The Ecclesia Network

a missional church network

Ecclesia News

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ENG 20: Get to Know Our Presenters- Scot McKnight

At ENG 20 Reflecting the Son, you’ll experience a mixture of traditional plenary sessions and “TED”-type talks, along with workshop options in specific tracks around
theology, discipleship, leadership, and multiplication.   We’re excited that Scot McKnight is joining us as a featured speaker as we seek to recover Church in the image of Christ!

Dr. Scot McKnight is a world-renowned speaker, writer, professor and equipper of the Church. He is a recognized authority on the historical Jesus, early Christianity, and the New Testament. His blog, Jesus Creed, is a leading Christian blog. A sought after speaker, he has been interviewed on several radio and television programs as well as spoken at numerous local churches, conferences, colleges, and seminaries in the United States and around the world. Scot McKnight is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and the Society for New Testament Studies.

For more info and registration on the Ecclesia National Gathering 2020, click here!

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Leader Profile: Doug Moister

The Renew Community, Lansdale PA

Doug Moister and family


Doug Moister serves as the lead pastor at the Renew Community. Doug and his wife Mear accepted the call to come on staff with Renew in 2011. Today, besides his pastoral and preaching duties with Renew, Doug is a life long learner, a church history nerd, a coach in the community, and an enthusiastic fly fisherman. Doug and Mear enjoy spending time with their kids and thanking God for all He has done and continues to do in the community.

How would you describe the area your church is in?

Lansdale is a northwest suburb of Philadelphia that sits along the R5 rail line(a rail line that runs into the heart of the city).  It is a small town that has been growing its image and identity over the past 10 years.  Some things folks notice when they come to town is the walkability, new construction, and renovations of old buildings.  We have had an influx of coffee shops, breweries, and unique restaurants in the past few years. Which has shown a jump in the housing market and made things tougher for our lower income friends. Lansdale is culturally diverse, we have a thousand member mosque within walking distance from where we meet.  Lastly, there are a ton of young families who live in Lansdale. 

How would you describe the journey of pastoring The Renew Community? What have been some of the milestones/different seasons?

Around year 7 we experienced a really difficult season with some good folks leaving well and not so well. It also seemed that some of our most steady healthy folks were going through some really hard things.  I believe looking back that Renew was invited into a season of growing up during that time and trusting the Lord to take us through that process. Another significant season for us happened a year and a half ago when J.R. Briggs the founding pastor stepped down but did not leave, that brought about the hiring of Ben Pitzen and he has been such a blessing to our community.  We are also grateful that we get to tell a story of a founding pastor stepping down, handing over the reins and being part of the community.  Lastly,  our Elders ROCK!  3 years ago we added two women elders and that has built trust and been a blessing on so many levels to Renew.  I could go on… 

Looking back, what do you know now you wish you had known when you first started at Renew?

I don’t think there is much I would change, maybe the way I personally handled certain situations, or things we tried.  I would have started seeing a spiritual director about 3 years sooner. 

As you think about what you’ve been able to do so far in ministry there what are some things you have done/tried that have worked well?

I would say we have made it goal to be more creative in the arts and take risks in our gatherings and House churches.  We have and it has paid off as we are seeing creatives come out of the woodwork for us. 

What hasn’t worked so well? What have you had to rethink/reimagine/rework?

I am constantly evaluating what is working and not working.  one thing I would say that has been something I am burdened about is continuing to push Renew outside of herself.  We have been given the gift of a healthy community, and we need to use that to move beyond ourselves. Particularly in our house churches.  House church is part of our hybrid structure and I am rethinking how we do mission in and to our geographical areas where our 9 house churches meet. 

What is one failure you experienced and what did you learn from it?

Wow, just one…. A few months ago I was getting up to teach on a Sunday and I sensed the Holy Spirit put something on my heart which would have been a complete change from what I had planned. I didn’t listen, the teaching went off well, but I missed an opportunity to obey.  
What is something you’ve been hearing from or learning from God in this last season of leading?
That God is faithful, and I need to grow in my own trust of his leadership.  

What do you dream/hope/pray The Renew Community looks like in five years?

My prayer is that we plant two churches, one to the west of us and one in Philadelphia.  

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Meditations on the Ecclesia National Gathering ’19

We recently asked some folks to reflect and finish the sentence “I left the Ecclesia National Gathering this year feeling ___________.”

Here’s what they said!

I left the Ecclesia National Gathering this year feeling a lot of respect for some leaders who have endured through some hard seasons!

– Bob

Grateful to be in a community that has walked through and adjusted to a lot of challenging circumstances. It encourages me as a future church-planter that our leadership team will have so much collective wisdom and experience to lean on.

– Curtis

Encouraged by what God is doing through the church.

