QUEZON CITY, Philippines, Oct. 15, 2009 — Stillwaters Church is doing a radical experiment. Research and personal experiences indicate that students want intimacy and are open to spiritual matters. This led Stillwaters to try a completely different set-up for church. Working from the assumption that a worship service does not equal church, Stillwaters is developing a model that puts informal relationships on center stage. With this set-up, Stillwaters has seen unchurched students committing deeply to the body of Christ, and kingdom-building efforts have shown superior sustainability.
Stillwaters Church began as eight students from the University of the Philippines and the Ateneo de Manila University simply met for Bible study at a house in Quezon City, Philippines. It now has more than 100 members and four full-time staff.
The idea for a new model came on the third year of that Bible study group. The group had already been conducting fellowship meetings to reach unchurched students. The meetings were non-traditional, informal and “seeker-friendly.” These informal times became popular, and the group saw friends inviting friends who would invite friends. With attendance growing, a question arose: how would the group ensure that every person will be given the chance to engage in personal, spiritual conversation throughout the week? The group recognized that the appeal of the fellowship was the avenue of honest conversation without being judged. In a culture where questioning God is taboo, Stillwaters created an environment where anyone can safely express thoughts and feelings while engaging with a Biblical world view. If attendance got so big that people would get lost in the crowd and unknown during the rest of the week, the original purpose of including unchurched students would be defeated.
Thus, the search for a new model started. That was 2006, and every year since then Stillwaters has been logging significant developments to what they hope would reach this generation for Jesus. The model is called “multiplying house churches.” A house church is a group of 30-50 people that highly value informal, day-to-day activities together. Any of these informal times is a chance to engage in spiritual conversation, so the group keeps formal activities at a bare minimum. Christ-centeredness is fostered through evangelism and discipleship, and Stillwaters sees that happening in the informal context just as much as in a formal Bible study. The informal set-up also brings the added benefit of multiple mentors.
Every house church has its own worship service and when attendance exceeds 50, a group from that house church would then start another house church. House churches allow members more chances to contribute to the group (due to the small size). This facilitates and encourages upcoming leaders, making the model sustainable in the crucial area of leadership.
Stillwaters is currently looking for financial, prayer and idea support. Melvin and Flo (two of the full-time workers) just launched a website. Parties interested in supporting can visit http://www.melvinandflo.com.
Contact:
Melvin Abundo
Philippine Cellular: 011.63.906.3149875
Skype: melvinabundo
Email:
Website: melvinandflo.com
# # #
