We are R.E.A.C.H.

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 We are R.E.A.C.H.
We have been convicted by the New Testament writings in Acts about how the first century church looked and functioned, and therefore, R.E.A.C.H. was born.
We desire a purer teaching of scripture based solely on the word of God, and not the confines of a covering.
We seek more direct missions and outreach by rolling our sleeves up and doing it ourselves.
We empower and equip people to be powerful leaders in their own rights in order to efficiently reach a world so desperate for the truth of Jesus Christ.

Below is a list of why we chose a home-based church ministry and the correlating verses.
This is the website where we received much of this information.

1. Churches typically met in homes.  (Acts 2:46-47; 5:42; 8:3; 12:12; 16:40; 20:7-8; 20:20; Rom.16:3-5; 1Cor.16:19; Col.4:15; Philemon 2; 2Jn.9-11)

2. When the number of believers outgrew a home, a new church was formed. (Rom.16:3-5; 14-15; Acts 2:41-47)

3. There were no denominations; instead there was one church in each city, meeting in various homes. (Acts 8:1; 11:26; 18:22; Rom.16:1; 1Cor.1:2; Rev.2:1; Col.4:16; 1Thess.1:1; Rev.2:12; 3:7; 3:1; 2:8; 2:18)

4. Elders were local brothers who arose from within a local church where their life and character were known. (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5)

5. Church meetings were participatory and interactive – every member had a function and contribution to make. (1Cor.12:4-27; 14:26; Eph.4:15-16; Rom.12:3-8; 1Pet.4:10-11; Heb.10:23-25; Rom.12:15; 1Cor.12:26)

6. Church meetings were characterized by informality, flexibility, and spontaneity. (Acts 20:7-12; 1Cor.14:26-31)

7. The goal of the meeting was mutual edification. (1Cor.14:3,4,5,12,17,26; Eph.4:11-12,16; Heb.10:24-25)

8. The church was led by a plurality of co-equal Elders. (Acts 14:23; 20:28; Phil.1:1; 1Tim.4:17; Heb.10:17; James 5:14; 1Pet.5:1-2)

9. The church was cared for by a team of pastors who were accountable to each other and the church; they were also known as elders or overseers. No one elder functioned as the head of the church. (Acts 20:28; Titus 1:5-7; 1Pet.5:1-2)

10. Some elders might be financially supported, but they were usually bi-vocational (1Tim.5:17-18; Acts 20:33-35)

11. There was no clergy/laity distinction in the church – all the members comprised a fully functioning priesthood. (Heb.13:15-16; 1Pet.2:5,9; Rev.1:6)

12. The Lord’s Supper was observed as often as the church regularly gathered and was the stated purpose for their meetings. (Acts 20:7; 1Cor.11:18-20,33)

13. The Lord’s Supper was observed as a full meal. (Acts 2:42,46; 1Cor.11:20-21; Jude 12)

14. The Lord’s Supper was observed with glad and sincere hearts as the church not only reflected on Christ’s death, but also on the future marriage supper of the Lamb which it depicted. The believer’s horizontal relationship with other believers was emphasized. (Acts 2:46; Luke 22:15-18,30; 1Cor.11:26; Acts 2:42; 1Cor.10:16)

15. New believers were baptized as soon as it was humanly possible. (Acts 2:37-41; 8:12; 8:36-38; 9:17-18; 10:45-48; 16:31-34; 19:5)

16. Baptism was performed by any Christian. (Jn.4:2; Acts 8:12; 8:36-39; 9:18; 22:16; 1Cor.1:17)

17. The church was not always present when someone was baptized. (Acts 8:12; 8:36-39; 16:31-34)

18.Various brothers taught the church, and allowed the congregation the opportunity to question them and/or add their own insights. (Acts 20:7; 1Cor.14:29-35)

19. The church gave primarily to relieve the poor and assist Christian workers, often beyond their means; they had very little if any administrative expenses. (Acts 2:44-45; Gal.6:9-10; 1Jn.3:17; 1Tim.5:17-18; 1Cor.9:6-14; 2Cor.8:3; Phil.4:15-18; Lk.12:33-34; Eph.4:28; James 1:27)

20. Believers gave voluntarily as God had blessed them and they had purposed in their heart; tithing was not carried over into the NT church. (2Cor.8:3-4; 9:7)

April 19th, 2015

Last week my family and I took a much-needed vacation to Florida. The best part of it...?

Our dedicated and devoted church family met in our absence, and had an AMAZING time of fellowship. They had a chance to connect one-on-one and Rick Frederick lead out in the teaching.

This morning we had a subtly divine worship service.

