each other more authentically than those in the corporate world and this had a profound impact on us.

The longest time we stayed in any one group was probably 5-6 years. We would move on to another community whenever we felt we had done enough. At one point we were meeting as many as 3 small groups in the course of the week. Our biggest problem was getting them to meet on their own. There were some groups that have stopped meeting once we left, even though we tried to prepare them to meet on their own. Meetings are important as Hebrews 10:25 says but we also feel that organic church or ekklesia goes beyond meetings to the kind of relationships within the ekklesia and how they relate to people around them.

The Covid pandemic and my near-death experience due to Covid have scaled back our efforts in reaching more communities for Christ. (It was the Lord’s miracle that I survived after nearly 4 months in the hospital.) We also moved outside the city 2 years ago and had to start from scratch in our ministry. Nina is also dealing with what many people would consider a life-threatening health issue. But we continue to reach out to people in our subdivision and have started a small group here. We are learning to be much more interactive in our gatherings, how to listen to God together and to be more deeply involved in each other’s lives – the same way we have done discipleship in campus and in the workplace decades ago. Most of all we are learning how to center our community life on Jesus and faith in Him over and above all else.

Perhaps our biggest takeaway from years of “doing church” is to start with non-believers as much as we can. Believers who have grown disillusioned with the institutional church and who want to form small groups, simple, organic or house churches, still unconsciously take the institutional church culture with them. We have struggled in the past trying to wean them off from this orientation. We might meet them from time to time – which is what we’re doing more often these days with friends who have been involved in the same ministries in the past. These are times for reflection and mutual encouragement which at this point in our lives become fulfilling and fruitful times. But our focus is on reaching non-believers and forming small communities of God’s Kingdom with them. Our approach is to go to them, to enter their existing communities and create Kingdom communities from within rather than asking them to come to us.

You can contact Leo by email at engrjpleo@yahoo.com and check out his blog at https://shoestringjourneys.wordpress.com/

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In Western society it’s difficult to do life together, but it does happen, it can be sustained and it can be life-changing. I pray these stories encourage you to keep meeting, keep searching and start gathering. This story is told by Beresford Job.

I came to know the Lord in 1971 whilst touring with a street theatre group. One of the guys from a bunch of Christians we happened upon hugged me. In the literal twinkling of an eye, Jesus revealed Himself to a lost and messed up young hippy. In an instant, I knew myself to be a sinner in utter need of His love and grace. In that moment, I was turned upside down and inside out, and all I wanted to do was to follow Him from that moment onwards.
 
Among the numerous things that I suddenly knew to be true, but which had never been the slightest part of my thinking before, was that the Bible, which I had never even read (except for a couple of Old Testament passages at school in a Religious Education class) was God’s Word, and that it was meant to be our final authority in all matters.
 
Within just a handful of years, the Lord had led me into a full-time pastoral and teaching ministry. I was fully focussed on His calling on my life to look after people and help them grow in the Lord, and to teach what Paul referred to as ‘the whole counsel of God’. However, I had a special burden to help believers form into house churches as taught by the Apostles in the New Testament, as opposed to the traditional churches which are instead based on the teachings of the Early Church Fathers. Now, fifty years later, in various parts of the world, I continue in this same ministry and calling. Forty of those years having also served as an elder in one such local church at home in England.

There was absolutely no way I could have ever fulfilled this calling from the Lord on my own. He eventually brought me the person I needed more than anyone else, second only to Him. Belinda and I married in 1984. After years of wondering whether it was only ever going to be just the two of us, in 1998 Belinda gave me the most beautiful daughter I could have ever imagined. We named her Bethany and, until recently, she travelled with us wherever we were seeking to help the Lord’s people. Our calling has always been strictly a family effort as far as we have been concerned. Nowadays, Bethany’s life and work commitments means that she can usually no longer accompany us. We were thrilled, however, that she was recently able to be with us on a trip to a church in Australia. Nowadays it is mostly just me and Belinda travelling together.
 
