A REPORT FROM THE STEERING GROUP

Introduction

The Global House Church Movement Summit 2009, the first such world-wide house church gathering, was held in India on 11^th to 14^th November. Those present included nearly 200 people from more than 37 nations. All six regions were represented: the Pacific; Asia; Africa; Europe; North America; South America. Travel and accommodation subsidies were given to 105 delegates, mostly from the developing world. Most delegates from developed countries paid their own costs.   Translators were provided for groups needing them.

The outcomes of the Summit include:

• Delegates went home inspired, and committed to consult with their local co-workers on setting goals for church planting in their regions.
• Best practices for church planting were extensively discussed, both formally during the summit sessions and informally during free times and meal times. Many delegtes went home with not only insiration but specific ideas and methods to put into practice.
• Extensive follow up to the summit will include: delegates reporting and being accountable for their goals; many training events in diferent parts of the world; increased emphasis on discipleship and spiritual fathering; acceleration of house churches multiplying and impacting their areas for the Kingdom of God.

More information, papers and reports are available at www.222foundation.org Full collected papers and reports by email can be requested from ghcmsummit@gmail.com stating “please send Summit papers” in the subject line. Yellow highlights indicate the paper or report available to supplement information given in this report.

The lead-up to this conference is described by Robin John -  “Asian House Church Conferences started in 2006 in the Philippines at the initiative of David Lim, a tireless exponent of the house church/simple church movement.  I think the conferences started in recognition that God is doing something new through this movement.  In 2007 a second Asian House Church Conference was held in Hong Kong, at which delegates from India brought us the news that Victor Choudhrie was feeling the leading of God to call a global conference in India, and that he was waiting for God to show the timing for this.  The suggestion found a ready witness amongst those gathered there, and people strongly felt the endorsement of the Holy Spirit.  There was a powerful prophetic time, during which the Holy Spirit spoke of a worldwide move of God, and of His desire to see collaboration and unity between India, China, Japan and other Asian nations.

“In the 2008 Asian Conference in Bandung, Indonesia, it was felt that the time to plan for the global gathering had come.  During the last morning, challenged to do so by speaker Wolfgang Simson, everyone gathered with no other agenda than to listen to the Holy Spirit and seek the face of God.  It was at that time that the plan for the global summit was set in motion.  Providentially a number of delegates were due to gather in Chiangmai, Thailand, the following January, and a steering group meeting was organized to coincide with it.  In a few short months God provided everything needed to hold the Summit, including an administration team, funds kindly donated by a number of charitable organisations and individuals, and everything else necessary.”

Pre-summit training

Before the Summit, over fifty of the delegates gathered for three days to be trained by Victor Choudhrie. The training was entitled “7M – Mobilising, Motivating, Mentoring and Maintaining Momentum in Mass Movements”. In it Victor outlined the main Biblical teaching which enabled him to be used by God to generate a movement resulting in the baptism of 300,000 people in one day. Some of the topics were:

• The Great Commission – the job of every believer
• Biblical church planting – Luke 10
• How to make disciples and generate a movement
• What is true worship? – The Royal Priesthood
• Proper foundational teaching and our inheritance
• The Lord’s Supper

Full notes on the pre-summit training by Jan Ross are available

Pre-Summit training 1-6 available in supplementary papers.

Some Highlights of the Summit Programme

General outline

The Summit began 8.30 am on Wednesday 11^th and finished at 1 pm on the 14^th.  Each day began with prayer led by a different group/country.  Most morning sessions were taken up with country reports with the last hour given to a keynote address.  The afternoon sessions started with a particular focus on house church and mission with many different groups sharing.  The second half of the afternoon provided opportunities for group discussion and feedback.  Workshops covering many aspects of simple church and mission were conducted at the end of each day.  On the Friday afternoon all delegates received training on researching needs in their own areas and setting goals for church planting.

Full timetable: 002 Summit timetable

Prayer

These were dynamic times led by a different group each day.  On the first day we were challenged by Beverley Pegues of the 10/40 Prayer Movement to pray for the unreached peoples in the 10⁰ N of the equator and 40⁰ S of the equator – the window where most of those who have not heard the Gospel live.  Delegates from different regions led the other three morning prayer sessions.  These were very rich experiences allowing for a different focus.  The Chinese leaders had us all dancing in joy before the Lord! The African prayer morning was  powerful, with Poupo Elie breaking the curse of “the dark continent” over Africa. He declared in the Name of Jesus that Africa should become known as “The Continent of Light”. The final prayer morning was led with passion by our Indian hosts.

