Month: January 2012

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Report from Organic/Simple/House Church in UK & Ireland

In 2011 Mission Britain sent out a survey to people involved in simple/organic/house/missional churches in the UK and Ireland. We wanted to see where things were at and what is happening on the ground through these forms of Churches. We have examined the statistics and put together a Report which you can download for free. Please feel free to pass this report onto people who you feel might be interested.

 Simple Church

Over recent years the Church of Jesus Christ in the UK and Ireland has been in rapid decline and retreat. Church attendance figures have decreased dramatically leaving dwindling congregations and empty church buildings. It is now common to see old ‘Church buildings’ transformed into carpet warehouses, MOT garages or Sikh temples.

At the same time, over the past 40 years or so (a biblical generation), the work of the enemy has increased rapidly through the introduction of lawless ‘Laws’, and the eroding of Biblical values in the main spheres of society including family life, education, government, economics, media and arts. Our society is becoming increasingly hostile to ‘Christianity’. Visible signs of this are seen through media articles concerning the banning of Bibles in hospitals and B+B’s and the removing of crosses and ‘Christian symbols’ in public spaces.

Vast swathes of people are also leaving the ‘institutional church’ (whether they be traditional or more ‘modern’ churches)…

>>Click here to download and read the rest of the report:

Simple/Organic/House/Missional Church in the UK and Ireland (2011 PDF)

The report was carried out by Mission Britain and Ireland

See also:

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Arranging our lives so as to admit the truth of Christianity without being embarrassed…

“Many of us Christians have become extremely skillful in arranging our lives so as to admit the truth of Christianity without being embarrassed by its implications. We arrange things so that we can get on well enough without Divine aid, while at the same time ostensibly seeking it. We boast in the Lord but watch carefully that we never get caught depending on Him . . . . Pseudo faith always arranges a way out to serve in case God fails it. Real faith knows only one way and gladly allows itself to be stripped of any second way or makeshift substitutes. For true faith, it is either God or total collapse.”
-A.W. Tozer, “Root of the Righteous”
(thanks Maurice Smith & J. Guy Muse from their Facebook pages)
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Prisoners coming to Christ through Life Change Groups

12/30/2011

Just wanted to give you a quick update on what God is doing at the Wynne Unit in Huntsville, Texas:

The training of missionaries who will be serving as a catalyst in starting house churches officially starts on Feb. 1, 2012.

Life Change GroupWarden Pittman has taken some of these men (those that will be trained as missionaries) and has begun using them to do a one-on-one Life Change Group among offenders in Administrative Segregation (Ad Seg). The offenders that are housed in Ad Seg are either the most violent and disruptive offenders or belong to certain gangs that are the most dangerous to both the offender population and security staff, and thus, are housed in Ad Seg for safety reasons. Some of the men (missionaries) that you have met in your tour of the Wynne Unit are being used by Warden Pittman to bring about transformation in Ad Seg.

REMEMBER that because of security, there are no religious programs offered to Ad Seg offenders other than one on one ministry done by select religious volunteers. This is the darkest area of all of the prison system. A bright light is shining in the darkness. In the last several weeks, two Ad Seg offenders have accepted Christ and been baptized. A third accepted Christ this past week. Over one hundred men in Ad Seg have requested to be part of this Life Change Group process. Leadership from TDCJ (Texas Department of Criminal Justice) witness the last baptism and was literally blown away in regard to the process and the transformation. Recently, because of what God is doing, the Vice Chair of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice visited the Wynne Unit. I’ve been asked to give a report to this board in February.

I want to thank you for your prayers and support. God Bless!

David Valentine
Covenant Fellowship
Huntsville, Texas

P.S. One of our volunteers, Eddie Harmon just called to inform me that they are baptizing the third Ad Seg offender along with twenty-four other offenders (non-Ad Seg) next week. One of the twenty-four is a muslim at the Wynne Unit. This will be the second muslim that we will have baptized because of Life Change Groups.