I am now in my 70th year and, as I look back in time, and at things as they stand now, I can, in all but one thing, identify so very much with the experience of Paul the Apostle. Unlike him I look back on all too much sin, failure, foolishness and mistakes, and I can only but thank the Lord that He has forgiven me so fully. Like Paul, however, I look back and out on both joy and tears. Joy at those who grew in the Lord, and at the churches that are still going strong many years later, but with tears and heartbreak at those believers who did not grow and stay faithful, or who just ended up living spiritually stagnated and carnal lives. Discouragement and heartbreak also over the churches that started – and often very well – but which failed because of unrepentant sin, and the unwillingness of those believers who comprised them to truly live in the light with one another.
 
Yet even when it comes to those believers who failed to pass the test, and who even returned evil to those who laboured so hard to be a blessing and a help to them, I can truly say that it is still wonderful to know that they were at least given a chance. I feel both humbled and privileged that I and my family could have been part of that process. It is true indeed that everything works together for good to them that love God, and who are called according to His purposes. 

So to those who are already on the wonderful path of biblical church life, plus those who are not yet, but who desire to be so, I say the following: it is difficult, and it is fraught with problems, but be encouraged by the knowledge that such are the difficulties and problems that we are meant to encounter. They are precisely designed by the Holy Spirit to sanctify us, and to deal with our sin and bring us closer to the Lord Jesus. They are the trials and tribulation promised us in scripture which, if we endure to the end, bring us more and more into the very life of the Lord Himself. Believers are, by God’s infinite and boundless grace, saved whether they endure or not, but what a tragedy to just live out some comfortable, unchallenged and compromised carnal discipleship, rather than staying at the cutting edge of radical ongoing surrender to the Lord.
 
So don’t be unduly concerned with what worldly Christians might want to define as ‘success’, and neither be overly occupied with outcomes, whether positive or negative, or seemingly good or bad. All such can be left in the Lord’s capable hands. No! Be rather completely and utterly concerned and occupied with simply being faithful to the Lord, and with living in obedience to His word. Nothing is wasted as long as our desire and motivation is to  “…live godly in Christ Jesus.”

Beresford Job can be reached at…

Website: www.housechurch.co.uk
 Blog: beresfordjob.wordpress.com
 Email: talk2ccf@hotmail.com

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In Western society it’s difficult to do life together, but it does happen, it can be sustained and it can be life-changing. I pray these stories encourage you to keep meeting, keep searching and start gathering. I had the pleasure of meeting Jason Anderson recently, this is his story.

My name is Jason Anderson. My wife Catherine and I recently celebrated our 30th anniversary, and we have three grown children (and one daughter-in-law). I was born at Ellsworth AFB, SD and have lived all around the world in a multi-generational military family. I grew up in Germany, Greece, South Korea, Texas, and graduated high school in Nebraska. I also joined the military when older and lived and traveled all over again; to England, Europe, the Middle East, and all over the United States.

Growing up, I don’t remember a time when I was not at church, often more than once a week. I can honestly say that I practically cut my teeth on the back of the church pews. One day I took a quarter that was lying on a desk or counter at our church. When my mother noticed the money, she asked me where I got the quarter, and I told her how I had taken it. She talked to me about stealing and dishonesty and how it was wrong and made Jesus sad. I remember feeling very convicted and weeping remorsefully because I just knew I had done something terribly wrong and felt dirty inside and out. I wanted to be clean. So, I began to pray as my mother talked to me about sin and forgiveness.

My mother led me in a simple prayer to ask Jesus to come and clean my heart and be in charge of my life. I remember praying that prayer for weeks every night before bed, asking anew every time for Jesus to come to clean me and be with me. My mother eventually convinced me that once really was enough as long as I kept talking with God about everything and kept Him in the center of my life. I was baptized at Faith Baptist Church in Kaiserslautern, Germany shortly after my sixth birthday to much laughter and joy (a truly funny event which I will never forget).

