My Church Planting Paper

Starting in the fall semester, two friends and I met in the morning on Monday, Wednesday and Friday to pray for our house ministry and the University of Houston campus at large. We would voice whatever God was laying on our hearts; whether it be specific situations, larger issues, or specific Scripture. We would always end the time looking out the window to watch the sun rise over the campus and city of Houston. The perspective from the fourth floor of our house gives us this particular view! It was beautiful watching God respond to those prayers and also the steady refreshment that streamed from those sweet times. Hours would feel like minutes. During one of these, we were crying out deeply for the Muslim student population at UofH. During the week as Missy was in one of her classes at the Music School she met and spoke with a guy sitting next to her who was the VP of the MSA and they became friends. Missy has also brought another friend of hers that happens to be Muslim and they’ve spent time in her room just being friends.

In the spring, we decided to change our prayer time to a time of running in the morning. Though we still talked and no doubt prayed individually as we ran, it was obvious that we were not allowing ourselves to receive from the Lord in the same way or to the same degree. After the second time we ran, we came back and prayed, and though our time was cut short I still vividly remember God giving me a picture vision of Him strengthening his Body as we all became warriors, except that His kind of warrior did not fight with weapons but with deep love.

As the year went on, I desired that all of the students living in the house would be involved in this type of prayer. So I brought it forth as a challenge, and one time a group of us did meet on the fourth floor. It was good, but felt a little uncomfortable because I’m not sure many of them had experienced a style of prayer that lends itself to hours of fellowship. It sort of became a traditional “voice your prayer as we go around in a circle.” Still so good, but I did wondered how to make prayer more enjoyable where students were experiencing the joy of the Lord. It wasn’t going to look the same, I knew, but I couldn’t help but think what would happen if all the students were in a group like this. One success happened on a Thursday night when we had one of our “Family Dinners.” I encouraged us all to pray after the meal as well and also encouraged one of the students to play the guitar. He wasn’t extremely skilled, but it definitely worked and was a sweet time of raw, come as we are, worship. I exited the room to begin clearing the dishes from the meal with a few others and the worship time continued going. This is a cherished memory; the knowledge that the Spirit was moving and these students weren’t just engaging in an activity I had strong-armed them into, but they were truly fellowshipping together, unified in the Spirit.

As we journey on into another year of this house ministry, I am praying for more of these opportunities and hoping that Monday nights, our family nights, begin to unfold as a combination of the two experiences: on one hand, a consistency that allows us to see God responding to what we are voicing like the times we shared early in the morning, and on the other, the involvement of the entire house where there becomes a unity in the Body of Christ that lives in our townhouse. A unity that comes not just from sharing a house and various experiences, but one that comes from interacting with God together and setting our hearts to the same vision we are receiving from Him. I feel that this is the preliminary step to this ministry becoming a true expression of a church and that out of these times of intimacy with God and the Body comes compassion for the people around us, and the desire to take responsibility for our community. To love them, to serve them, and to want them to experience Jesus for themselves.