Statement of Faith
(II Timothy 3:16,17)
As Christ Imagers, we attest to the triune Godhead as eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
(II Corinthians 13:14)
As Christ Imagers, we attest to the deity of Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious death and atonement through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and His present priestly ministry.
(I Timothy 3:16; Romans 3:25, 26)
As Christ Imagers, we attest to the salvation of lost and sinful man and regeneration by the Holy Spirit is essential.
(Hebrews 9:22; Jude 24,25)
As Christ Imagers, we attest to sanctification, holiness, and the overcoming life as God's design for the Church, the Bride.
(Ephesians 5:25-27)
As Christ Imagers, we attest the Father established with Christ a New and Better Covenant which is the only covenant that is in operation today and forever.
(Luke 22:20; 2 Cor. 3:6; Heb. 8:13; Heb 9:15; Heb. 12:24)
As Christ Imagers, we attest to this New and Better Covenant there is neither Jew nor Greek, but all who are in Christ are one new man.
(Ephesians 2:15)
As Christ Imagers, we attest sexual purity is a necessary expression for all of God's children and our goal abstinence from adultery, fornication, incest, homosexuality, or other sexual relationships or practices forbidden by Scripture, in both Old and New Testaments.
(Hebrews 13:4; I Corinthians 6:18; Lev 18:1-30)
As Christ Imagers, we attest that marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant, committed for a lifetime and is a sacred institution established by God.
(Matthew 19:4-6)
As Christ Imagers, we attest Baptism for all believers by immersion, thus bearing witness to the gospel of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection for us and our new life in Him.
(Matthew 28:19; Romans 6:4).
As Christ Imagers, we attest that Communion, when shared by believers, witnesses to the saving power of the gospel, to Christ's presence in His Church, and looks forward to His victorious return.
(I Corinthians 11:23-26).
As Christ Imagers, we attest the Baptism of the Holy Spirit as on the day of Pentecost and in the continuing ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit shows evidence through charismatic gifts and ministries, and in the fruit of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.
(Romans 12:6-8; I Corinthians 12:8-10, 28; Galatians 5:22, 23).
As Christ Imagers, we attest the increasing of the Kingdom of God that will leaven the whole world and establish the Lord's Dominion of love.
(Gen 1:28; Matt 13:33; Eph 1:22; Ps 145:13; Dan 4:3; Dan 7:12; Isa 9:7)
As Christ Imagers, we attest Christ's physical and personal return in great glory, and in His present and everlasting dominion.
(Acts 1:11; Thessalonians 4:16)
As Christ Imagers, we attest the resurrection of both the born again and the unreconciled: the born again unto the resurrection of eternal life and the unreconciled unto the resurrection of judgment.
(Rev 20:11-15)
As Christ Imagers, we attest the Church is called to go into all the earth with the gospel of Jesus Christ and make disciples, fellow Christ Imagers.
(Mark 16:15-16; Acts 1:8)
Core Values
We host the presence of God by honoring the Holy Spirit in all we do
We expect the supernatural manifestation of God whenever we assemble together
We stimulate each other to higher levels of faith through intimate encounters with Jesus
We take the presence of God into the community with the purpose of changing atmospheres and doing God's will on the earth as it is in heaven.
We purpose to honor one another in open and honest relationships showing respect for the gifts, callings and destinies we each possess as a child of God.
To provide a pathway of personal relationship with God the Father, Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit by:
Teaching the scriptures
Times of intimate worship and celebration
Fellowship groups
Special ministry groups
To strengthen the family by:
Providing ministry for all ages and marital status
Providing instruction and practical mentoring
Helping couples develop deeper levels of intimacy with each other and their children
To go into all the world and preach the kingdom of God by:
Declaring and facilitating the spirit of reconciliation between God and man and man to man.
Pursuing the Lord's presence wherever it is moving.
Releasing the anointing to all that will receive it.
Equipping people to share the gospel with signs and wonders.
Send out teams of revivalist to manifest the kingdom.
We recognize our unique place of anointing in the Kingdom of God and acknowledge that we are most complete when functioning in the Body of Christ at large.
To serve as a regional apostolic center by:
Facilitating conferences throughout the year designed to equip the body of Christ,
Sending out teams to help equip local congregations grow in kingdom advancing principles and anointing,
To develop a relational network, whereby regional leaders have access to our ministry teams and development resources.
Help to develop relationships between local pastors and with leaders outside of our region.
Build relationships with international ministries and churches in order to facilitate kingdom advancement through team involvement and financial support.
To serve as a hub for training, teaching, publishing and commissioning of those with a new and better covenant view towards advancing the kingdom and equipping the church.