I continued to faithfully attend church and grow in my understanding of God. I was passionate about Him and at various times wanted to be a pilot, missionary, and military member. I was never far from church and was very active in children and youth programs as I grew up and we moved around the world with my father’s job in the Air Force.

When I was 17, I spent a sweltering, super-charged summer at Maranatha Bible Camp in Maxwell, Nebraska. It was a week of fun activities, energetic worship, and inspiring teaching and bible study. Yet it was also something more. It was the week God gripped my life with an unshakable call. I don’t remember the speaker, and I don’t even remember his whole message except that he taught from John 21:15-19. I remember that at the end of his sermon it was like the Holy Spirit flooded my being and God spoke through that key passage to say, “Do you love Me? Then feed My sheep; take care of My flock.” It was a call and a destiny that I didn’t yet fully understand.

I shared this call with my home church but wound up seeking an education path on my own. I decided to attend Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona with the intent to complete a Christian Studies degree, follow-up with seminary, and cap it all off from the pulpit in some little Southern Baptist church. At least, that was my plan, but, as with many young people, that resounding voice became just a quiet breeze in my life-always present, yet easily ignored.

That was especially true when my wonderful helpmate, Catherine, entered my life in a gently insistent way during my second year of college. God drew us together quickly, building a deeply abiding relationship between our kindred souls. After only nine months, we were happily married and permanently part of each other’s lives. Yet, that left us with the predicament of providing for a new family with no work and school loans piling up around us.

I turned to the only work and life I was familiar with while tuning out the calling in that quietly insistent breeze which was God’s voice. I enlisted in the Air Force and was offered the opportunity to study Hebrew at the Defense Language Institute. I completed the course of study and spent a successful twenty-year career as a Hebrew linguist.

During those twenty years, I met many encouraging people, learned many leadership and management skills, and completed several degrees. At several points throughout my enlistment, my wife and I even considered separating from the military and entering the mission field, but some timely, sage counsel from one of our mentors, a Nazarene missionary named Cliff Wright encouraged us to seek God at every decision point, which lead us to completing an entire 20-year career.

Through those 20 twenty years of service, that still, quiet voice never let us rest. At every location, and in every church, we have both been involved in ministry. God never let go of our hearts, and we never lost His call. I struggled through disappointment and frustration as each year it seemed we moved further away from the calling and purposes God had for our lives. Looking back, I can see that God was maturing me and expanding mine and my wife’s hearts with His love for others as we learned to better love ourselves.

As we moved into the final years of my military career, from 2013-2015, God worked a major overhaul in our spiritual lives. Catherine had been pursuing and encountering God and He was stirring a holy jealousy within me for the same kind of intimacy and encounters. I deployed to Afghanistan in the winter of 2012-2013 and had a revolutionary, yet very peacefully quiet encounter with God one evening while in transit to my operational area. I didn’t even realize the extent to which He was changing me as I surrendered more and more completely to Him until I returned home. One day, my wife looked at me quizzically after what would have been a normally tense interaction with my bipolar teenage son (it was quite calm and mild) and asked what had happened to me because I was a different person. God was truly rewriting my heart!

Shortly after that, the military had moved us to Tucson, Arizona and a wonderful spirit filled church. It was there we were both baptized in the Spirit, and I spend most of our first year at that church face-down on the floor with God. He breathed new breath over our dry bones and gave us long awaited words of confirmation for our calling and purpose. The pastors guided and mentored us as we transitioned into a time of expanded and changing ministry. He verbally affirmed that God had a call to ministry for both my wife and me. He also identified a gift for teaching and an affinity for youth, especially over my life. Likewise, two of the elders and several other church leaders gave almost identical words at several separate times over the course of that first year.

