Overview: fall of 2005 to present

The following is an update letter that I sent to our supporters a couple of days ago. I invite you to read it and rejoice with us in the many wonderful things that the Lord is doing in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

When I was with you a year ago I spoke to some of you about the changes that we would be making in our ministry philosophy in Porto Alegre. Over the last year and a half we have been making a transition away from the traditional “attractional” model of church to a more approachable, inviting method of evangelism. Our goal is to reach as many people with the Good News as we possibly can. We have found that we come up short in our efforts when we try to do that from a large building. However, people in south Brazil are more than willing to come to our homes for a Bible study. Therefore, our transition has lead to a house church network.

I am very excited to share with you how we came to this and why we are moving in this direction. First, I would like to inform you that this is new to all of us. It is different, yet exciting. It is challenging and overwhelming, yet encouraging and powerful. This has already been a difficult road full of challenges. We have already seen persecution from Christian brothers and sisters who do not believe that this is the “right” way to minister to “not-yet” Christians. We have been told that this will not work and that we are not being lead by the Holy Spirit. There has been an incredible amount of anxiety and hostility and resentment over this transition that it is frankly, upsetting and surprising. We have seen physical, verbal, spiritual and mental attacks since starting on this new path of ministry. I know one thing for sure. These attacks are a result of our following the Spirit and allowing Him to work through us no matter the cost. Satan knows that he needs to pick it up. But, he is in for a surprise, because the Spirit is alive, brothers!

We have already seen an incredible amount of fruit in a short period of time! Let me start at the beginning of this change in direction:

Our team realized that we were not on the right track in our ministry and that people were not being reached in the later half of 2005 (probably beginning in September). We started studying alternative ways of reaching out to the community. We got our hands on a book called "The Shaping of Things to Come" written by a couple of Australian missionaries. This book is a great read. It talks a lot about postmodernism (stuff that I frankly don't get). There are a lot of really good points about how we, the people, are the church; the building is not. There are a lot of examples in the book of how people have focused their ministries around secular work like the food industry, shoe stores, even bars. My favorite quote is we need to be willing to seep into the cracks of the community to reach the people (paraphrased). Anyway, this book really got the wheels turning.

From there, we studied another book on postmodernism. It was kind of like "Postmodernism for Dummies". I still didn't get it though! (I am more of a heart person – not an intellect!)

In the midst of all of this between November 2005 and January 2006 different members of this team started thinking about house churches without influencing each other. What I mean is that Matt Rehbein received a book on house churches and started reading it without the rest of us knowing. Kevin and Benay Blume had been praying about having a house church to reach their friends that didn't want to go to the church building. I envisioned house churches throughout the city while I was praying one day. To be honest, the idea had come up once before from Kevin and Benay and it freaked me out. I thought that it was divisive and wouldn't work. That was Satan putting those thoughts in me.

In March of 2006, after much prayer and study, our team had a review meeting. We could see clearly that our efforts to utilize our building and to reach out to the community were failing. Our numbers have been consistently around 75 or 80 for about a year and a half. That isn't bad, but it could be so much better. In this review meeting (4 days long!) we discussed all kinds of ideas of how to improve our ministry. We talked about how we could make what we were currently doing better. No one, absolutely no one saw that that was a possibility. I can quote one member of our team saying that "this is a dead work!" We discussed other ideas of what our ministry "engine" could be: marriage encounter, evangelistic cell groups, house churches, a restaurant, child day care, focus groups, etc. We went through a huge list of pros and cons for each idea. At the end, we had 3 things remaining that we thought were possibilities: focus groups (special ministries like a weight loss program, marriage counseling, cooking classes, etc), evangelistic cell groups, and house churches. We decided unanimously that focus groups could be a part of the cell groups or house churches, so we narrowed our focus to evangelistic cell groups and house churches. We decided to take a vote to help us decide what to pursue. The options were cell groups with an emphasis on evangelism, house churches, or evangelistic cell groups that would grow into house churches (with the understanding that if the cell groups took off and the house church thing fizzled we would take that as direction from the Lord). After the vote was taken we all decided to support growing evangelistic cell groups that would flow and grow into house churches.

So, in June of 2006 we kicked off our evangelistic cell groups that we called "Growth Groups". We used some light studies, mainly about Jesus, that were attractive and not over our visitors' heads. The Growth Groups went really well. We had 7 at one point. That is almost double what our previous small groups were (4 in 2005). Four of the new 7 groups were led by Brazilians. These groups went until November.

In the beginning of November we called about 20 key players in our church family (people who have leadership qualities and who are more involved) into a meeting. We asked them what they would like to see this church family do (grow, mature, reach out). They gave us a long list of ideas that were really good. We invited them to join us in 40 days of prayer and fasting (we didn't fast every day of the 40 days) about the direction of this church family and to study the book of Acts. We probably should have asked them sooner, but we dropped the ball on that. We did our best to involve our church family anyway. We looked at their ideas and saw how many of them fit what we thought a house church would have (more fellowship, more accountability, Bible study, meals together, more emphasis on the Lord's Supper, etc.) On December 3rd, we had a special service to introduce what we would do in the future. I spoke about the things that the church family had said that they wanted to see us develop and how we were going to do that; Paul talked about hope and how change is difficult, but good; Kevin introduced using our homes as a way to reach out to the community and be evangelistic. It was well received by all.

