The focus of the church

OUR 5 FOLD PRUPOSE At the Orange Co. House of Prayer, the sermons are simple, the worship is powerful, and the people are hungry. Come and experience Christ's freedom to the fullest. 1.         THE PURPOSE OF WORSHIP ·        Our first purpose here at the Orange County House of Prayer is to worship. ·        Our purpose is to teach the importance and the principles of being a worshipper of God. ·        In. John 4:23 Jesus says, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” ·        John 9:31 says, “We know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and do his will, him he heareth.”  ·        Matt. 4:10 “Worship the Lord you god and serve Him only.” Notice this passage of scripture, which comes first: worship or service? ·        Sometimes we get so busy serving or working for God we don’t take time to love Him through our Worship. ·        Our purpose here at the Orange County House of Prayer is to celebrate the presence of God in every day life and to magnify His name in our worship. 2.         SHOW HOSPITALITY Our second purpose is to “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Share in God’s love by ministering to the hurts and needs in the lives of our neighbors.  ·        The Orange County House of Prayer is more than a church it’s a hospital.  It’s a place where we invite the broken-hearted, the lame, the spiritually blind, and the captive, to come be set free by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. ·        In. Matt. 9:12 Jesus says, “They that be whole have no need of a physician, but those that are sick do.”     3. PURPOSE OF EVANGELISM In the Great Commission Jesus said to “Go and make disciples”.  You have been given the Purpose of Evangelism.  ·        Matt. 22:9 says, “God into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in.” ·        Our purpose is to communicate God’s Word to the lost.  Whether it be through the outreach for children, adults, or music ministry, family ministry, prayer classes, or our “Takin’ it to the Streets Festival”, Unchained Ministries, etc. etc. etc.  ·        It’s Christianity in action!  It’s to sow and to plant the seed of God’s Word to win the lost. 4.    BAPTISM Jesus continues to say… “Baptizing them”. Baptism is a symbolic act, whereby the believer acknowledges the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  More importantly, it’s an open confession of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in saying, “I am one of His!” ·        Being a Christian is more than believing, it’s also a matter of belonging. ·        When you are baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus you have taken the Lord’s name in marriage and you are bought into the family of God and into the fellowship of His church, and you are now His bride! ·        We’ve been given the purpose of fellowship.  ·        Eph. 2:19 (TLB) “Therefore, you are no longer outsiders, or strangers, but you are fellow citizens with God’s family….you are a part of God’s household.” 5.   PURPOSE OF DISCIPLESHIP Jesus finished the Great Commission with “Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” ·        II Tim. 3:16-17 says, “All scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that men or women of God may be perfect or mature, thoroughly furnished to do good works.” ·        We are to educate, edify, and teach God’s Word bringing all believers into the maturity of Jesus Christ.  We should do as James 1:22-25 says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.”

Statement of Faith

The nature and purpose of the statement of faith: This doctrinal statment is not a creed.  The whole Bible is our only creed.  However, we are keenly aware of the existence of many diverse doctrinal interpretations among Christians.  We are also convinced that to avoid a looseness in which could result in the admission to our membership of an unbeliever, or of Christians we are not prepared to cooperate in fellowship and the work to which God hs called us, certain minimal basic, and scriptural truths must be recognized and subscribed to.   STATEMENTS OF FAITH 1. We accept the scriptures of both the Old and the New Testaments to be the devinely inspired Word of God, and that the scriptures are the supreme and final authority for our faith and practice.  2. We believe that the eternal and existant God, manifests himself as God the father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  And these three are one God, according to Deut. 6:4, Mark 12:29-30, and Ephes. 4:5-6.  3. We believe in the incarnation and virgin birth of Jesus, in His sinless life, and in the sufficience and substitutionary nature of His death on the cross for the sins of the world, in His bodily resurrection from the dead and in His assension into Heaven.   We anxiously await His bodily return to Earth to set up His Millennial Kingdom after the Tribulation Period.  We also believe that Christ, by His Holy Spirit, now indwells all believers as the Living and Ever Present Lord of our lives.   4. We believe that men are justified by faith alone, and that they are accounted righteousness before God, only through the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is thus by grace and through the faith in the Blood of Jesus Christ.   5. We believe in the sanctification through the Word of God, by the Holy Spirit, and in personal holiness in heart and life.  "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  Eph. 2:10 6. We believe in water baptism, in the baptism and fullness of the Holy Spirit, and in the gifts of the Spirit, and in the evidence of the fruit of the Spirit.  7. We believe the true believers endure to the end, and their persevering attachment to Christ is the grand mark that distinguishes them from superficial professors of faith.  We believe that a special providence watches over their welfare; and that they are kept by the Power of God through faith, unto salvation.  8. We believe in the bodily resurrection of believers to everlasting life and fellowship with God.  We also believe in the bodily resurrection of all non-believers to everlasting torment and punishment of Hell's fire.  9. We believe that God's plan for this present age involves the evangelization of the world through the witness of every believer in Jesus Christ, and establishing of local churches as a mean of accomplishing His purpose.  10. We believe that the New Testament Church is a local fellowship of baptised believers who are associated by faith and in fellowship of the Gospel, observing the ordinances of Christ, (water baptism and the Lord's supper) committed to his teachings, exercising the gifts, rights, and privledges vested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to all people.  This church is under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of His Word.