The end of 2014 into early 2015 was a seminal season in our lives. It was the twentieth year of our marriage, and the end of my military career. Yet God was more interested in the new beginnings in our lives. Shortly after celebrating our twentieth anniversary, I retired from the military and transitioned right into a staff position at our local church.

While at the church, I was learning hands-on ministry as I went back to school to complete a seminary degree. It was a time of growth as I discovered how to take the discipline, leadership, and teaming skills God allowed the military to equip me with and turn them to the service of His kingdom. Throughout all this my wife continues a life-long struggle with significant health issues. We continue to believe for her miraculous healing as we seek to spend more time in God’s presence and in pursuit of Him. His voice has once again become strong and insistent-no longer just a gentle breeze.

As God’s voice grew stronger in our lives (or we just heard Him better), and after we moved to Tucson, Arizona, we began to have conversations with my brother-in-law and his wife about five-fold ministry and our dissatisfaction with the mini-concert, nice Ted Talk, church format that seems so prevalent today. We talked about true discipleship and walking in an intimate community, and we shared the frustrations of traditional ministry work (they were life-long pastors).

During the Covid pandemic, so many churches shut down and tried to adapt. While their church in California was completely shut down, my brother-in-law and his wife decided to step out and launch a house church ministry. Then in the Spring of 2021, they called and invited us to run with them by launching a house church in Tucson. We prayed about it and realized it matched a 20-year-old dream my wife had about us being in ministry with family. So, we took the plunge and launched that summer.

God faithfully grew our core down to just five people from my immediate family. But we remained faithful and gathered each Sunday. Then in the summer of 2023, a couple of families discovered the NewSong website, connected with our house church, and began to run with us. Within only a few months, God matured and grew us to the point where we launched a second house church and continued growing fast. A few more months later we launched a third house church in Tucson! It was a quick period of growth and stretching filled with many challenges and changes. We learned how to form an elder board, collaborate together to support each other, and begin to disciple and raise up more leaders.

The adventure of doing life together as part of God’s upside-down kingdom is challenging. We are constantly reminding ourselves of Galatians 6:9 “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” So, we encourage one another to press forward in God’s love, to stay focused on Him, and to do the tough work of loving each other and bearing one another’s burdens. We are determined to worship Jesus extravagantly while following Him as the head of the church body. We strive to practice other-mindedness (Phil 2:3), being unoffendable (Matt 5:21-26), and cultivating an atmosphere where we champion and love one another (John 13:35).

I encourage you to chase after God’ s purposes for your life (Matt6:23)! Be bold and step into the fullness of kingdom life as you continue to follow His call to the lost, broken, and hurting in your community and beyond with His power and love-which includes signs and wonders, praise and adoration, a deep understanding of His word, and discipleship. Continually learn to lean on Him more and more. Answer His resounding call and be eager to respond. It is time!

To connect with Jason and NewSong, check out the website https://newsong.life. Jason’s blog is https://upsidedown-kingdom.org/ and you can find his book on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Servant-Leader-Exploring-Principles-Upside-down-ebook/dp/B0BSDV4KMX.

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In Western society it’s difficult to do life together, but it does happen, it can be sustained and it can be life-changing. I pray these stories encourage you to keep meeting, keep searching and start gathering. This story is told by Bob Good.

My name is Bob Good. My wife, Ellen, and I have four children, all in their twenties, and one grandson. I have been a mechanical engineer throughout my life and am currently about two-thirds done with my Master’s in Theological Studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I received Christ when I was 19 years old through a megachurch located near my home. It was through their ministries that I learned the gospel and gave my life to Christ.

My first experience with small group life occurred back in the 1990s at that same megachurch. Our Sunday school class was enormous, with about 400 people attending. Recognizing the challenge in building deeper relationships in such a large setting, the church began monthly cell groups. It was through these cell groups that I truly experienced meaningful small group life. Although the meetings were only monthly, they had a significant impact on me. I began researching cell groups and eventually discovered house church literature. Reading Steve Atkerson’s book, “Moving Toward a House Church Theology,” ignited a passion within me that continues to this day.