House Experience
1. This is a place where intense Spirit-lead worship is shared. We are seeing, on a regular basis, Abba Father drawing us into levels of worship with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit manifesting Himself in signs, wonders and miracles.
2. As a community of believers we exalt the mighty name of Jesus in our celebration, the declaration and teaching of the scriptures and the sharing of the Lord's love to all who come.
3. We give room for God to move in supernatural ways as we see people healed from all manner of sickness and disease as the power of God touches them.
4. We declare the saving gospel of Christ to all people declaring that there is no other way for a person to be saved but through repentance and receiving Christ's forgiveness.
5. We are a community of believers that are focused on changing the atmosphere in our community, region and into the world through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is our desire to give away all that Abba has given us and to demonstrate the supernatural power of heaven on the earth wherever we go. We are outward focused not inward focused
What to Expect
We at The House of Praise For All People are an eclectic group of people from various backgrounds, races and origins that have been brought together to pursue the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ through deep relationship with Him and with each other. You might find our community a place to call home if these aspects of our community appeal to you. We consider ourselves to be revivalist in that we are not looking for sporadic moves of God in our midst but we are looking to live in His glorious presence and see heaven invade the earth every place we go and to everyone we meet.
You might enjoy being a part of this community if:
You enjoy spontaneity in worship
Exact meeting times are not important to you. We usually start at the designated times but the ending times are almost always missed.
You enjoy preaching and teaching that draws you to deeper levels of intimacy with the Lord instead of only building on intellectual understanding.
You're looking for a place where all things are possible in Christ and the manifest presence of Father God can invade every time we come together.
You want your children to be incorporated into the ministry of the church. We believe that the - children are as anointed as the adults and we release them to minister as the Spirit leads.
We believe that Christ will heal all manner of brokenness cause by sin. So you might like being a part of this community if you're looking to be whole in body, soul and spirit and living in the full potential that you were created for.
You enjoy the closeness of fellowship with other people who have been touched by the saving power of Christ.
This community could be for you if you are open to the moving of the Spirit in sign, wonders and miracles. We often see the Lord move in ways we can't explain but the fruit of His presence is changing people's lives for His glory.
This might be for you if you're looking for more than a Sunday service. As a community, our relationship with Daddy God and with each other is the center of our lives, not just another meeting to schedule into our week.
We believe we are called to have an impact into the community around us with the supernatural power of God, so this community is for you if you want to be trained and released to impact the world around you for His glory.
One of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to give gifts to men that we are to use. This community is for you if you are looking for openness in the gifts of the Spirit.
As a community we place high value on honoring each other as created in the image of God and possessing His destiny and call. You might feel at home here if you're looking for a place that puts a high value on relationships as opposed to people only serving the leadership.
We have a multicultural community and we honor the various cultures we have within our community and believe that the diversity gives us a broader view of our Father's creative hand.
And finally, you might be called to this community if you want to be a sold out revivalist willing to do what you see the Father doing and saying what you hear the Father speaking so that we may represent Jesus to a lost world that needs to see His love and forgiveness.
Manifestations
Over the years, we have had ebbs and flows of manifestations in this church. For many of us, these were first-time experiences. In order to bring some level of understanding to manifestations when the presence of the Lord is moving, the leadership of this church has developed the following outline that we follow. During services, if you are touched by a certain manifestation, we encourage you to yield to the Spirit and not resist what the Lord is doing, but press in to His presence.
Luke 11:9-13
"So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"
The approach to the ways of the Spirit that we have taken since 1994 is based on criteria that was put forth by Jonathan Edwards during the Great Awakening in his writing called "Some Thoughts Concerning Revival". There are three areas that a Christian must walk in to be led by the Spirit. It is our desire as a church to pursue and discern the ways of God. Some may only pursue, or others may only discern, but it is our intention to do both. We acknowledge within this structure that there is always a possibility for mixture, and that nothing is purely Spirit, for there is some element of flesh or emotions present whenever the Spirit of God moves.
1. In matters that the Bible gives concerning commands and instruction, as to the things we should do or pursue, it is the believer's obligation to pursue those, for they are the ways of life. This is to be done in the context of a body of believers that walk out the ways of God in a way that the lost can see and respond to. This is also the environment in which we change and grow.
2. In matters that the Bible gives concerning commands and instruction as to the things we should not do or pursue, it is the believer's obligation to not become entangled in them, for they are the ways of death. It is our obligation to shine the light of the gospel into those areas so that people may be saved and so that the kingdom of God advances. We are in the world but not of the world. Love is the primary tool of the kingdom.