Once again, we added yet another beautiful family to our fellowship time and it was an incredible morning.

My wife recently became friendly with our newest neighbors, and it turns out they are a ministry family searching for a building to start their own church. They were receptive to our church family, and we are certain they will be life long friends.

God gave both our families a vision of having 'church' in the middle of our cove!
It was wonderful to share dreams and visions...and we're so excited to see what God is going to do with our hunger.

This morning we discussed our focus. We ought to focus on Loving God and Loving His people. If we are true to these two commandments, all other areas of struggle will fall into place.

Other members brought up different aspects of love and how we need to humble ourselves in order to reach more. We talked about different facets of outreach and how to volunteer and mentor to make disciples.

Our morning was supernatural, edifying, exciting and FULL of love! Our members are excited to come together, and even more excited to go out!

God has been so good to us, and we're humbled.

Pray for increase. Pray for able, willing and teachable hearts. Pray for the impossible.

We love Florida too!

#LoveGodLovePeople

Resurrection Sunday

This was the first Easter (first holiday, period!) we spent together as R.E.A.C.H.!

It was incredible! Our church body was all dressed in their Easter Sunday best and we had the privilege to share our morning with two very recent additions to our church family! They are a beautiful young couple with a driving passion to do the work of Christ!

They add a necessary edge to our church family and we're blessed to have them!

The other precious family that worships with us brought their mother to our resurrection celebration, and we felt absolutely complete!

We all feel like we're standing on the edge of a supernatural awakening, and we're ready to go! We've been given marching orders and we're getting dressed for battle!

More outreach opportunity is coming quickly, and we need more hands! Let's reach the people with the truth of Jesus Christ...He didn't die just for us...He died for ALL! For them...

Be watching for the men's Bible study we'll be starting up soon, and remember our women's study 'Judgemental Stones that Destroy Women' on Friday nights!

#freedomdivine
#theVEILwasTORN

Women's Bible Study THIS Friday

(This is a re-post from kaylaagreer.blogspot.com)

I'm beyond excited to be starting up a new women's Bible study this Friday night in our home.

Friday, March 27th @6pm -please email me kaygreer87@yahoo.com or find my husband on Facebook for more info (Matt Greer).
This Bible study is going to be different. Yes, we're going to study the Word, but I'll be revamping what it means to meet together as women. I'll be redefining our roles, our relationships and the way we communicate.

We will be looking at Judgemental Stones what Destroy Women, and this Friday we'll be discussing the 'BFF Stone'. You're not going to want to miss this!

Other Stones we'll be looking at:
The Stone of Self-Judgement that isn't Reality
The Stone of Calling Hurtful Statements, 'Honesty'
The Stone of Assuming and Not Knowing
The Comparative Stone
The Equality Stone

I'll be combining a lot of these for times sake, but all are important to womanhood and we'll search each one throughout the next 6 weeks!
I pray that your heart is being prepared for this study, as mine has been broken for it.
I'll see you Friday!

Frustrations Of A Father

Ever since I have had the opportunity to own a vehicle, I have tried to keep it clean and looking nice. A shiny car always looks newer, and it just makes me feel better driving a nice clean car.

After all of the snow, ice, salt, etc. from the past couple of weeks, the vehicles were in need of a good scrub down. So I jumped on the first opportunity to do so.

After getting everything set up, I lined the cars in the driveway. Much to my inconvenience, my 2 and 3 year old were wanting me to go jump on the trampoline with them. I kept trying to encourage them to jump without me, but to no avail. My wife tried to encourage the same turning to me and saying, "they just want to spend time with you".
I have never been one to mix work and play, so any time the boys 'help', I just end up becoming frustrated and upset with them.

Nevertheless, I let them out to help, and the inevitable chaos ensued. I promise you, when little boys get around water they grow extra hands just to cause more trouble. There were so many tiny hands in the bubbles, and all of the wash rags went straight into the muddy puddles. There was running and splashing; along with the clean areas being dirtied again. The faster I tried to work, the more spots I was missing.

My clean soapy water kept getting lower and dirtier each time the boys dunked their rags in it.
I was so frustrated that I was about to send them both inside, and then it hit me. Actually, God hit me. Right upside the head. Just like all of those times I was acting up in church and thought I was out of the reach of my father.
He reminded me that there are hundreds of thousands of dad's who would give everything they own for their child to ask to spend some time with them. So many fathers who ache just to see their child one last time. Here I was, being frustrated by my boys for simply being boys. I wasn't willing to enjoy their laughter and rowdiness while I have them by my side.