– Jon

Heard, seen and loved by God.

– Jim

I left encouraged for the future, thanks to the gracious support of my brothers and sisters in Ecclesia.

– Wendy

Feeling grateful the two awards our network gives out each year are for (1) Perseverance and (2) Servanthood (and not Fastest Growing Church or Most “Successful” Church).

I was reminded once again why I love our network so much.

-J.R.

Feeling overwhelmingly confirmed in our vocation, gratitude for the support and experiences of those in the network, and happy to have even more new friends!

– Robbie

Even more thankful to be in the network!

-Mandy

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New Ministry Spotlight: The Mill Chapel Open Sanctuary

Ecclesia’s Redemption Church in Bristol, PA has started an amazing new missional initiative. Here’s Pastor Gary Alloway’s latest update:

In 2017, Redemption Church in Bristol, PA got a grant to research the topic of young adults and religion and after a number of interviews, a theme emerged: Young adults were open to God, but scared of the church. It got us thinking: “What would it look like to create a space where people could meet God, but there were no requirements for membership, beliefs, or behaviors?” In September, we opened The Mill Chapel, an open sanctuary space for the town of Bristol. The Mill is a storefront just off main street that is decorated in both simple and sacred aesthetics. Our initial offerings are basic: open prayer from 6 to 8 am and an evening contemplative prayer class. And while we have big dreams for classes, events, and workshops, our biggest dream is simply to have the space open as much as possible for anyone to come in.

Why open a prayer chapel in Bristol? Sometimes practice comes before belief. I’ve always been intrigued by the culture of AA, which asks people to pray even if they don’t believe. A weird thing happens when people do this. Quite often, people come to know God. When Jesus invites his disciples, he doesn’t first explain to them the Kingdom of God. Instead, he simply says, “Come follow me.” And it is only after they taste and touch the Kingdom of God that the disciples come to believe. Our hope is that someone could come in for prayer or silence or meditation and even if they don’t yet believe, they could meet the Living God.

Why open a prayer chapel in Bristol? Redemption has been working as missionaries in Bristol for 9 years now, forming relationships all over town. We’ve often found that Sundays are not a good point of invitation for those who are spiritual-but-not-religious. We wanted to create a middle space, something that is overtly spiritual, gets beyond the pleasantries and small talk, and yet, a place without the baggage that come with attending church.

Why open a prayer chapel in Bristol? Because Bristol, like anywhere else, needs prayer. One of the privileges of my life has been to visit churches and monasteries all over the world that are committed to prayer. There is a lightness and a joy that permeates the air. On mornings when I drive our kids to school, I drive past The Mill, look inside, and see that the candles are lit. Someone is praying for Bristol. And no matter how heavy the day feels, something of that lightness and joy comes to visit me. Bristol is being prayed for. It makes my heart happy.

The Mill is a missional experiment and we hope that many come to know and enjoy God through that place. But honestly, if all that ever happened at The Mill was that a bunch of Redemptionites got praying for Bristol, I bet God would do pretty good things with that. And since that is already happening, I would say the experiment is a success.

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News from around the Ecclesia Network

Redemption Church, Bristol PA

Weekly Worship, Meeting God

In September, Redemption switched back to a weekly worship service after six years of meeting in house churches.  We loved house churches, but after a careful discernment process, we decided God was calling us into something new.  We hope the switch is a way to care better for our kids, open the door for the community of Bristol, and take advantage of the talented teachers, liturgists, and musicians we now have at Redemption.  But more than that, we hope the switch is an opportunity to meet God.  While house church specializes in intimacy with one another, in discernment, we discovered a deep longing for intimacy with God – a desire to be drawn into something bigger than ourselves. We are still committed to discipleship, to local mission, and to intimate community.  But all those things are meaningless without a relationship to the Living God.  So we have prayed that God would meet us in worship.  And four months in, God has been answering that prayer abundantly!  Amen.

 

Austin Mustard Seed, Austin TX

At Austin Mustard Seed we’ve had a lot to celebrate lately. There have been many changes in our leadership since the summer. Throughout the process, we’ve had a clear sense of God’s presence and feel gratitude for God’s direction and provision. We believe it is gratitude that gives us joy, and we are thankful to experience shared joy as a community this Advent season.

This month we commissioned four leaders in our church. On December 2, April Karli and Daniel Read were commissioned as pastors, and on December 9, Ashley Blackwell and Shane Blackshear were commissioned as lay pastors.

 

 

Update From The Crowded House

“Central Florida doesn’t need another worship gathering.”

I remember uttering those words to countless people two years ago when Crystal and I decided to launch The Crowded House Network. We believed those words then and we believe those words now.

