Maintaining Doctrinal Integrity in House Churches: Videos #9-13
January 30, 2010, Dennis McCallum of Xenos Christian Fellowship (Columbus, OH) shared with Apex about maintaining doctrinal integrity in house churches. If you were unable to make it to this equipping session, or you would like a refresher course, check out these videos. The long equipping session has been broken into 13 segments. Below are segments #5-8. The remaining segments will be posted over the course of the next couple of days.
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Segment #9
Segment #10
Segment #11
Segment #12
Segment #13
Maintaining Doctrinal Integrity in House Churches: Videos #5-8
January 30, 2010, Dennis McCallum of Xenos Christian Fellowship (Columbus, OH) shared with Apex about maintaining doctrinal integrity in house churches. If you were unable to make it to this equipping session, or you would like a refresher course, check out these videos. The long equipping session has been broken into 13 segments. Below are segments #5-8. The remaining segments will be posted over the course of the next couple of days.
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Segment #5
Segment #6
Segment #7
Segment #8
Maintaining Doctrinal Integrity in House Churches: Videos #1-4 Now Available
January 30, 2010, Dennis McCallum of Xenos Christian Fellowship (Columbus, OH) shared with Apex about maintaining doctrinal integrity in house churches. If you were unable to make it to this equipping session, or you would like a refresher course, check out these videos!
Though the videos aren’t super-high quality, the content is very good. The long equipping session has been broken into 13 segments. Below are segments #1-4. The remaining segments will be posted over the course of the next couple of days.
May these be a blessing to you and the ministry of your house church! And many thanks to Dennis for sharing with us.
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Segment #1
Segment #2
Segment #3
Segment #4
My Story: Jason Wing, Apex Staffer
Jason Wing is on staff with Apex to give leadership, encouragement, and support to all the house church shepherds within the Apex network. He is also a region one house church shepherd and regional leadership team member. In this video, he shares his story.
Q&A: What’s the Difference Between Small Groups and House Church?
This is a common question posed to Apex leadership. Many people hear us say, “house church,” and they automatically assume we are putting a new trendy name on Small Groups (which was actually just a new trendy name for Sunday School in the 90’s). The truth is… there are several very real and distinct differences. Jason Wing, Apex staffer and region one house church shepherd, explains many of these distinct differences.
My Story: Rennes Bowers, Apex Elder
Rennes is an elder in Region 1 (Dayton-area) and a house church shepherd. You may have also heard him speak in the Apex weekend gatherings. In this video, he shares his story.
Jan 30th HC Equipping with Dennis McCallum: Maintaining Doctrinal Integrity In Your HC
Right thinking is necessary for right living. Therefore, doctrine is crucial for Apex and our HC’s. We will be addressing this issue on Saturday, January 30th with Dennis McCallum, founder of Xenos church in Columbus. Join us from 9:30-12noon in the Fellowship Hall. Open to all Apex members.
Check out this personal invitation video from Dennis!
About Dennis McCallum:
Xenos Christian Fellowship
www.xenos.org
blog: authenticmeansreal.blogspot.com
Backpacks & Bibles
- Andria and her husband Warren host a house church in West Dayton
This summer, the Perkins & Euler house church hosted a porch bible camp in early August. During the camp, we discovered that many of the children had need of school supplies. About 15 children were served during bible camp. We also found out that many did not have bibles. Finally, during lessons, we discovered that simple bible and christian terms like forgiveness and sin were not understood by the 4-10 year-olds we served. One night, during bible camp, Warren asked the children if they could give examples of what a sinner looked like. He expected to hear, “my brother hits me” or “so and so cusses”. Instead, we heard, “my uncle killed someone and is in prison” and “my moms boyfriend hits her”. These profound understandings about the life of these children led us to pray out to God about how we could help them.
First it was put on our hearts to provide school supplies and bibles in addition to the regular bread distribution in our neighborhood. We wanted to provide a back-back with school supplies and a bible for 15 children. If we had extra, we estimated that we could easily find an additional 5 children. We started by posting a message on Facebook, and then on the Apex website. Soon donations from other house churches, family and friends started to pour in. On the Thursday before school started in Dayton in August, we had enough bible, backpacks, and supplies to serve around 20 children or more. We had mentioned to a couple of children during bible camp that we would be getting them supplies. A couple of children kept asking regularly about the supplies. One particularly eager girl wanted to come right then to get the supplies. We asked her to wait until 6 pm that night when the volunteers were arriving to pack the bags and then take them door to door with us. We expected to have to track down some of the children to whom we had promised supplies and that we would just drop by and ask door to door for several blocks around us if any one else was in need.
At 6 pm the volunteers arrived with more supplies in hand. We started to get organized and counted again, we had materials for more than 30 children including 27 backpacks and 27 bibles (about the size of one classroom of students in Dayton)! About then, the young girls, Shana, knocked on the door – having come to get her supplies. When we opened the door to invite her in, we noticed that the other children had come to pick up their supplies as well. The porch was full. We allowed Shana to come in first, she picked a backpack, filled it with the age appropriate supplies she needed and picked a bible. We also gave her info from Child Evangelism Fellowship – their color book that tells the story of God’s love and their mailbox club. Then we asked Shana if we could pray with her. We prayed for her to have a good school year, to come home and study everyday, and for her to know more about God in the coming year. We repeated this scenario with 27 children that night, and prayed with each child who would allow us. We never left our house and sometimes the line was out to the street.
