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Moscow: Home groups provide catalyst for spiritual growth

Home-group meetings are vital to the Moscow Good News Church. So much happens in these groups to further the growth of the church and to help church members mature and develop an intimacy with each other, reports Rick Renner Ministries. Recently Pastor Rick held a meeting for all the MGNC home-group leaders. He emphasized the fact, backing up his statements with Scripture, that when believers are baptized in the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit become activated.

An essential point Pastor Rick brought out was that all who are baptized in the Spirit have all of the spiritual gifts activated. Every person baptized in the Spirit has every gift of the Spirit enabled within him or her. Many times people tend to think that only one or two gifts will operate through each person. But Pastor Rick corrected that thinking and encouraged all the leaders in attendance to make room for the gifts to operate in their home groups. He explained that home groups are a perfect place for believers to develop the gifts of the Spirit in their lives. Those who attend are among friends where it is safe to step out and allow the Holy Spirit to use them in spiritual gifts. And if they miss it, their "family" is there to encourage them not to give up but to continue to grow in this area.

Those who attend our International Fellowship home group have personally seen a marked growth in this area of spiritual gifts. The group starts the evening with prayer and then eats a meal together while waiting for latecomers to arrive. Then they begin their main meeting, which currently centers around a Gary Smalley series on Honor in Relationships (particularly marriage relationships). After the discussion, the group has a time of prayer. It's at this time that the gifts of the Spirit often begin operating, through which God has touched various members of the group in powerful ways.

After Pastor Rick's teaching and exhortation to make room for spiritual gifts, home-group leaders will be placing even more emphasis on the gifts of the Spirit at future meetings. The church leadership is filled with expectation that each church member will grow spiritually as a result and that the church will experience more growth as well.

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[04/30/2008]

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