Keynote sessions

Filling the Earth with God’s Glory – Robin John

Robin believed it was providential that the summit should be gathered in India at the time when such a quantum leap in fruitfulness of the Indian house church movement was being seen: over 300,000 new believers were baptised by one group of networks on the day of Pentecost, May 31 2009. The movement has seen many miracles including even the raising from the dead.

Holy-Spirit-led goal setting was a major key to this growth and Robin summarised the objectives for the gathering as agreed with the funders, emphasising particularly the setting of worldwide church-planting goals, both short and long-term, and the establishment of a monitoring framework for those goals.

John, Robin – Filling the earth with the knowledge of God’s glory – paper

Global Trends – Victor Choudhrie

Victor stated that the objective of the Summit was to put the primitive first century church (as implemented by the first trainees of Jesus Christ) firmly on the map as the model for churches today. He summarised his message as follows:  “The house church is not the destination, it is only a convenient vehicle. “Kingdomization” of home, the office, the market place, the boardroom, the parliament and of the nations is the real objective, until all the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ. The Chinese model during the persecution was the longest lasting revival in the history of the church. There were no missionaries, dollars, sacred buildings, pastors, Sunday service, tithing or even Bibles. There was Body Ministry, where the saints prayed and ministered to each other, quietly under the radar. No wonder the church grew exponentially from one million to 100 million. India has adopted many of the best practices of the then Chinese model and is experiencing similar growth and multiplication. The Global House Church Summit in India is an attempt to create awareness among the participants  of the need to revert and replicate the original house church principles as modelled in the New Testament.” Full text: Choudhrie, Victor – Global Trends

Apostolic Architecture and Covenant – Wolfgang Simson

“Many prophetic people around the world sense that the year 2010 is going to be a watershed year, where God is shifting gears and bringing together many seemingly unconnected strands into a Kingdom allegiance and therefore an unprecedented synergy. This means that all man-made structures, churches, even mission agencies, will begin to fade more and more in their significance, and the King himself, now not a lamb anymore, but a powerful lion, “will roar from Zion“, as prophesied in Amos 1:2, and will teach his ways to all those that come to the mountain of the Lord. This was prophesied by Micah and Isaiah: “The law will go out from Zion”.

“The resulting movement should be able to make disciples of at least 50% of the population of the planet by the time Jesus comes again (Mat 24: 40-41) – I.e. 4 billion saved. Assuming 1 billion reached by conventional ways, the remaining three billion can be reached by an evangelizing, growth-motivated, church planting, house church based, apostolic Kingdom movement. Full text: link to W Simson House church with a mission

Reaching the Unreached – Liz Adleta, David Lim

David Lim’s presentation highlighted the biblical teachings that God’s desire is to save all (2 Pet. 3:9; 1 Tim. 2:3-5) and that the Holy Spirit has been sent to make the harvest ready (Acts 2:17-18; Jn. 16:8-11), and the missiological implication that God must have given His people a simple plan for the evangelization and Kingdomization of the world’s peoples.  With Liz Adleta, they showed that the simple skills of “making disciples who can make disciples” of the growing House Church movements worldwide may be the “last wave of the Spirit” to finish the Great Commission among the unreached peoples and nations in our generation. Papers on these topics: Adleta, Liz – Reaching the forgotten fourth;

Adleta,Liz:The indispensable key to the unfinished task;

Lim, David – Vision and Mission of the Global House Church Movement

Healing, Deliverance and the Supernatural – Stuart Gramenz

Shared on the importance of preaching the full gospel, “The kingdom of God is within us.” Each believer therefore has the potential to be personally led by the Spirit. To enable unbelievers “know and understand” that this is possible, the message needs to be fully presented with signs and wonders. “Most of us would agree we are living in the end times” writes Stewart, “and as such there should be a greater expectation of the fulfilment of the final restoration of all things as God promised. The early church exhibited an incredible level of love and power and as a result they were known as the ones who turned the world upside down. If they could do it surely it must be possible for today’s believers to do the same at least. …….The Lord is expecting anyone who believes in Jesus to come into the same level of maturity that Jesus exhibited (John 14:12-14; Eph 4:13)” Stuart went on to explain that Jesus Himself grew to this maturity level by listening to the Father, and then led the delegates in an exercise to do exactly this.