Central Florida does not need another worship gathering but The Crowded House Network does. Over the past few years we have grown from a small gathering of young adults on Tuesday nights, to an inter-generational church consisting of three house churches throughout Central Florida. Our dream is that The Crowded House be a spiritual family on mission together. This was easy to accomplish with eight people on a Tuesday night. Living into this way of being the church when we are three house churches spread out across Central Florida is anything but easy.

In order for us to live into the dream of being a spiritual family on mission together, our leadership team has made the decision to lead us into a new kind of gathering to complete all the good that is happening in our house churches.

On the first and third Sundays of every month, we will gather as an entire network to sing songs of praise, offer prayers for one another, proclaim the good news, and partake of the Eucharist. While this will have similar elements to other church worship gatherings, our focus on communal spiritual growth, corporate prayers and participation, and sacramental theology will make this gathering unmistakably The Crowded House.

This is an exciting time for us as a church. We are stepping into something new and unexplored for us. Just as we had the audacious dream to start a network of house churches in a land of traditional churches, we are exploring what is next as we continue to develop as a family on mission together.

 

The Renew Community, Lansdale PA

Recently, The Renew Community held a “Blue Christmas” Potluck/Gathering

Blue Christmas is a special service to acknowledge that for many people, Christmas is a time of loneliness, sorrow, alienation, sadness. This service offers a way for people to claim those feelings and still feel surrounded by the compassionate love of God. Afterwards, we will share a meal together. If you would like to provide part of this meal, please sign up for an item to bring.

If you want to know more about this, or even how your church can serve the grieving during the holidays, check out this webinar from Missio Alliance with Ecclesia’s own Kate Blackshear (from Austin Mustard Seed)- Download/Watch FREE until Dec 31st.

Reminder… 

We encourage all our churches, during difficult or stressful times in their community to remember that they have the resources of a network to draw on. Your Ecclesia staff members (Chris Backert, J.R. Briggs and Bob Hyatt) are ready and available to help you navigate whatever you are facing!

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New Church Spotlight:  Derik Heumann and Evergreen

 

Derik Heumann was part of our Fall 2017 Genesis Church Planter’s Training. Since then, Derik and his wife Kim along with another couple have been intentionally moving through a core-group phase, gathering like-minded folks, seeing people come to know Jesus, and moving towards launching a public gathering this coming Spring as Evergreen Church in Ann Arbor, MI! They are currently meeting in (and outgrowing) the Heumann’s basement, and as they connect with neighbors, friends old and new.

Some recent updates from Derik:

  • We are continuing to grow and welcome new people into the Evergreen community!  In the last month, we had 10 new people visit our Sunday gathering and experience 3 streams worship, intentional community, and Jesus as Healer.
  • We launched our second round of Discipleship Bands (groups of 3-5 who read together, pray together, and meet together to be the love of God for one another and the world). Now we have 16 of our community engaging with God and one another in deep, intentional, and accountable discipleship.
  • JESUS AS HEALER! We concluded our 7 week series by having a Healing Prayer service. 15 people came and encountered the Risen Jesus in many different ways. Our friend C.J. Hock from Asbury Seminary was our guest worship leader for the night.
  • We got to bless and send our first missionaries being scattered out into the world. Seth and Jenna have been with us since they came off their first stint with YWAM and are headed back to Norway for the next year. We sent them out in prayer and with Evergreen Church journals to record all of the ways Jesus speaks to them and moves through them around the world.
  • We began regular rhythms of singing together on the first Sunday of each month, are beginning to form the initial Discipleship Core of 12 to start working together in January, and we God is continually providing financially for us with 1-2 new donors each week.
  • People are encountering Jesus and finding belonging! Some recent stories:
    • “This is my community, these are my people.”
    • “This is what I’ve been looking for since coming to Ann Arbor.”
    • “I didn’t know this kind of Church existed! This is what Jesus has been telling me about!”
    • “Jesus said go and join Evergreen, so here I am ready to learn and grow.”
    • “I have never heard the voice of God like we did tonight, that was so cool!”

 

 

 

How you can be praying for Evergreen:

  • PRAY for 100% funding.
    • We need $69,700 to make our general 3 year budget: That’s 19 people committing to give $100 a month or 39 people committing to give $50/month for 3 years.

Does your church have money budgeted/set aside to help other church plants? Consider supporting Evergreen as they lean in with the Ecclesia Network!

    • Would you prayerfully consider the following to help us accomplish the mission Jesus has called us to?
      • A one time, end of the year tax-deductible gift of $500-$7500
      • A recurring $25-$200 a month gift to accomplish the mission Jesus has called us to?
        • CLICK HERE  for online giving or you can send checks to the mailing address at the bottom and write Evergreen Church in the memo line.

You can check out/follow Evergreen here: