I’m excited to share another story in a series I’ve entitled Unsung Heroes. 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 Martin Spratt.
Hello, I’m Martin Spratt. My wife Cher and I have four adult children and one grandchild. I grew up in Sydney and studied Computer Science. I was radically saved in Melbourne, Australia at the age of 30 when I heard the gospel for the first time. I journeyed through institutional church for about fifteen years until I noticed a disconnect in the institutional church when compared to the New Testament way of doing life together.
While searching for something more genuine, we connected with some Taiwanese believers who were involved in House Church. We joined them for about a year, we would eat, pray and fellowship together. Over time the New Testament completely made sense to me. As my wife and I began slowly transitioning to House Church, we had to overcome the stigma and the intimidation, but we successfully planted Oasis in 2021 with sixteen excited adults.
Oasis began at The Lime Box Cafe on the southeastern outskirts of metro Melbourne, as an idea to gather like-minded people in a really relaxed, friendly format to experience a type of fellowship where all contribute, all are important, and each person has significance. The group started with customers from the cafe who liked the idea of this type of gathering. The group has grown organically by guests inviting others. Initially we began meeting at the cafe, but soon we started moving from “house to house” as reflected in the pages of the Book of Acts.
Currently, the group has grown to eight different houses, and invitations are four generations deep. The group is still very humble as we focus each meeting on enjoying each other’s company and gathering to honor Jesus. Our Oasis gatherings include people with a wide variety of faith backgrounds including Baptists, Anglicans, Catholics, Uniting Church, Pentecostals, Un-Churched, Ex-Churched and many more. Everyone gets along, it’s lovely. I believe that all humans have a longing to touch eternity and experience a deeper spiritual faith-walk. Oasis plays a simple role in that experience.
Oasis is based on friendships and relationships, not membership or attendance. We don’t “measure” or judge people. We love our Oasis friends who have become very special and dear to each of us, and to each other. Our love of Jesus is the one simple thing that unites us all.
My wife and I have grown in hospitality, kindness, patience, teaching and leadership. We also see the depth of growth in the adults we share life with in our Oasis group. We resolve to keep starting new groups where we can, and we enjoy when new people attend. We try to encourage other like-minded people and groups we come in contact with, we understand the transition to a relational group can be difficult.
When the spirit of religion tries to intimidate, mock and discourage us, we remember where that spirit comes from. We look to Jesus to help us continue to launch and grow. It actually becomes easy, simple and a lot of fun.
My last thoughts, don’t quit! Keep trying and keep learning. Lead House Church with patience, kindness and gentleness and you will succeed.
You can learn more about Martin and Cher Spratt and Oasis by checking out their website oasis.org.au.
I would love to hear from those who have been doing organic church for an extended time. Contact me (Jonathan Rovetto) at 414.217.2189 or at jirovetto@yahoo.com. Don’t miss the next Unsung Heroes, subscribe below.
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 Peter J. Farmer.
My name is Peter J Farmer, I’m married to Marsha Lee Farmer and we have three teenagers. I’ve spent most of my adult life in Nottingham – home to the legend of Robin Hood and the birthplace of William Booth; founder of the Salvation Army.
My mum led me to Christ when I was seven, I was water baptized at fourteen and filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues at twenty-one. Between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one I had several encounters with God that convinced me that He was real and that He had a plan for my life. I’ve had a strong sense of calling on my life from an early age.
In 2000, I moved to The Meadows, an inner-city urban area, to work with an Anglican Church. Part of their mission was focused on ministry to unchurched youth and their families. The church had youth clubs and youth camps. The youth camps were very impactful and most years many young people made professions of faith. On returning, however, the youth neither attended church nor developed into disciples of Jesus.
I asked the leaders of the church, “How are we making disciples of these young people?” As a result I opened up my home, which was adjacent to the church, on Tuesday evenings, and invited young people who wanted to know more about Jesus.
I usually served biscuits and juice, however one day I made some ‘proper food’, a full meal, the kids appreciated this so much that they started knocking on the door everyday and asking if they could come inside for dinner. The word spread, until daily after school, there were lines of young people queueing up outside my house for food.
A real community and extended family environment emerged and most nights the house was full of young people. We would pray together, share food and share stories from the Bible. Sometimes it would get chaotic as many of the young people came from ‘broken homes’ and were involved in criminal gang activity. However it wasn’t long before single mothers in the area started inviting me into their homes to pray with them and their families and share food together.
Around that time Mark, a prophetic friend, asked me if I’d ever read books by Frank Viola. What we were doing reminded him of Frank’s writings regarding new wineskins/ecclesiology. I started reading ‘Rethinking the Wineskin’ (later republished as Reimagining Church) and most of Frank’s other books. I also read books by Neil Cole, Wolfgang Simson, Tony and Felicity Dale and Alan Hirsch.
We began intentionally meeting and forming simple organic missional churches. We’ve been involved in organic fellowship, accidentally from 2000, and officially since 2008. We’re still involved in gathering organically and sending out people in pairs and small teams to form new communities of disciples in places where people live, work and play.
