Continuing the story that starts here:
Photo credit: urbaneapts (Creative Commons)
When God answered Rosa's prayers in such a clear way, we asked Rosa:
"Would you be willing to bring together some of your family and friends to hear about this Jesus who has been answering your prayers?"
Rosa jumped at the idea. But that same day, she introduced us to a friend who lived four doors down.
"You'll like her," Rosa told us. "She's a Christian just like you are."
Nora turned out to be an on-fire believer who had, that very week, gone from HIV positive to HIV negative following prayers from her church. She had a clean and neat apartment with Christian music playing softly in the background, so when she offered to let us meet at her place, we thought it was a great idea.
It was a disaster! None of Rosa's friends or family came. And Nora came from a church that only used the King James Version of the Bible, while Rosa struggled to read at a 2nd grade level. When we arrived back home we asked the Lord, "What went wrong?"
He reminded us that Luke 10 tells us not to go from house to house but to stay in the home of the person of peace.
"Lord, we're sorry," we told him. "Will you get us out of this one?"
That very week, Nora, who had been praying for months for a home outside of the projects, moved to a new home. We were back into the chaos of Rosa's apartment. But all her family and friends loved to be there. And they welcomed us into the family. Rosa, who had a heart as big as Texas, didn't know a stranger, and we were accepted by all her family and friends.
Within a couple of weeks, Rosa surrendered her heart to the Lord, and many of her family followed. We ended up with about 35 people crammed into her tiny apartment.
What have you learned from the story of Rosa?
We'll look at some of the principles in the next post.
2 replies on “A church is born in the projects”
One of the most helpful examples for me…..clarifies Person of Peace!
Great post, Felicity!It beautifully illustrates the Person of Peace and the importance of following Jesus’ strategy (Luke 10:1ff) for bringing the message of the kingdom into a new area where you do not already have relationships. You have succinctly presented some of the obstacles that must be navigated when one seeks to make disciples in neighborhoods where there are already believers who came to faith by traditional Western methods. My blog post today addresses some of this, too:
http://johnkking.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/radical-reform/
I appreciate your focus on urging your readers to reach the unreached. (Some in the house-church movements seem to spend most of their writing time dissing legacy churches as though there is a competition for those who have already heard the gospel.) Thanks for calling your readers to the work of planting the gospel where it has not yet been heard!
I really appreciate you sending people to my blog. Thanks, again!