2 children didn’t get served that night but 2 days later we got more donations and were able to provide bags and supplies for those kids as well. For the next 2 weeks, parents and grandparents stopped by to tell us about grandchildren, children, neighbors, cousins, anyone they knew of who needed supplies. Everyone who came to our door got supplies, a tract, and our prayers. With the donated supplies, we met every need. God is great, and showed himself in this simple act of school supplies for these children.
Regularly when the children see us outside, we’re asked when we are doing the next program. The kids here are hungry for the good word about Christ. This fall, we are striving to get a couple of things together for the children. Please pray for these efforts:
1. Please pray for our house church’s efforts to start tutoring in the neighborhood, that it moves forward as God wills it.
2. Please pray for the establishment of a monthly or bi-weekly children’s club when the children can come together to hear more about Jesus, learn about the bible, and how to pray. We are currently considering resources or systems that could guide this effort in addition to praying about volunteers.
3. Please pray for the hearts of the children and their parents. We believe we have fertile soil and we ask that God use us as He will, and that we can be a witness for the glory of God in this neighborhood.
4. Annually for 3 years we’ve had a Halloween hotdog and drink handout since many of the children only eat candy on Halloween night. Please pray for this to be a meaningful time and for Christ to continue to open doors.
5. We have done a Thanksgiving breakfast door knocking event in the past, taking coffee and hot rolls to our neighbors in an effort to meet them and know them better (and as always, show God’s love to people). Please pray that if God wills this event, He would open the right doors and prepare the way for this.
In all these things, we want to do Christ’s will, and not do works through our own will, but through His. Please be in prayer for our house church to be His conduit!
Does the use of a particular Bible translation matter?
This is a re-post of an article from Rob Turner on 11.14.2008
Question:
Does the use of a particular Bible translation matter?
My short answer:
It depends on your understanding of the translation philosophy which underscores your preferred translation of scripture. As long as you understand the translator’s philosophy (of how that translation was derived), then I would say there is liberty for you to use varied translations for particular contexts (i.e. devotional reading, teaching, deep and thorough inductive study). This small article is not an exhaustive treatment of translation philosophy but rather a concise treatment to support a small shift in our Apex weekend gatherings.
The terminology used in much discussion of Bible translations is functional equivalence and formal equivalence. Imagine functional equivalence being on the far left (no political pun is intended) and formal equivalence being on the far right. The more a translation philosophy leans toward a functional approach… the more readable that translation will be. At the same time, that translation will also be less precise in reflecting the terminology and grammar in the numerous copies of the oldest, original manuscripts of scripture. For instance, if I go out and buy a New Century Version (NCV) I will definitely obtain a translation that is very high on readability, but it will be lacking in many of areas of accuracy. I may use it for devotional reading, but I would not use it for in-depth Bible study or as the primary translation for teaching. On the other hand, if I go and obtain a New American Standard (NAS) which adheres to a formal equivalence philosophy, I will have a translation which is high on accuracy but sacrifices a degree of readability. This particular translation (NAS) can come across as wooden and somewhat disjointed in how it reads.
The dominant translation used in my walk with Jesus has been the New International Version (NIV). It has been the primary translation in my devotional and teaching life. The NIV does a good job of being close to the middle with regard to functional and formal methodologies. It is the translation on which I have “cut my teeth” as Christ has grown me. As one can imagine, the NIV holds a very sentimental place within my heart. That being said, over the last few years I have desired to use a translation that is more accurate than the NIV but reads better than the NAS. I have found that translation in the English Standard Version (ESV). I have been using the ESV as my main translation of study over the last couple of years. I now want to utilize it as the main text in our weekend gatherings. This will also be reflected in our programs and supporting texts that appear on the screen. Please understand, if you prefer to continue using the NIV for your personal study and as the translation you bring to the Apex gatherings, that is wonderful! I still think the NIV is a great translation, and you are not a bad or immature person if you use it! I just wanted to give you, the Apex community, a “heads up” in case you started to scratch your head in confusion when the translation on the screen does not match the translation you are using.
By way of commercial, the ESV Study Bible just came out this past month. If you are interested, you can go to www.wtsbooks.com and order a hard back for $28.49. It is a great and wonderful thing when God’s people are reading, studying, AND applying God’s Word.
Needing Him, rob
Follow Up Thoughts after the Organic Church Weekend with Neil Cole and CMA – Part 1
From Jason Wing, Growing Team Lead:
DNA is essential
According to CMA (Church Multiplication Associates), the three essential elements of the church are Divine Truth, Nurturing Relationships, and Apostolic Mission (DNA). If a house church is missing one of these elements, it will generally lack effectiveness in the kingdom of God. We tend to be good with the D, great with the N, but terrible with the A. Let’s not become satisfied if we’re doing OK with 2 of the 3 essential elements.
First make disciples, then make churches
If we’re going to talk about multiplying house churches, we must first learn to multiply disciples. We are to make disciples… who make up churches… which make up networks (like Apex). We cannot get this process out of order if we wish to see a true culture changing movement. If we are not multiplying disciples through 1-on-1 relationships, we will never multiply churches or movements.
The Marks of a Priest
Apex regularly talks about our collective identity as the Priesthood of all Believers (1st Peter chapter 2). I’m not sure we all know what that means. Here are 4 core marks of a priest:
1) Intercedes to God on behalf of people – we pray for each other!
2) Instructs people regarding the will of God – we teach each other!
3) Holds people accountable to the will of God – we confront sin with each other!
4) Blesses the people of God – we encourage and care for each other!
Are you acting like a priest? Are you doing these things? Thank God that Jesus is our high priest who always does these things perfectly.