At one time, in my home, we came together intentionally on a monthly basis for an apostolic equipping gathering. People involved in simple churches shared their joys and challenges, encouraged one other and shared stories and fruitful practices. We engaged in Discovery Bible Studies, addressed issues we were facing and set Faith Goals for the future. In this way we multiplied second and a few third generation churches (following principles of 2 Timothy 2:2 and global disciple multiplication movements principles).
When we experienced significant barriers and challenges, the prophets among us would call for a season of corporate prayer and fasting. We would come together in ‘Houses of Prayer’ and listen together for the voice of God until He gave us guidance.
Common issues we’ve encountered in simple gatherings:
-Inward focused house churches (what our friend Wolfgang Simson refers to as ‘us four no more’). -Churches that are just ‘honey I shrunk the church’ (institutional type gatherings squashed into a living room). -Simple churches that aren’t missional or intentional about making disciples. -House churches made up of people who are merely dissatisfied, bitter or hurt by the established church. -Churches focused on narrow issues and split over doctrines or heresies such as King James only, flat earth, or whether we are the original Hebrews, etc.
We’ve overcome this by organising around Jesus and His Mission of intentionally making disciples. We don’t focus on pet doctrines or organise along doctrinal debate.
Over the years, we’ve engaged in community living in a variety of ways. We’ve had people living with us as part of our family, we’ve shared meals, opened our gates to the community and hosted community events in our back garden. We’ve shared cars and houses and our families have been on holidays together. We’ve pooled resources and started kingdom businesses and social enterprises and invested money into common missions. We’ve hosted multiple baptism parties in our back gardens and also baptized people in our bathtubs.
There are over 59 ‘one-another’ scriptures in the Bible that deal with how we are to relate to one another as the Body of Christ – it’s a challenge but it’s important to continue to practice these in extended-spiritual-families-on-mission together!
We have encouraged many to start simple churches by gathering disciples in their home, work or leisure spaces. Make a list of your oikos (all the people you know) and begin praying for them, seek ways to share your story (testimony) and the good news about Jesus (gospel) and find ways of offering hospitality (inviting people over for seasonal events such as Christmas, Easter, BBQ’s, National Events etc).
As groups begin to form we use tools such as Discovery Bible Studies, 7 Signs of John and 3/3’s Process to begin discipleship.
When we run out of connections in our oikos – we extend into Pioneer Mission principles based on Luke 10 (Sending disciples out in pairs to find the Person of Peace who will gather their household/oikos to form an intentional discipling community that will develop into a new church).
One of the secrets to healthy community is recognising the latent gifts that are present in every member of the church and releasing and equipping people to function in them. We’ve found it particularly useful to help others identify their Ephesians 4:11 ministry- whether they lean primarily toward gifting as an apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd or teacher. We then look for ways on how that person can minister to the community. (helpful books on this include 5Q by Alan Hirsch and Primal Fire by Neil Cole).
As each part does its own special work it helps all the other parts to grow until the whole body is healthy, growing and full of love (see Ephesians 4:11-16).
Check out Peter J. Farmer’s website here. Peter’s team developed a workbook called; ‘Pioneer Mission’ to help disciples start up new simple communities. The workbook is available on Amazon U.K. The link to purchase the workbook is on Peter’s website.
I would love to hear from those who have been doing organic church for an extended time. Contact me (Jonathan Rovetto) at 414.217.2189 or at jirovetto@yahoo.com. Don’t miss the next Unsung Heroes, subscribe below.
I’m excited to share the first in a series I’ve entitled Unsung Heroes. 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 Steve Scott Nelson.
My name is Steve Scott Nelson. I was born in Winston-Salem, NC. We also lived in Raleigh, Asheville, and Bethesda, Maryland. Then we moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where I attended high school and played soccer. After graduation, I went to Clemson University in South Carolina, mainly to play soccer with five of my high school teammates.
I heard about God’s love and Jesus dying on the cross for me during high school, but nobody explained to me how to trust Christ personally. I finally understood how to get saved while attending Clemson. Some students came to my room and shared the gospel with me. I was very interested, but still didn’t understand that salvation was not dependent upon my efforts, but totally the grace of God. I also needed to repent and surrender control to Jesus. I made that decision at the beginning of my second year at Clemson and became a new person!
I met my wife, Danelle, during college. She got saved during her Junior year through my roommate sharing Christ with her fiancé, Bob, who also became a Christian. They both became a part of a Bible study group that I helped to lead. We got married May 10th, 1975. Bob had become my best friend and roommate. He was the best man in our wedding.
Danelle and I have 7 children and 22 grandchildren, most of whom live in the Atlanta area. Here is a photo of most of them.
While we were attending Clemson University, we met Herschel Martindale from Houston, TX. Herschel visited Clemson to help a Freshman co-ed find a Bible-believing fellowship. God led Herschel to myself and a good friend of mine. While he was there, Herschel gathered a small group of us together and taught us about the New Testament church, reaching the world with the gospel, and how God wanted us to make disciples. It was revolutionary to us. God rocked our world. We were never the same.