All of the extra work and all of the missed spots seemed to fade from my mind when I began to think of what my heavenly Father must feel like when dealing with us. I read into the frustration that Jesus had with the disciples on many occasions. Either for their lack of faith, their inability to stay awake and pray, their fear or their simple lack of understanding.

I wonder if Jesus was ever ready to throw in the towel, send them on their way and do it Himself?
I wonder if He ever questioned His Father, if all of the extra work and all of the repetitive teaching was really doing any good at all. It seemed as if they would never get it because their agendas of being the greatest in the kingdom was always in the front of their mind.

Before this time with my boys, I had always wondered why He uses us. I could never figure out why He would take all of the extra time to deal with the frustration of our lack of obedience and faith, instead of just destroying the earth all together.

It had never made any sense until those two filthy, soaking wet boys came running up to me. With the biggest smiles on their faces, they yelled, "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" Now I know, and now I understand.

You may see me driving around town in a shiny, black SUV with dirt spots down along the side. You may wonder why I would take the time to hook up the hose, fill the buckets, get the rags, scrub down the car, and yet, not get it completely clean.
To this I would have to say, "because each one of those imperfections remind me that my children love me, and want to spend time with ME more than anything in the world."

This is what our heavenly Father desires of us, as well. That no matter what this world throws at us, we would always choose Him over it all. Not because we have to, or because we know that's what He'd like us to do...but because we WANT to. Because we can't get enough of His presence. Because being with Him is better than anything else in the world.

650 PROJECT has Begun!

What a truly AWESOME day we had yesterday together at R.E.A.C.H.!

We all gathered at our home to prepare, and then hit the streets after a word of prayer for our safety and the hearts of those we'd encounter.

With our blessing bags in tote we sought out those living on the streets of Memphis. We met some really incredible men!
One, in particular, has a ministry of his own helping the other homeless men, and visiting them to encourage them EVEN though he's homeless himself!
The men were touched and gave us great information on other homeless people in Memphis that needed our help!

It struck a chord with our youth that participated. They got to see, first hand, what compassion looks like. NOT from us...but from those who had nothing. They were willing to give and do more than we could ever dream of doing. These men admitted they made mistakes, and they were humbled by the life they had led.

Another man told us that the media likes to put out that there are only roughly 250some homeless men and women in the Memphis City Metro. He said, in fact, there are between 2,300-2,500.

Even though those numbers are heartbreaking, we are encouraged. We are burdened to do more, to go further and to reach the multitudes!

We are not going to give the names or locations of these men, specifically for their safety, but if you would like to help please contact me through Facebook or bygrace17@yahoo.com

We need workers. The fields are right for the harvest and we're ready to go! We're here to go, to love and to watch His truth set people free!

#handsANDfeet
#time2lovesome1
#650PROJECT
#TheChurchIStheStreets

650 PROJECT

R.E.A.C.H. Ministries Outreach

There are approximately 650,000 people within the city limits of Memphis.

As Sunday rolls around, only 23% of Memphians are walking through the doors of an organized religious establishment.
This includes home churches, all denominations and non Christian places of worship.

This leaves approximately 487,500 people *admitting* they do not attend church for various reasons.
I believe this number to be much higher, especially in Memphis.

Example: a neighborhood church group knocks on your door Saturday morning. They want to know if you attend church anywhere...
Or, even better...a Jehovah's witness knocks and starts their script. You don't normally attend church... ever... so you tell them you already have a home church and you politely send them on their way.

Many people lie about attending a church just to be left alone. Therefore, this is why I believe the number to be much higher than the polls project.

The 650 PROJECT is aimed at trying to reach those who are tired of the questions, tired of religion, tired of Jesus being presented in a 2 minute 'sinner's prayer' with a guy in a suit they don't even know. Our goal is to go where the people are and connect on a level they desire. What better way to reach a desperate world then going directly to the hurt and trying to understand things from their point if view. We're on their turf, on their terms, where they're most comfortable.

No more will we be comfortable to invite the lost into our cozy churches only knowing they more than likely will never show up. Even if they do, we tell them we're glad they came and we'll be praying they return...all the while knowing they never will.
We're seeking active relationships with struggling people knowing God is going to bring about remarkable outcomes!
No more sitting in our churches or homes.

We're hitting the streets, and we're putting our faith to the test.

Let's reach the 650+ thousand people of Memphis with some hardcore truth. Let's physically put Bibles.... not just tracts... but the entire Word of God into their hands. Let's live like Jesus did and seek the hurt of this city knowing that Christ is the only healer!

Let's win back Memphis with love!

R.E.A.C.H. Ministries Outreach