3. In matters where the Bible is silent or at least offers little direct command or instruction on a matter, it is the responsibility of the body of believers to discern what the proper response should be. We cannot use the silence of scripture to argue either for or against a matter. In these areas of silence, the main guide we have in discernment is observing what fruit is being produced by or during the manifestations. At the time of the Great Awakening, to be slain in the Spirit or to have emotional outbreaks was nonexistent, and many rose up against the revival because of the manifestations. Edwards took the approach that he would not interfere with the manifestations so long as they were producing good fruit in the individual and in the church. Charles Chauncy, a leading minister in Boston, rose up against Edwards and wrote a thesis called "Reasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England". In this book, Chauncy developed what he called consensus theology, which said God would not do anything that would make people uncomfortable or display unusual behavior like what was being seen in the Great Awakening. Chauncy's voice of opposition spread through the Colonies and brought an end to the revival in most places. The theology that Chauncy developed ultimately became the foundation of the Unitarian sect that is with us today and embraces all things so that no one is uncomfortable. This theology denies that Christ's death brings the only way for a man to be saved.
We have many things throughout church history that are not referenced at all in scripture, yet the church leaders developed either an acceptance or a rejection of the matter. The canonization of scripture is a clear example of this. The first-century church in their writings, and even Christ in His instruction gave no conclusive direction as to what writing should be Canonized in the New Testament or even that their should be a New Testament, but through prayer and being led by the Spirit, ultimately the scriptures of the New Testament and the Old Testament were accepted and embraced by the church universal. On the negative side, it was the expectation of the church in the first three centuries that signs, wonders, miracles, and deliverance were a normal part of reaching the lost and ministering to the saved. By the time of Constantine's assault on the church, these elements of ministry were removed, and the church was brought under the structural influence of Rome. Many of those structures we have with us to this day in the structures of classical churches and hierarchy. These are but two examples of the attempt to sort out a direction.
So for us, as we pursue Christ and do our best to be open to His moving and ways, we, too, must discern what is happening in our midst at any particular time. To this time of present manifestations, the following is offered as to where we are and where I see us going.
1. We do not see any place in scripture that addresses gold dust, feathers etc., and it seems that the scriptural basis for laugher and being slain in the Spirit are weak, at best. The leadership doesn't take the position that one of these manifestations must happen to an individual, but at the same time, we don't want to be in a position where we are quenching a manifestation or not giving acknowledgement to it during a meeting. We do not see an acknowledgement of what is happening as an overemphasis on the manifestation. As we have done and continue to do, the emphasis is on Christ and the moving of the Spirit, and whatever He wants to do or manifest is His responsibility, and our responsibility is to be open to it.
2. So we must look at the fruit that is being produced during the times of these manifestations both in the individual and in the church. Various testimonies have been given of people praying for or witnessing to other people and a particular manifestation appears, giving credence to what is being said. The testimonies from people being touched by the power of God have shown that good fruit is being produced over time.
3. During the move of the Spirit in our midst in 1994-1996, we saw the Lord move greatly and also had many people oppose what was going on. I ultimately listened to the opposition and started trying to rein in what some were calling the excesses to make the church services more presentable again. (I fully admit that both then and today, there is a mixture in any given meeting. But again, if we use mixture as a criterion for not doing something, then nothing would be happening in the church. Certainly, we are to be teaching and growing so the mixture becomes less, and I believe we are on that track.) As I quenched the Spirit and made the areas I was uncomfortable with the focus of my decision-making as opposed to focusing on Christ and His ways, the Spirit lifted, and the grace we had been under was removed. The result was four of the most painful years in the church's history. We turned on each other with a critical spirit that was extremely destructive and left many people deeply wounded, including myself. At that time, as we began to cry out for forgiveness and mercy, I asked the Lord that if He would give me a chance again, I would do my best not to touch what He was doing.
4. So as we once again are experiencing a new measure of grace that is touching the lives of many people and drawing more in on a weekly basis, we must once again decide: do we not embrace this because it makes us uncomfortable, or do we walk in this tension and keep our eyes on Christ. The manifestations do not depend on a person's spiritual condition because I have seen them happen to both the saved and the unsaved. They are a work of grace given as the Spirit moves. We can spend all our time worrying about the false and miss the true. I believe scripture is quite clear that when we set our hearts to following and loving Christ, He will not give us a stone, but when we try to make the kingdom fit into human understanding, we often are deceived by our own intellect. Just because the New Age has grabbed Biblical principles and filtered them through deceptive practices is no reason to move away from those Biblical principles. Interestingly enough, many of Chauncy's ideas were later adopted by Emerson and the metaphysical groups that are the foundations of today's New Age teachings. So, excesses that Chauncy sought to correct in the Great Awakening put him in a place of quenching the Spirit and opening the door to levels of deception that are still with us today. I don't want to be the cause of similar problems.
by Pastor Bob Muncy