What's coming in 2005

This next year promises to be an interesting one as we move forward in fulfilling a vision that God has been placing in our hearts and has been preparing us to embark on for nearly 20 years. We look forward to seeing a community movement begin that will help people enter into what Jesus started 2000 years ago. Jesus started a revolution and he announced it as the coming of the Kingdom of God. It was a movement of people who were turning to God and a non-selfish lifestyle.

We have been asked to help start a faith based community that moves beyond the realm of the church building where people gather for teaching and worship. We want to see groups of people also gathering in neighborhood home groups to help people encounter God in three very real ways.

First, by learning how to hear God speaking to them through the Holy Spirit. One of the things so few people understand is that to become a Christian is not just a lifestyle of living by a bunch of rules, but rather is an invitation for God (the Holy Spirit) to come into your life and live within you. It is the presence of God living in you that changes you from the inside out. He speaks and he guides his people in powerful ways. Using Experiencing God as a teaching tool, each home group will experience a very real and living personal relationship with God.

Second, by meeting every genuine need of those within the neighborhood group. It is in the closeness of a small home group that people can gradually grow in trust of one another to share struggles and needs as well as the joys of Gods awesome blessings. We see in the bible that the community of Gods people are to share whatever they have to help one another so that there are no needs among them. Imagine being apart of a family of people you know you can count on to help you through any hardship. And if there are needs beyond the community's ability to meet, the group calls upon a loving heavenly Father who has promised to meet every genuine need of his people. The neighborhood home group becomes the place where each person has the opportunity to discover how the Spirit has gifted them to help others and becomes a taste of what heaven will be like here on earth.

And finally, by going out into the neighborhood where other people can see what God is like as He lives in his people. Too long God has been hidden in church buildings as his people gather there to talk about what God is like. We want to follow Jesus' example of going to hang out with people and help them. Jesus was called a friend of sinners; a drunkard and glutton by his enemies who were the holier than thou religious leaders. Why? Because he hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes.. people who thought God would never want to have anything to do with them. He often was found eating in peoples homes enjoying new friendships. People loved to hang out with Jesus (and still do)... its the religious people up in the temple that have turned most people off to God. But when people see God in the flesh (Jesus and people who are lead by the Spirit of God), they are amazed at how compassionate and non-judgmental God is. We want to be good neighbors and love those around us by helping people in our communities.

As this faith community grows into many homes and neighborhoods, we will be having weekly times to gather as a larger groups for times of contemporary worship and practical instruction. And the home groups will work together to organize larger scale efforts to help groups of people with various needs in the community (the poor, prisoners, single parents, struggling families, elderly) as well as sending and supporting teams of people who will go to help people in other countries.

If you are interested in what God is leading us to do, feel free to email us and ask for more details. Let us know if this is something you would like to support or be apart of. Keep checking back here and we will be posting up periodic updates about what God is doing to create this community in the Warwick and Rhode Island.