The Well

Unfinished business

Check out the population clock

How does this make you feel? If it doesn't make your heart hurt just a little bit then something is wrong.

Jesus said go into all the world and make disciples. This is the great commission. So, what are you doing? Are you thinking that this task is for missionaries and pastors? No, this commission is for you. There are lost and hopeless people all over this world, in third world countries and living next door to you. What are you doing about it?

Would you like to plant a church in your home? Contact us at The Well. We can help you.

Mark 12:28-34

Here is a great bible study for your kids on the Great Commandment. Keep teaching them that Love is the key. How have you loved the people in your church this week?

Mission to Ghana

Last year The Well was able to go to West Africa to train church planters. While we were there we also had the added benefit of helping the ministry of With This Ring do research. With This Ring uses resources from donated wedding rings along with other donations to bring clean water to third world countries.

Earlier this year The Well was able to partner with With This Ring to dig a well in Ghana. Here is a local news story about With This Ring that aired recently...

Three of the leaders of The Well will be returning to Ghana this summer to continue to train local church planters.

Future Church: Be Like the Internet

I found this on the Kindle blog. I believe it is relevant to what we are doing here at The Well.

| View | Upload your own

We're going camping!

The second annual Well Camping Trip, June 27-29 will be to the San Bernardino mountains! The North Shore campground, just 3 miles from Lake Arrowhead Village.Reserve your spot quickly, they are filling up fast! Follow this link to reserve your spot for the Well Campout.

For more information contact Valerie or check the Camping out at The Well facebook page.

Is this a church?

On Sunday night I was hanging out at one of our home churches in Costa Mesa. There were seven of us sitting around the living room of a one-bedroom apartment. The group was a little light tonight since it was Memorial Day weekend. During the end of our conversation Jennifer, someone new to simple church, asked a really a great question. She asked, “Is this a church?” That’s an awesome question. How can this be a church if there are no buildings, sermons, worship teams, sound systems, programs, bulletins, etc.?

I told her that a couple of years ago after many long discussions about that very question the leaders of The Well came up with a simple definition of church. Church in its simplest form we decided is,

followers of Jesus who regularly meet in his name.

The “in his name” part is crucial. We are not just a group of Christians who hang out but we are coming together under the authority of Jesus Christ to do His work.

Something that has to happen at some point in simple church is we have to define and then embrace our identity. We are not a cell group, we are not a Bible study, we are a church. In many ways we are more like the Church of the New Testament than the churches that meet a huge buildings with hundreds or thousands of people. Not to say that those churches are bad or that God isn’t working in them but the simple interactive small church that meets in a home is the model of the first century.

Is this a church? Absolutely.

Vision

The Well is a network of simple churches. We meet mostly in homes but we have been known to meet in businesses, coffee shops, parks, etc. Although the weekly meetings are important, the meetings are not The Well. The Well is the community. The community is made up of individuals, like you. Hopefully you are part of The Well because it strengthens and encourages your relationship with God.

But the Well is not just about you. It is about reaching others who don’t yet know what a relationship with Jesus looks like. It is about the vision. The leaders know the vision and often talk about it. But not every one has heard it. In case you haven’t heard the vision here it is: church multiplication. We want to plant house churches as simply and rapidly as we can. We want individuals and house churches who are committed to reproduction.

Meeting in someone’s living room for church is not just a convenient idea. It is a movement. The House Church movement is growing at a record pace all over the world. It has recently begun to take shape in North America. We are part of that movement.

A missionary named David Garrison has written a book called Church Planting Movements. In it he offers his Ten Commandments of Church planting. They are:
1. Immerse Your Community in Prayer
2. Saturate You Community with the Gospel
3. Cling to God’s Word
4. Fight Against Foreign Dependency
5. Eliminate All Non-Reproducible Elements
6. Live the Vision that You Wish to Fulfill
7. Build Reproduction into Every Believer & Church
8. Train All Believers to Evangelize, Disciple & Plant Churches
9. Model, Assist, Watch, and Leave
10. Discover What God is Doing and Join Him

Here is suggestion: Read the above list over a couple of times and consider how you might apply it and remember that you are part of a movement of the Holy Spirit. Everyday people right around you are dying without knowing Christ. Let’s plant some churches. Don’t lose sight of the vision.

Interesting world religion stats

According to International Bulletin of Missionary Research Vol. 32, of the 6,691,484,000 people in the world in ’08, 2,231,421,000 are Christian; 1,412,301,000 are Muslim; 887,991,000 are Hindu; Buddhists number 391,122,000; and Jews 15,044,000. Every 24 hours the world has a population net growth of 219,000 people. Christians number 170,000 converts per day but find 91,000 defectors, so the net growth is 79,000 Christians each day. Christian martyrs: 480 per day. Of the 2,113,199,000 “affiliated” Christians, 1,476,690,000 are “church attenders”; Roman Catholics claim 1,130,401,000 adherents; 422,659,000 are Independents, 386,644,000 Protestants and 252,891,000 Orthodox. 423,675,000 are in Africa; 355,008,000 Asia; 556,359,000 Europe; 530,187,000 Latin America; and just 220,374,000 in North America. The compilers know of 39,000 separate denominations and 3,684,000 congregations around the world. Church members globally have an income of $18,170 billion. Christians have comprised approximately 33% of the world population since 1800.
Sightings 1/14/08

What would you say to this guy?

Special Prayer Meeting

Our good friend Bob Sears is having a bit of health problems. I will not go into details here. I’m not sure how much he would like to reveal to the outside world.
But he is an important part of The Well so it is important to request prayer for him and his family.

On Sunday, February 17, we will be having a time of worship and prayer specifically for Bob. We will be meeting at the Dorkin’s home at 5pm. If you would like to attend and need the address email me.

Last Tuesday Bob and I had lunch. We spent the time talking about what God is doing at The Well and how we were both feeling the urgency of doing God’s work now.

Today I came across 1 Peter 1:13: Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

I know that Bob has prepared his mind for action and that his hope is in Jesus Christ. I believe that God has a lot of work left for Bob Sears. There are many churches yet to be planted, good ones. And there are many disciples to be made throughout Orange County and beyond.

So, let’s come together and pray for Bob, but let us also remember the task at hand: the Kingdom of God. Let’s love each other well and be ready to reach the world around us. Are there trials around us? You don’t have to go very far in The Well to find drama. But with testing perseverance is developed (James 1). God is good and merciful. We are his and he loves us. So together we press on.