I have been involved in house church ministry for approximately 20 years. After leaving the megachurch, my family and I joined a house church in our area, where we stayed for about 13 years. It was one of the most fulfilling church experiences of my life, characterized by deep involvement in each other’s lives and genuine care. About six years ago, we began efforts to establish our own house church. This journey has been challenging due to various circumstances, including my mother-in-law living with us and her health struggles. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 further complicated things, especially since my mother-in-law had lung issues, and we wanted to ensure her safety.

Despite these challenges, the Lord consistently provided spaces for our meetings. We initially met in apartment complex common areas, spent about a year meeting at a retirement home, and even used a library conference room for a summer. Since last summer, we have resumed meeting at our home. Sadly, my mother-in-law passed away, a heartbreaking event that nonetheless opened a new chapter for our church. Currently, we are associated with a few other groups around town. Together with our original house church, we now have four very small groups that occasionally meet as one larger group quarterly.

One unexpected challenge we’ve encountered is that our house church primarily attracts singles, with very few married couples and no families with children remaining long-term. Singles typically have more flexible schedules but tend to move around frequently, making it difficult to establish and maintain a stable group. This differs greatly from my previous house church experience, where five families with children attended consistently.

Authentic Christian community has profoundly impacted me, although I’m still unsure exactly why. Perhaps growing up in a broken home has deepened my desire for meaningful connections. Over time, these groups become like a second family, centered around caring, loving, teaching, and praying for one another-something I feel traditional church environments struggle to achieve. House churches, with their emphasis on open participation and engagement with scripture, foster deeper and more transformative experiences than passive listening typically provides.

Starting a new house church can be incredibly challenging, and I firmly believe it requires a calling from God. Without such a calling, maintaining the necessary passion and persistence becomes very difficult. Since starting our own groups in 2019, we have seen many people come and go due to job changes, health issues, and life circumstances.

To summarize, I describe house church as H.O.M.E.:

– *H*: Historical precedence-house churches align with biblical norms.

– *O*: Open participation-actively engaging with the text and each other rather than being passive observers.

– *M*: Meaningful relationships-groups quickly become extended families.

– *E*: Efficient and Economy-house churches avoid the high costs of traditional buildings and salaries, focusing resources directly on ministry and community building.

When combined, these elements make house church a powerful, transformative, and vibrant expression of Christian community.

If you would like to contact Bob and learn more about Participate Christian Fellowship please go to https://trainingupbelievers.wordpress.com/

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In Western society it’s difficult to do life together, but it does happen, it can be sustained and it can be life-changing. I pray these stories encourage you to keep meeting, keep searching and start gathering. This story is told by John White.

I’ve been married to Tami for 35 years.  I have two children from a previous marriage and three grandchildren.  I grew up in Charleston, WV.  Our family moved to Bethesda, MD when I was 14.  I attended college at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA and then Fuller Seminary in CA.  I was called to a church in Denver, CO and pastored three traditional churches in Denver over the next 25 years.  I left the traditional church world in 1998 and started involving myself in the house church world.  I planted several house churches in Denver.  Beginning in 2002, I was the US Coordinator with a global church planting ministry called “DAWN” (Discipling A Whole Nation).  DAWN ended in 2007 and we started our own ministry, called “LK10” in 2007.  The LK10 Vision is to fulfill the Great Commission by seeing a “vibrant family of Jesus” (ie, house church) in easy access of every person in every region and people group on earth.” The LK10 Mission is to connect and equip spiritual mothers and fathers who are the necessary component for a vibrant family of Jesus.

We were church goers growing up but it wasn’t until the move to Bethesda and involvement in a great youth group that I understood about a personal relationship with Jesus. I invited Him into my heart as a 10th grader. I immediately fell in love with the Bible and with the youth group in addition to Jesus. Throughout high school and college, I loved being involved in making disciples and leading small groups so it was natural for me to go to seminary to prepare to be a pastor. After seminary I was called to a Presbyterian church in Denver, CO. I spent the next 25 years serving in three traditional churches.