We decided to embrace the truths Herschel taught and began to be the church. We met as a large group on campus to worship, teach the Word, and had open meetings where all could share. We also met in homes off campus to break bread, have open, participatory meetings, where everyone was encouraged to build up one another. We often had meals together as well. We led people (both students & non-students) to Jesus and baptized them in Lake Hartwell. We were very young in the Lord and would butt heads at times, especially us men. Herschel would travel back and forth from Houston to patiently teach, correct, and encourage us in the Lord. He was an amazing role model in his marriage, family, love for believers and the lost, and his devotion to Christ. He never tried to control us, but trusted us, and he trusted God with us. He made disciples who made disciples all around the world!
Our campus church became a community church. Our church in Clemson started churches in Raleigh, Columbia, SC, Kiev, Ukraine, and Atlanta, GA. Danelle and I moved to Atlanta to help start the new church plant in 1986. While living in Atlanta we got away from the simple, organic church principles and became a traditional church. We had pastors preaching sermons (including me), worship teams, paid staff, programs, and we purchased buildings. Some of us began to realize that we were failing to make disciples like our early years. After much prayer and discussion among the leaders, Danelle I moved to Kiev, Ukraine to join friends living there to start churches.
While living in Ukraine, my good friend and fellow missionary, Timmy Powers and I both read Neil Cole’s book, Organic Church. We realized how we used to embrace many of the principles in his book, but had gotten away from our roots. We invited Neil to come to Kiev and teach. He graciously came and taught our Ukrainian friends for several days. As a result, many of us began to practice evangelism looking for people of peace to start new churches among their friends. A number of drug addicts and alcoholics came to Christ and were passionate about growing in their faith and sharing the gospel with their friends and families. It was exciting to see God working and disciples multiplying. Danelle and I felt like we had accomplished our goal of raising up disciples who were multiplying disciples and new organic churches, so we returned to Atlanta to help my mother who had become a widow during our time overseas.
Coming back to America to practice organic church principles, proved to be challenging. I think the Christian culture in America does not understand why some of us embrace these church principles. It is also difficult “to pour new wine into old wineskins.” Many believers who were brought up in a traditional church have difficulty letting go of past experiences and practices to consider organic church principles. It can be scary, weird, and it takes faith in God to do something new! Ask Peter! He too resisted when the Lord told him to go take the gospel to the Gentiles. In the same way, most of us struggle with functioning as an organic church in the beginning. The unlearning process takes time, patience, developing Biblical convictions, and the support of others who are functioning as an organic church on mission.
The benefits of practicing organic church are numerous. Each member is encouraged and equipped to walk with God, develop their relationship with Him. This enables them to build into one another. The church members are not expecting the pastor and staff (clergy) to do all the work of teaching, training, and evangelism. Ephesians 4:11-16 teaches us the body grows if each member is growing in Christ and building up one another. This is more than a meeting, it is a lifestyle of devotion to Christ, love for one another, and love for the lost. Organic church provides these opportunities. It is not automatic. It takes each member choosing to walk closely with God, obeying and trusting Him. When they gather, each one has a song or teaching or prophecy to build up the faith of others.
Many of our children grew up in an organic church, and several are part of one now. We have children in our churches now who have made tremendous contributions to our churches and grown in their faith. Of course, we are also convinced that the primary responsibility of a child’s spiritual growth lies with their parents. Parents need to be healthy role models of loving God and others. That is the heart of all discipleship! “More is caught than taught.” Jesus said, “A disciple is not greater than his teacher, but everyone when fully trained will be like his teacher.” Luke 6:40. A healthy organic church develops an environment of trust, openness, and honesty because people are loved and feel safe. It is messy, but it is real, and it is edifying!
The most important factor of a house church’s survival, I believe, is remembering whose church it is and who is doing the building. “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” Matthew 16:18. It is Jesus’ church. It belongs to Him, not any one of us and He is building it. Nothing will stop Him! Therefore, we can relax and trust Him. We can praise Him because He is the head of His church!
Struggle is normal in a church made up of former sinners who are being sanctified. Do not be surprised by conflict, disagreements, or hurt feelings. Forgive one another. Serve one another. Consider one another as more important than yourself. Struggle is normal in all relationships. Growth comes when we love one another and God is glorified because we can’t do that without Him.
I do believe that those who endure, persevere, and flourish all have others to encourage them. They have mentors. They have other friends or leaders in other churches that they can call on for prayer, support, and encouragement when it is hard. Reading good books on these subjects can also be encouraging when we feel like quitting.
Steve can be contacted at steve.nelson@reliant.org.
I would love to hear from those who have been doing organic church for an extended time. Contact me (Jonathan Rovetto) at 414.217.2189 or at jirovetto@yahoo.com. Don’t miss the next Unsung Heroes, subscribe below.