Involving the whole family

Mitsuo F – “A Changed Family Life as the Most Powerful Evangelistic Weapon.”  Mitsuo presented that a married couple who prioritize building each other up  with prayer, sharing and accepting of emotions, and affirming their love by giving and receiving praise is the basic discipleship group as well as the first and most foundational expression of the church.  Dualism should be renounced and church should be reunited with family. This kind of healed community would be highly contagious in Japan because it is what people have been consistently seeking since the time of the last world war.  Full text: F, Mitsuo – A changed family life, the most powerful evangelistic weapon

Mike Limmer He gave his testimony of his family and their involvement in missions, home schooling, home churching, evangelism and being Spirit led. Mike explained that the pattern for the family was set by the Lord, whose plans and purposes for the family have not changed. He said it is up to us to build according to His divine pattern.

Role of women in Global Evangelism – Bindu Choudrie

Bindu presented strongly from the Scriptures.  She also shared, and had her co-workers share, about the consistent prayer walking in which they wage spiritual warfare against principalities and powers, and see amazing changes take place in their communities.

Approaches to Training

Several speakers including Randeep Matthews and Anuroop Swami whose combined networks baptised over 80,000 believers on 31 May 2009.

Mission – a funder’s perspective

Moves of God are normally thwarted by Christians, not non-Christians. Often, wrong use of money is the problem.

Money is best used as a facilitator, not as the basis for expansion or growth of the work of God.

Fund-raising for essential needs of a movement of God is a gift to the leader and ministry raising the funds, not a ‘curse’; it maintains accountability and humility, and brings unity and awareness to the Body of Christ. Full text: C,J – Mission – Funders Point of View

Research and Goal setting

Panel of speakers including  Roy W,  Rajesh Tiwari  and Joshua Pillai, facilitated by Michael Jackson.  Rajesh Tiwari  and Joshua Pillai, facilitated by Victor Choudhrie. Training was given to all delegates in research and goal setting, after which the delegates split into regional groups to do a goal-setting exercise for their own areas.  After the feedback session, all delegates solemnly undertook before the Lord to dedicate themselves to starting or accelerating church-planting movements in their own areas, and agreed to consult with their co-workers at home on setting goals.

Women’s meeting

Bindu Choudhrie and her co-workers spoke on their experience of evangelising women, and organising the coming together of women for mutual support and encouragement. Often in India the main opportunity to reach a household is through the women, usually the young mother. The presentation was followed by a question and answer session, which elaborated on various aspects of their ministry.

Open church – Selwyn Stevens

“The basic foundation for a church in the home has got to be love for God and love for His people. We must imitate the church of the Book of Acts, because of all churches, it grew the fastest. The believers there worshipped, praised, prayed, read scripture, encouraged one another, listened to the apostles teaching, had a meal together and met the needs of the saints. Meeting the needs is an important key. They sent out workers. When they studied scripture it was not through one man preaching but through discussion, interaction and debate. They listened to the Holy Spirit and experienced His gifts. Children participated.” Selwyn went on to describe in more detail three principles of effective home churches: open worship where anyone can lead, for example, in a song or praise to God; open sharing where all must be free to share a “God moment”, testimony, need or other contribution; and open ministry, where everyone can minister in some way to others. He encouraged everyone to make sure believers are set free from all demons and curses so they will be shining examples of the power of Jesus.

Prophetic session – facilitated by Tony and Felicity Dale, and Wolfgang Simson

After Felicity Dale emphasised the importance of keeping simple church simple so churches can replicate easily,  delegates were given teaching on prophesy and the opportunity to prophesy to each other. Many experienced giving or receiving what they felt was a genuine word from the Lord. This was followed by prophesy by some with a developed prophetic gift. Individual prophecies were given for people and nations. The unmistakable emphasis here was that we need to be very sober in our lives and deal with hidden sins and idols in our hearts that many of us have harboured until now. For many of us our ministries and denominations have been idols.