Church History

The Ellettsville House of Prayer started in 1983 when a group of believers rented the old Stewart Tabernacle building on N. Smith Pike in Ellettsville, IN. The church was an extension of the Lewisville House of Prayer, which is located in Lewisville, In., just 40 miles east of Indianapolis, which at the time was pastured by Meril and Jeanette McBride.  The first pastors appointed to the small church were Jammie and Mary Jane Johnson, from Hagerstown, In. (Feb. 1983 – Jan. 1983) In. Nov. 1983 Phil and Shelly Harris from Anderson In. were appointed as pastors until Jan. 1984. Terry and Esa Everroads from Martinsville began their pastorate in Jan 1984 – Oct. 1984. Following Terry and Esa, were Bruce and Karen Wheeler. They came in Nov. 1984 and moved the church from the Old Steward Tabernacle building, and began meeting at Terry’s in Westbury village. The church was renamed, Living Waters, in which Bruce and Karen still pastor today! In the summer of 1991, a few people left Living Waters to reorganize the House of Prayer, as we know it today. Gary and Beverly Plummer were chosen to be the pastors, as the church met in homes and basements, until finally renting the “Little House” on Temperence St. in Ellettsville, in Oct. of 1991. Four months later, in Feb. of 1992, Steve and Donna Mitchell became the pastors of the little church. In May of 1993, the church moved into the “Warehouse” behind Big Red Harley-Davidson. With more room, the church finally started to grow into an average of 35 -55 on any given Sun. morning. Things started really happening when Leon and Violet Mitchell, along with Bill and Phylis Mitchell, (Grandparents and parents to Steve and Larry Mitchell) gave the church 305 Acres of ground on N. Hartstrait Rd, just south of Ellettsville.  Ground was broken and we began to build God’s House of Prayer. The church had come a long way, but many of the prophecies that had been spoken had not been fulfilled.  God’s number of completeness is seven. Before the church had moved to its present location in March of 1994, in Nov. of 1993, God appointed and anointed Larry Mitchell as the 7th pastor of the little flock, and almost immediately, prophecies began to be fulfilled and the church began to experience growth! In Aug. Of 2004 Pastor Larry Mitchell and Pastor Darren Burton were reunited after more than 20 years. Prophecies were being fulfilled as Pastor Larry ordained Pastor Darren in Nov. of 2004, who then opened the next House of Prayer in Orleans, In. In Feb. of 2005 the Orange County House of Prayer was born. Pastored by Darren and Sherrie Burton, the church opened up in an old Presbyterian church, built in 1900, on Jackson St. in Orleans, In.  All House of Prayer Locations:  Ellettsville House of Prayer Orange Co. House of Prayer (Orleans, In.) Windows of Hope (Clay City, In.) House of Prayer Eastern Greene Chapel Hill House of Prayer (Chapel Hill, In.)