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BELIEF &
PRACTICE
House churches
gain ground
IN
THE NORTHEAST
• Back
to the Garden is a rotating house church in Saco, Maine. Contact backtothegarden@gmail.com.
• The
Fellowship of Church Planters,
Rhode Island, is an organization of house church planters in New England.
Contact via the Web site.
IN
THE EAST
• Stephanie
Bennett writes about the home church/simple church movement for the webzine
Relational
Christianity and for AOL
Hometown. She lives in Brick, N.J. Contact Steffasong@aol.com.
• David
and Kristin O’Connor have been involved in house churches for 15 years. They
live in the Philadelphia area. Contact 4oconnor@gmail.com.
• Tom
Howland is a member of Churchin’ in Albany, a house church in Albany, N.Y. Contact
518-857-3519, coolbreeezzz@hotmail.com.
• The
Finger Lakes Ekklesia Network
is an organization of four house churches in the Finger Lakes region of upstate
New York. Contact info@flenw.org.
• Felipe
and Yanique Mesa have just started a house church in Taneytown, Md. Contact
443-536-1971, MDekklesia@aol.com.
• Jared
Looney is a church planter involved in house churches in the Bronx, N.Y.
He is part of MetroSoul,
a cooperative organization of church organizations and church planters working
to plant simple churches throughout the New York metropolitan area. He blogs
at Urban Ekklesia.
Contact 718-741-2881, jared@bronxfellowship.org.
IN
THE SOUTHEAST
•
AtlantaSaints.com
is a group of Christian men, women and children who meet for worship in their
homes. Neil Carter is a teacher and Web site designer who is a member of this
group who blogs.
Contact neil@christinyall.com.
• Marshall
Entrekin runs a house
church in Kennesaw, Ga. Contact 404-431-4272.
• Mike
Morrell and Philip Scriber are members of a network of house churches in the
Raleigh-Durham, N.C., area. Together, they maintain Sites
Unseen, a Web site dedicated to emerging church. Contact Morrell at zoecarnate@gmail.com and Scriber at redwookie@yahoo.com.
IN
THE SOUTH
• Greg
Ramos is the leader of Baruch
Assembly, a house church in Kenner, La. They met regularly until Katrina
and are currently restructuring. Contact 504-305-1088.
• Mike
and Christie Indest run Fellowship
of Believers, a house church organization in Folsom, La., and a weekly radio
show on the subject. Contact 985-796-1602, mike@fellowshipofbelievers.org.
IN
THE MIDWEST
• Nancy
Austel is a house church planter in Indiana. Contact nancy_austel@hotmail.com.
• David
and Joscey Brecheisen are part of Church
in Home, a Michigan-based church planting organization, and are church planters
involved in house churches in Chicago. They publish a newsletter.
Contact 773-722-0631, djbrecheisen@yahoo.com.
• Kevin
Rains operates Vineyard
Central, a community of house churches in the Cincinnati area. He left a
Vineyard Church for a series of house churches in the 1990s. He likens the growth
of house churches, and their organization into local networks without any kind
of larger oversight, to the growth of the World Wide Web. He lives in Norwood,
Ohio. Contact 513-396-7202, rainsbodyshop@fuse.net.
• Matt
and Tammy Mawdsley run a house
church in Springfield, Mo. Contact 417-581-3206, mmawdsley@calton.com.
IN
THE SOUTHWEST
• Joseph
Cartwright is the founder of Awakening
Church, a ministry dedicated to planting and supporting house churches.
He is working to get house churches to give more generously to the poor and
to missions. He is in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Contact info@awakeningchurch.org.
• Jon
Dale is an entrepreneur and father of three who left a 10,000-plus-member
megachurch for house churches in 2001. He blogs at Simply
Church and is located outside Colorado Springs, Colo. Contact 719-244-1342,
jon@jondale.com.
• Mike
Dowgiewicz is part of Restoration
Ministries International, a nonprofit that assists groups in forming and
supporting house churches. He and his wife have traveled to Israel to research
the first house churches. He lives in Colorado Springs, Colo. Contact 719-573-4911.
• Don
and Te-ata Mueller are part of a house
church in Cedaredge, Colo. Contact 970-856-7532.
• The
Praise House is
a house church in Broken Arrow, Okla. Contact 918-355-2647, mailbox@thepraisehouse.org.
IN
THE WEST/NORTHWEST
• Brian
Anderson is a member of a house church in Sonora, Calif. He also runs a
Web site, Great
Commission House Churches. Contact 209-586-4143.
• Harold
and Wendy Behr plant house churches in Southern Oregon. Harold blogs at Simple
Church. Contact haroldbehr@gmail.com.
• Ken
Cluck left traditional pastoral ministry to plant house churches. He runs a
house
church in Orofino, Idaho. In January, he will be moving to Colorado to plant
another house church. Contact 208-476-4994, cluckk@cebridge.net.
• Rick
Horton is the lead pastor and elder of Matthew’s
House, a network of Southern California house churches based in Oceanside,
Calif. Contact 760-295-5662.
• Gayle
Erwin publishes Servant Quarters,
a newsletter and Web site that supports home churches. He is based in Cathedral
City, Calif. Contact 760-321-0077, gayle@servant.org.
• Frank
Smith is the founder of Crushed
Grapes Ministry, a church planting ministry that helps people start home
churches. He lives in Vista, Calif. Contact FSmithCGM@sbcglobal.net.
• Roger
Thoman is a former nondenominational church pastor who has been involved in
house churches for four years and now helps plant new ones. He says it used
to be that people who attended house churches were “bitter” about their experience
in traditional churches, but that now people are joining house churches for
more positive reasons, such as wanting to deepen their faith. He lives in Nipomo,
Calif. Contact rogerthoman11@yahoo.com.
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