As a mission strategy, we must reach out to the Jews first in each nation, as Paul practised in the Bible. We must also honour the elders in our own cultures, and a blessing was spoken over us all by delegate Ian Fraser, aged in his early 90’s. Ian saw the gathering as a fulfilment of his dream since he started work with house churches and basic Christian communities in the 1940’s. The session finished with an exhortation for us all to work together, with place given to the apostolic and prophetic working in harmony, and for fathering to occupy the central place in the work.

Apostolic Gardens - Final presentation by Sunil Klavara and Victor Choudhrie

“Millions of people entering the kingdom are mired in poverty, hunger, lack of justice and bad relationships, with no peace and no security. They are looking to God’s people who will wipe their tears”. Victor and Sunil went on to describe how the Kingdom of God brings with it healing of the land, including the advent of justice, righteousness, peace and security, with the knowledge of God’s Glory all over the earth (full text: Choudhrie, Victor -  Apostolic Gardens). This was followed by a commissioning of everyone present to take the Gospel of the Kingdom to their own nation. All the delegates from each region in turn were prayed for, and there was a great sense of God’s presence and power. Finally we all took the Lord’s Supper together in the way that the apostles of the Bible did – as part of a love feast (lunch!). There was joy in the restaurant as the delegates had their last meal together until we gather again, and over the meal, explained to each other the meaning of the Lord’s Body and Blood.

Workshops

Outlines for some of these are included in the Papers.

• Tony & Felicity Dale – simple church principles in a mega-church context
• Bessie Pereira – Networking: Bessie emphasised the need and benefits as well as practical ways of networking used in the Australian context, that could be helpful elsewhere. Workshop brief: Pereira, Bessie – Australia – Networking house churches
• Anuroop Swami – The dynamics of mass movements.
• Randeep Matthews – Equipping multiple generations of disciples.
• Rod Gilbert – Use of resources in mission.
• Stuart Gramenz – Partners in His Power: practical training on operating in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
• Marco Gmur – Reaching out to Islam.
• Liz Adleta – Reaching unreached people groups
• Bindu Choudhrie – Spiritual warfare
• Mohit Morris – Orality: reaching the 75% of people who are functionally illiterate.  Mohit is also planting cyber churches.
• Wolfgang Simson – Church as God wants it versus Church as we know it.

Other papers submitted to the Summit

• Balcombe, Dennis – The Role of Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Miraculous in Evangelism
• Smith – Bill – Reproducing is natural
• Fraser – Ian -  Impressions of India  2009
• Simson, Wolfgang – Report – Seeking God in Antioch 2009
• Dale, Felicity – USA – Open Meetings

Country reports (selections)

1. Pacific

New Zealand – very active in providing opportunities for gatherings of house churches in various areas.  Large numbers of people are moving away from traditional ways of church into house church.

Australia – many people moving out of traditional church, and forming house churches, but tend to ‘re-invent’ traditional church in the lounge room.  However, new movements are emerging.  Two in particular were mentioned – Life Expedition in Melbourne – starting with overseas students, but now planting house churches in suburbs.  Seventh Day Adventist pastors in Western Australia seeking to plant house churches that multiply.  They are developing a Kingdom rather than a denominational focus.  1 Ministry report – Oikos Australia – Bessie Pereira

2. Asia

Philippines - We estimate that to date there are about 2,500 house churches in the country and another 10,000 in the Filipino diaspora, not counting the thousands of parish-based Basic Ecclesial Communities and the tens of thousands in the various para-ecclesial Charismatic Communities of the Roman Catholic Church.  We held our fourth national house church leaders summit last August, forming Coordination Team of Twelve (12) to facilitate the spread of Filipino house churches worldwide and a Diaconal Team of Seven (7) to oversee the allocation of our People Empowerment Fund that house church leaders can use to catalyze economic development ministries in their neighbourhoods.

Japan – Growth not spectacular, but amazing considering how small the Christian presence has been in this country.  There is a real strategy of training and church planting taking place.  The training is in a song, so simple that even a two-year old child can sing and dance the training. This song has been translated this song into other asian languages and  Japanese workers go to other Asian countries to teach this song.