After 25 years of leadership in traditional churches, I was beginning to be disillusioned with the church. I had been behind the scenes and knew, as they say, “how the sausage was made”. Although I was in good evangelical churches, the politics and administration were exhausting. About that time (in the mid 1980s), I began to hear about house churches in China. I knew nothing about house churches but the topic fascinated me. I began to reread my NT and discovered a startling fact. All of the churches in the NT met in homes and functioned like small spiritual families. No one talked about that in seminary!

Around that time, I also came across a verse that I had never seen before. It described what actually went on in NT church. Yet, I had never heard anyone preach or teach on this verse. 1 Cor. 14:26. “When you come together, brothers, everyone has a word of instruction, a hymn, a revelation a tongue or and interpretation. Let all of these things be done for the edification of the church.” The word that most impacted me was the word “everyone”. Apparently, everyone contributed in NT church. Amazing! At that time, I was on the pastoral staff of a church of 4000 so the idea of everyone contributing in the church gathering was impossible.

In 1989, I was asked to plant a new church. This gave me a chance to begin to implement 1 Cor. 14:26 (what Jim Rutz called “Open Church”) in the new plant. We continued that experiment until 1998 when that church came to an end. At that point, we fully moved into house churches. What we learned was that 1 Cor 14:26 was really designed for a small group setting.

I also learned that seminary and traditional church leadership had not prepared me for house church. House church was not big church shrunk down into a home. It was, rather, “a whole different animal”. I began the journey of learning the skills and practices necessary for a healthy house church. I had lots of unlearning to do!

In my years at DAWN, I had the opportunity to share what we were learning with around the world. Then, in 2008 we began our own training organization which we called “LK10”. (Based on the belief that in Luke 10 we see the clearest picture of how Jesus himself began fulfilling the Great Commission). Our desire was to serve the thousands of “Dones”. The increasing number of people who were done with church as they had known it but not Done with God.

We started LK10 with two questions that we were asking Jesus.  1-How can we do church in such a way that sustainable transformation occurs. We didn’t just want to do meetings. We wanted to see people be transformed into the image of Christ.  2-How do we do church in such a way that viral transformation occurs. (As opposed to the top down, programmatic church planting I had experienced in the traditional church).

As we had an increasing number of people coming to us for training in how to do organic house church, we began incorporating what we had learned into a simple six week online course that we call “Church 101”. That became the first step in an in depth training process.

We have been doing exclusively house church for 26 years.  Still doing it. In the past 16 years, we have trained 1300 people in our Church 101 Course.  Most of them are continuing on with some form of house church.   

We have a learning culture which means that we are continually experimenting to see how we can grow and improve. For instance, we learned that Church 101 is a far more powerful learning experience when the groups are led by trained facilitators. As a result, we have developed an in-depth process for training great group facilitators. Another challenge was that a few people signed up for Church 101 who didn’t understand what it was. So, we now have everyone go through and Intro call first to help determine if it’s something Jesus wants them to do.

We have a far greater sense of being in community, of not being alone. We have heart level connections with people locally and beyond. We have lots of teens especially in our house churches. They love being in church where they have a voice. Most groups struggle because the people don’t have the same DNA (values and practices).  And, they lack training in relational brain skills.  We train everyone to be in a CO2 (Church of Two) first.  (Two people connecting as close to daily as possible with two rhythms of attention). House churches made up of multiple CO2s are far stronger.  It’s very important to be part of a larger community of people with the same DNA for continued training and support. Most leaders trying to do house church without that support will struggle.

Joy Fueled Amazon link. Relational Revolution Amazon link.

To read an short excerpt from Relational Revolution click here.

LK10.com website.

Stories from the Revolution podcast.