Because of the changes and several other things that were happening at the time we decided to move out of the building where we were holding our services. We announced this move on December 3rd and made it the day after Christmas. We moved all of our chairs, tables, shelves, etc., etc., etc. to a depósito (storage unit). The last 2 Sundays of 2006 were at the Blume's house. We set up chairs and had our services there for 2 months. Our format was simple and helped us get used to being in smaller groups. We were having around 60 or 70 every Sunday which is phenomenal in the summer when most people take off and go to the beach for weeks and sometime months at a time. We would sit together and worship as a large group, someone would share a word (mainly about what house churches incorporate - fellowship, Lord's Supper, prayer, worship), and then we would break up into our 4 house churches (small groups) to have communion and deeper Bible study. Afterward, we would get back together for announcements and those who wanted to stay would have lunch together. It was great every single time! One Sunday we had a Celebration service (which you can read about on our blog) at a park downtown. Three Sundays ago we were at our annual Carnaval Retreat. Two Sundays ago we had another Celebration at an alcohol and drug rehabilitation center that we help support called the Chácara. Last Sunday we met in separate homes for the first time. So, just this last Sunday we kicked off our first church plants. We now have 4 churches in Porto Alegre! There is one meeting in our home, one in the Blume home, one in the Rehbein home, and one in the Morrow home. We had 19 in attendance on Sunday, the Blumes had 24, the Rehbeins had 15, and the Morrows had 25. It ended up being 83 people in total! That number may not say much to you, but it says a ton to me. I know that there were several people out of town that couldn't come but will on a regular basis. If you include them the number is right at 100 people on our first house church Sunday in separate locations. We have only gone over 100 on just a small handful of occasions in the old building. This tells me that our older members aren't turned off by what we are doing, they are participating too. More people are coming into our homes. The Lord is blessing us with a vision to invite people into our homes where they feel comfortable and safe. People of south Brazil are far from wanting to come into a building. We learned that we were right on with this observation this last Sunday.

Although we made the decision to move out of our building, we have decided to start looking for a house to buy and convert into a centralized Resource Center. This location will be set up to help us communicate with all the house churches that we hope to have. It will also be designed to hold leadership training meetings, workshops, youth events/activities, men’s and women’s activities/classes, etc. We really believe that a Resource Center would be a blessing to this effort to establish a house church network.

In addition, we are currently looking for couples to train as leaders of future house churches. Through our house churches we hope to establish an opportunity for everyone to participate in the worship and fellowship. We are praying that the natural leaders of each house church would be burdened with a desire to learn to lead a group.

We are focusing on what the early Christians did in the book of Acts and in the various letters that Paul and the other apostles wrote. We want everyone to share what they have to offer (materially and spiritually). In time, I believe everyone will capture the vision of what the Lord wants to do here and now and beyond. After one Sunday in our home I feel like our family has grown profoundly deeper and stronger. It is truly amazing.

We expected that this change in direction would be difficult for our Brazilian church family and that it was possible that we might lose some people. Any time you have a change it is possible to have an unkind reaction. However our church family is fully on board and has really rallied around the changes. One member said a few weeks ago, “can you believe that we are more united now that we are not meeting in a building?!” Praise God for this wonderful attitude!

This is what we expect things to look like here in the foreseeable future:

We will be meeting with our house churches for the first 3 Sundays of the month (4 if there are 5 Sundays). It is up to each house church where they meet. They can choose to meet at a park or in a shopping mall – the point is that they are church where ever they are! Each house church is challenged to find a way to reach out and encourage the community at least one Sunday a month with some form of service. For example, sing for people dying of terminal diseases in the hospital, visit an orphanage, etc. - doing these types of things will grow us and will teach us - it is being church! The last Sunday of every month we will have a Celebration worship service and lunch. The Celebration will be with everyone involved in our church family (I suspect we will invite other churches in the POA area too). Starting in April we will have a prayer meeting the second Wednesday of each month. So, the whole large group can possibly get together twice a month (every other week) and the house churches will be meeting weekly. Some churches may also decide to have a Bible study during the week if they choose. It is up to each house church. There is freedom in the structure.

In other ministry news:

I am planning on starting a Men's Sexual Purity study in April. It will meet every Saturday morning at my house. Lots of the guys in our church family are interested and in need of a class like this. I am very excited about it. This will be an incredible study for these men since it is perfectly acceptable to have a mistress and be active in the world of pornography. We will be focusing on a few different areas: how to better our relationships with the Lord; how to better or relationships with our wives; how to view women as God’s daughters, with respect and kindness; and how to grow our relationships with other men through sharing and accountability. Please be praying about this class and for these men. I really think that it will help shape the future leadership of this church family with trust and accountability. This has potential to be a hug step in the right direction for our church leadership.

I want to thank you for your fervent prayers and support. We love and appreciate you and pray for you too. May God bless you!

In Christian fellowship,

Sascha