Betty Riggs's Page

Thanks for the invite. Honestly, right now I don't know if I'd be able to do that, but please keep me posted.

Hi Betty,
Are you currently in a house church here in Aiken, we would love to connect with some people. Its been hard to find anybody interested in house church around here!

Betty, if you go to the "Groups" section of this site you will find "SC Organic Church Network" and you can become a member. Our hope is to perhaps have a get together maybe every quarter to encourage one another. We are not looking to replace what is happening locally, but to learn from and support each other. We are looking at February 7, 2009 in Columbia for the first gathering.

tom

Hello, on the South Carolina Organic Church Network we have been discussing a get together on April 4th of everyone on simplechurch.com from South Carolina for the purpose of meeting one another, hearing each other's journey, encouraging one another, worshipping together, and to just have some fun together. The initial idea for this from my perspective was that most of us seemed to be in the very early stages of the process of trying to figure out what it means to pursue simple/organic church. I know that we often feel isolated/lost and I thought it would be great to be able to have others to go down this path with.

I want to reiterate that the goal is not to push an agenda or to recruit anyone for anything. The early house churches in a given city got together for larger gatherings to hear a letter from Paul or another apostle and the Jerusalem Church gathered together at Solomon's Colonnade for prayer and to listen to the apostles, so there is a biblical basis behind doing something like this. I am very eager to learn from what God has been teaching you all and I feel we can greatly be of mutual encouragement to one another as it seems like South Carolina has been slow to grasp the concept of simple/organic church.

Here is what I have been thinking. There is a Panera Bread Co. on Harbison Blvd (off I-26) that has a glass enclosed room that can be reserved. I was thinking that I would reserve it and we could meet there around 9:30-10am on April 4th. We could meet there and get to know each other a little over a cup of coffee and a bagel or pastry. I was thinking that after that we could all do something together. I suggest going to Riverbanks Zoo as it is a really fun place. Tickets are $9.75 ($7.25 for ages 3-12 / $8.25 for 62 and up).

After that, I thought that we could go back to someplace where we could spend time in prayer and worship, with an emphasis on celebrating the resurrection with Easter Sunday being the following week. I have tentatively plans to use the USC Baptist Colliegate Ministry (BCM) building as it has a lounge and a kitchen. We (Tom and Ashlea) would provide dinner and we could finish up maybe around 6-7pm so everyone can head home at a decent time.

I wanted to make sure that the BCM building would be ok with everyone. I used to be on staff at Baptist churches so I have contacts that would allow us to meet there at no cost. If anyone is uncomfortable with meeting in a denominational building, we can look for a place that we could rent. Let me know what you think.

Finally, please confirm or re-confirm if you will be coming so that we can plan accordingly. Also, feel free to invite others who you think might be interested.

His Kingdom Come,

Tom and Ashlea