China – The effect of the Communist takeover in 1949 with the resultant expulsion of foreign missionaries drove much of the church underground and dependent on the Holy Spirit for survival.  The result was unprecedented growth in the 1960’s – 80’s.  It is estimated that there are at least over a million house churches in China. However, what is known as a “house church” in China is not necessarily an “organic church” or a “simple church” as described by house church planters elsewhere in the world. Many churches meet in houses but have a leadership which is now very controlling, tradition-bound and hierarchical. Many churches or networks of churches do not want to work with other sections of the Body of Christ, or empower their members to live life in the Holy Spirit, though in the rural areas there are still many house churches which experience genuine discipleship and multiplication after the Biblical pattern.   In the cities traditionally- structured Western ministries have had a big influence, but also there are many small groups started by returning overseas-educated Chinese, or foreign business people or teachers travelling or residing in China. Another trend is the government Three-Self Church working together with “house churches”, and genuine believers bringing life in the Three-Self Church. What is needed in China now is a new movement of Holy-Spirit-led, freely multiplying, simple churches going back to the Book of Acts model.

India – More than 300,000 new Christians were baptized on 31^st May 2009 (Day of Pentecost) by one group of networks alone.  This is an indication of the growth of house church movements across the country.  Indian church planters work very strategically in the development of movements of house churches as the Gospel is preached from village to village.  There are many other missions in India which are experiencing explosive growth.

Israel – House church planting movements starting here with a sense of the Holy Spirit’s leading and equipping is very real.

Myanmar – One network was represented, which has grown from 20 simple churches and 63 believers in 2005, to 6119 simple churches and 23,159 believers in 2009. The network suffered hugely during cyclone Nagis in May 2008, when more than 1600 believers belonging to 400 churches perished. Despite this huge loss and the grief it must have caused, the network has almost doubled since the cyclone. “We can equip,train and produce micro church leaders in the different places in Myanmar.We also train the new believers to become the spiritual mature christians and to be good followers of Jesus Christ.We can create micro businesses to support their local house churches to grow more leaders,more micro churches and more new believers,” reported the Myanmar delegate.

2 Ministry report – Myanmar – M Nwe

There were representatives in several other Asian countries – e.g.,  Nepal and Bangladesh who reported vital growth of house churches.

3. Africa

Several African nations were introduced by Liz Adleta.  Some, such as Zambia and Nigeria, are experiencing growing movements of house churches, whilst others are just starting out. The Zambia movement has been particularly blessed, with over 1000 churches planted, and major impact on quality of life for the poor by application of Holy-Spirit-revealed, Kingdom principles.  Inter-country gatherings are being planned for encouragement and training.

4. Europe

The new house church movement in Europe has, since its emergence in the 1990s, not proven to be a quick fad, but has demonstrated the ability to stay. House churches are even beginning to make their own missions contribution in Europe and beyond. At this point, up to one fifth or 20% of all European believers are already following Christ within a house church set up. Given the organic nature of simple churches and observations in the US and other Western cultures, it is not at all unlikely that the number of house churches in Europe will, within the next ten years, grow to 100.000 regular house churches and up to one million “irregular” house churches. Should this happen, then by AD 2019 more than 10 million Europeans will be members of house churches, which would be double the number of believers who currently visit traditional evangelical churches on the continent. Together, they will then represent 15 million believers, raising the number of European believers from one to four percent of the population. In order to disciple half the population of Europe (200 million people), we would have to aim at at least 13 million house churches. Should the non-European developments of house churches at this point be any indication, it would take a mere 15 years from now on to reach this.

Britain: Challenges to Christian believing in Britain – between 1998 and 2005, half a million people stopped going to church on Sunday. Daily Telegraph’s religious affairs correspondent, Jonathan Petre, says “While 1,000 new people are joining a church each week, 2,500 are leaving.” Church attendance in Britain is declining so fast that the number of regular churchgoers will be fewer than those attending mosques within a generation, research published recently suggests. Estimates are approximately 40,000 people involved in house/simple churches in the UK.

Needs for the simple church movement:

• Churches to become outward focused,
• Greater networking across simple churches,
• More regional training and home-grown resources and tools,
• Strategic targeting of unreached people groups
• Greater understanding of multiplication and movement dynamics

3 Country Report – Britain – Peter Farmer

4 Region report – Western Europe – Wolfgang Simson

5. North America

People are leaving the traditional church by the millions. There is a huge reservoir of people who used to be churchgoers, many of whom have not left church because they have lost their faith but they have left in order to preserve their faith. Many of them were leaders within traditional structures.  And the Lord is leading many of them into house/simple churches.

