Our current plan for our house church.

Our house church began in 2003 when we went to Detroit in August. We tried to maintain our house church in a UBF style of ministry. But this pattern and style, as shown to us, is deeply flawed and was grieving the Holy Spirit. So as of July 2011, our UBF style house church is closed, after eight years. I have resigned as “Detroit UBF Director”. Who am I to direct others? Still, we are called by God. We love God and love all our neighbors. We ask prayer for the following three-part plan.

1. Be renewed by attending Grace Community Church together. We cannot sit in a pit of spiritual darkness with no outside dialogue or support, just living our lives and upholding the perception of faith and obedience. We acknowledge that the nine members of our house church have nine vastly different needs for fellowship. We will continue attending the Grace worship service and seek ways to contribute to this wonderful part of the body of Christ.

2. Continue Bible study through these two series: “What is a house church?”, followed by “A Study of Galatians”. These series were developed by the Bible Study Committee in University Bible Fellowship. We are loosely following this study, but we do not use any question sheets and we do not use the messages. I personally read the messages beforehand and prepare a one page summary of some key points. We have studied two lessons and learned that a house church begins with a husband and a wife who love God, love each other and love their children. When I read Andy Stumpf’s sermon from Canada on Hosea 2, I included this as the second house church lesson.

3. Find our role if possible in University Bible Fellowship. Some in UBF have said their good-byes, and some seem confused asking me: Are you in UBF or not? This is an odd question to me, but still it is valid. I am in UBF, for what it matters. In other words, I am willing to serve God in the context of UBF. I do appreciate the many years of Bible study in UBF. Yet, it seems that I have little to learn from those who emphasize authority, discipline and obedience. I have learned those things and need to move on to the greater things of God. I have doubts as to whether the UBF community will continue to accept me, but I pray it may be possible. I pray the wind of the Spirit of Truth may sweep over us and kindle a new passion to find and enable the gifts Christ has distributed to people in UBF. May the Holy Spirit be our Director.