"The number of house churches in the USA has probably doubled in
the past 18 months, from 2,500 to 5,000," according to participants
at a symposium organized by Church Multiplication Associates' Neil
Cole in Los Angeles from 25-28 April 2005. "The main growth comes
from missionary groups aiming to reach the unchurched with the
Gospel and involve them in multipliable discipleship structures,"
says Cole. "We're expecting up to 1,000 participants at the next
national House Church conference in the USA in Denver from 2-5
September 2005," say Tony and Felicity Dale, part of the team
organizing the conference. John Eldredge was the main speaker at
last year's conference; this year, speakers include Rolland and
Heidi Baker, who saw some 5,000 new churches planted in Mozambique
and neighbouring nations over the past 5 years, Wolfgang Simson and
Neil Cole.
Bill Bright Billion Soul Initiative
Dr. Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ who
died in 2004, prompted the Billion Soul Initiative founded at the
end of last year. Close colleagues and participants in
consultations with Bright report that he explained his personal
missionary vision for the future shortly before his death. He
called on Christians to cooperate to call 1 billion people to
follow Christ in the next 10 years by planting 5 million house
churches. James O. Davis, John C. Maxwell and Steve
Douglass subsequently formed the Global Pastors' Network. A 'global
church planting congress' is planned for September 2005, in which
over 350 Christian leaders will gather to plan this "largest
evangelistic initiative in human history", as the organizers
describe it.
Source: various, including James O. Davis