Some current encouraging trends in the US simple church movement:

• Simple churches are becoming more missional in nature.
• An increasing number of regional initiatives that draw networks of churches together, for conferences, for social justice issues etc. at a local level.
• An increasing number of mega-churches are having dialog with and looking to simple churches for some kind of strategy to reach out into their communities.
• Student initiatives in the universities.

5 Country Report – USA – Felicity Dale

6. South America

Some house church networks are beginning to emerge in South America. There is huge potential here. There were delegates from Equador, Brazil, Guatemala and El Salvador

Regional Planning

Our first session focused on what is happening currently, while the second encouraged delegates to look at future hopes for co-operation, conferences and connectedness. Some regions developed their local planning: firm plans were set for Asia to hold an Asian conference in 2011, with smaller local conferences in 2010; African regional training events were discussed for Cameroon in March 2010 (later changed to May) for French speaking African nations, and in Zambia  2011; in the Pacific,  New Zealand is planning regional conferences for 2010, and it is hoped that combined conferences with Australia will be held in the longer term. Reports on the website detail some of these plans.

See the Asia and Africa regional plans:

6 Asia working group discussion minutes 13 Nov 09

Choudhrie, Victor – Fifty Days of Harvest 2010.

7 Africa working group discussion minutes

Major highlights of the Summit:

• The country reports.  These were exciting and gave us a picture of what God is doing in building His church in our day.
• Having Ian Fraser, aged in his early 90’s, present.  He had been involved with small Christian communities and house churches in most countries of the world for more than four decades.  He saw this Summit as a ‘coming together’ of all that he had longed for, for most of his life!
• Bringing together some leaders from places where there is persecution of Christians with those whose Christianity is lived out in ‘comfortable’ scenarios.  The West was challenged about their future!
• Bringing together leaders from African nations – some well involved with growing house church movements with others just starting out on the adventure.
• Mealtimes which provided opportunity (in a very noisy context) to share with others.  Some very rich connections and conversations took place in the breaking of bread together – and many of these will count for the Kingdom and its growth! Overheard: “The success of the conference is evaluated on not only what transpires in the conference hall but what takes place in the corridors. If the din and decibels at the dining hall are any indicators, then the Summit was a huge success.”
• The solemn moment when delegates undertook responsibility for church-planting movements and the setting of goals in their own areas was a major highlight. Everyone agreed that it would be a great tragedy if people went home from the Summit but made no actual changes. Everyone agreed to take action on arriving home.

Some benefits of the gathering:

• Many if not all left India with a clear sense of having heard from God and with a clear purpose and strategy to impact their area.
• It is always necessary for individual house churches, as well as movements and nations, to have a sense of the ‘bigger picture’ of what God is doing across the globe.  This maintains health, focus, vision and development.
• Networking is vitally important in regions, in nations and globally.  This provides a non- hierarchical ‘check and balance’ that can enable us to stay on track in what the Lord is doing.
• Developing friendships between leaders provide encouragement and blessing.
• Such a gathering provides opportunities for teaching/learning and for the building of one another for the Kingdom.
• An appreciation of the richness in diversity.
• The sharing of goals and visions means delegates are more accountable for working out their goals in practice.

Overall assessment:

This was a very happy, flowing and encouraging ‘first’.  The Global Summit will be followed  up by national or regional summits in 2010 and 2011, with possibly another global event in 2012 or 2013. The on-going summits will provide a sense of accountability, and of belonging to a significant global movement.      Connections have been made between leaders who have been challenged, seen something of a global perspective of what, up to now they have only seen in part, and who now have courage in the power of the Holy Spirit to allow God to do through them what they see happening elsewhere.  This event is having and will have positive outcomes in many places.  Already major training events are being planned for the Philippines, Central Asian Republics, other Asian countries, Zambia, Cameroon and other African countries, and other equipping and training will follow. The Indian house church networks have set an astounding example of what God is willing to do when we prayerfully set goals and rise to the challenge of seeing our nations responding to the Gospel, and we pray that all delegates would take up this challenge in their own nations. It should be noted, however, that the prophetic emphasis on the last morning was that many of us have sins and idols in our hearts that we need to deal with. Nothing worthwhile will be achieved without a deep repentance, obeying the clear words of the Lord, and a most serious commitment to make Him King in every area of our lives.

Many delegates reported that this was a conference with a difference. The steering group prayed during the lead up to the Summit, that it would not be just another conference. With committed follow up, the Lord helping us, we believe in all humility it can be the beginning of a new move of God.

Thank you to:

Our hosts in India who did an amazing job in providing this opportunity for the Summit.  They were generous and more than helpful in all that was needed.

Our sponsors – without their obedient giving the majority of delegates would not have been able to attend

All the many others who made the Summit possible by their sacrificial work.

We are grateful for each delegate who came but especially for those who had particularly difficult circumstances to overcome.  Each person contributed to the rich tapestry of nations, colours, experiences and knowledge that God brought together from house church movements around the world.

Follow up:

1. We will be mailing all delegates shortly to invite everyone to share the goals they have set with co-workers in their countries, and do a self-assessment of training needs.
2. A number of follow-up training events have been organised already, and more training events will be scheduled. It is our goal that every nation represented at the Summit should have some training input in the first six months of 2010.
3. 3. Papers Presented to the Global House Church Summit 2009 are available at www.222foundation.org . Please note that at the time of release of this report, the website is shortly to be re-arranged, to make them easier to find. A new edition of this report will be available on the website with hyperlinks to the papers. Until then if you would like the papers emailed, please send a request to ghcmsummit@gmail.com stating “please send Summit papers” in the subject line.

Further follow-up:

At a meeting of the steering committee held after the Summit, it was decided that we need to continue to be a group who continue as a ‘hub’ for information and connectedness around the global house church movement. We will help facilitate training and equipping, and provide training materials, encouragement and motivation as the Lord leads and enables. The  committee has decided to meet in SE Asia at the end of April to listen to the Lord for further direction.

Report presented by the steering group

R and M John, Wolfgang Simson, Mitsuo F, Tony and Felicity Dale, Victor and  Bindu Choudrie, Abhishek Choudrie, David Lim, Mike Limmer, Liz Adleta, Rod Gilbert, Bessie Pereira, BK Quah, Elijah H, GC and Mary Chidambaram, Joshua Pillai, Michael Stewart, Philip Lye, Roy W.

Index of papers, reports and training notes

Papers

Adleta, Liz – South Africa, USA – Reaching the Forgotten Fourth

Adleta, Liz – The Indispensable Key to the Unfinished Task

Balcombe, Dennis – The Role of Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Miraculous in Evangelism

C,J – Mission – Funders Point of View

Choudhrie, Victor -  Apostolic Gardens

Choudhrie, Victor – Fifty Days of Harvest 2010

Choudhrie, Victor – Global Trends

Dale, Felicity – USA – Open Meetings

F, Mitsuo – A changed family life, the most powerful evangelistic weapon

Fraser – Ian -  Impressions of India  2009

John – Robin – Filling the earth with the knowledge of God’s glory

Lim – David – Vision and mission of the global house church movement

Pereira, Bessie – Australia – Networking house churches

Simson, Wolfgang – Global House Church Summit – 200 million churches to go

Simson, Wolfgang – House Church with a Mission

Simson, Wolfgang – Report – Seeking God in Antioch 2009

Smith – Bill – Reproducing is natural

Reports, minutes and training notes

001 Index of papers, reports and training notes

002 Summit timetable

01 Ministry report – Oikos Australia – Bessie Pereira

02 Ministry report – Myanmar – M Nwe

03 Country Report – Britain – Peter Farmer

04 Region report – Western Europe – Wolfgang Simson

05 Country Report – USA – Felicity Dale

06 Asia working group discussion minutes 13 Nov 09 web

07 Africa working group discussion minutes

11 Pre-Summit Training 1 – The Great Commission – the job of every believer

12 Pre-Summit Training 2 – Biblical church planting – Luke 10

13 Pre-Summit Training 3 – How to make disciples and generate a movement

14 Pre-Summit Training 4 – What is true worship? – The Royal Priesthood

15 Pre-Summit Training 5 – Proper foundational teaching and our inheritance

16 Pre-Summit Training 6 – The Lord’s Supper