UNCHURCHING PODCAST: From Motel Church to Tent City - Keith Giles

In this episode, Keith Giles returns to the show to share some amazing stories from his house church’s motel ministry, and some insights about where they’re headed next.

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CHURCH OF THE HEART PODCAST: Giving It All Away

In this episode: Keith Giles of the Mission House Church in Santa Ana, California talks about being a part of a fellowship that has as its goal giving everything that the group takes in to help the poor in the community. Dan and Keith also discuss politics, millennials, Keith’s books and a few other things.

CLICK LINK HERE TO LISTEN>

A New Chapter: Saying Goodbye To Motel Church

In April of 2004, the Lord spoke to me as I was standing on the balcony of a Motel in Santa Ana. He said, “If you want this place, I’ll give it to you.”

I said, “Yes,” a heartbeat later, not fully realizing what I was getting myself into.

What followed over the next 13 years was astounding, confounding and beautiful.

In the beginning the manager didn’t want us there, so we prayed that the Lord would move his heart or move him out of the way.

Two weeks later, the man’s heart changed and we were welcomed in.

At first we simply blessed the children and their parents. We brought a bounce house, and played games and put on puppet shows, never once advertising our church or even preaching a sermon. We simply loved them as much as we could.

Eventually, as we hoped, some of them began to ask us, “Why do you come out here every month and do this for us?”

Our answer was always, “Because Jesus loves you so much and He wants you to know that He sees you and He cares about you and your family.”

Eventually another church came and joined us, about 3 years later. Saddleback Church, [yes, THAT one], wanted to serve breakfast and share the Gospel on Sunday mornings. We helped them get in good with the manager and I volunteered to preach once a month in their rotation.

That relationship eventually gave birth to an actual Motel Church that started meeting in the back parking lot and followed a “read through the scriptures and talk about it together” style service where the people were encouraged to read the Bible for themselves, ask questions, offer suggestions and even challenge the teacher if they wanted to. [And sometimes they wanted to.]

Later, other local churches came along and helped shoulder the load of the weekly Motel Church.

Eventually, Saddleback bowed out and others came to take their place.

We saw people’s lives transformed, hearts changed and wounds healed. We also saw heartbreak and defeat and disappointment. But mixed in with all of this was the steadfast love of Christ and the ever-present power of His Kingdom held wide open for any and all who wanted to live in it and walk with Jesus.

People were baptized in the swimming pool. Some found a way out of the motel. Others found contentment to bloom where they were planted. Still others discovered a God who loved them more than they ever dared to hope or imagine and their lives were forever changed.

Above all, we were the most changed from the inside-out. I mean, I was the most changed. The Lord taught me things I would never have been able to learn from a book or a sermon.

I learned what true courage looks like. I learned what real love and family can be. I saw transformation take place in a moment, and I saw it take place over months and years.

My ideas about ministry were blown wide open. My ideas about church were radically altered. My understanding of God’s love and mercy were expanded and stretched forever out of shape and I was left with a new paradigm to grow into.

Of course, I could never have known any of this would happen as I said, “Yes” to the Lord’s invitation that afternoon on the balcony of the motel.

Today, I have made another leap of faith and responded to another invitation the Lord has given me to step aside and allow others to take this Motel Church ministry forward.

This is harder than you can imagine. I keep seeing all those faces and reliving all those stories. I wonder what the Lord will do next, both in my life and in the lives of our dear friends at the Motel.

This is the great unknown. Life, and faith, is marked by uncertainty. All we can do is cling to Jesus and follow Him every step of the way.

I’m leaving these people, and this ministry, in the best of hands. They understand that it isn’t my ministry, and it isn’t theirs either. They know that the Lord is doing a great work among them and they are thrilled and humbled to take part in it.

So, the Motel Church will continue. It will grow and change and thrive. The Lord will continue to reveal Himself in - and through - everyone who surrenders to His will in that place. Of this, I am certain and it gives me great comfort.

I am so grateful for this amazing experience. I will never forget any of it. 

Most of all, I will never forget these beautiful and amazing people. They taught me how to follow Jesus better. They taught me how to live and breathe outside my comfort zone. They helped me to see and to hear Jesus in ways I would have never imagined possible.

This chapter of my life is closing, but another one is being written at the very same time.

Change is hard, but it is part life.

Here we go…

-kg

WANT TO RE-VISIT SOME OF WHAT THE LORD DID THROUGH THE MOTEL CHURCH OVER THE LAST 13 YEARS? 

READ MORE:

My Friend Robert Higgins

Out Of Strength [Robert Higgins Testimony]

WHAT LOVE IS [The Amazing Life and Love of Robert Higgins]

Adventures in Motel Church

Miracle in the Carport

This Is The Motel Where We Serve

5 MINUTE VIDEO: Why We Can't Turn Off The Dark

Take about 5 minutes and listen as Keith explains a few critical ideas from Colossians 3:1-11, like:

*Why we can't turn off the dark

*Why God isn't our co-pilot

*Why we shouldn't focus on what we don't do

*What happens to dead things when they encounter Christ?

*Why we need to learn how to practice living in the light

*And more!

Click the image above to watch, or click here to watch YouTube version here>

HELP: MOTEL TOYS FOR CHRISTMAS

UPDATE: As of 12/19/16 we have all the toys we need this year!

Thanks to everyone who made a donation.

**
Every year our house church family buys Christmas gifts for the kids who live in the Motel where we serve in Santa Ana.

As you might imagine, there are a lot of kids who need toys and our little house church is...well, kinda "little".

So, we're planning to go hog wild this year, but if you'd like to help us out, that would be SO AWESOME!

Please let me know in the comments if you'd like to contribute something to help us out.

If you just want to make a donation online you can do that via PayPal using my email address. If you don't already know it, please PM me and we'll work it out.

I'll be sure to post pictures of the gifts, and the kids in a few weeks.

We also plan to host our annual Christmas Eve Candlelight Service in the back parking lot this year with hot cider and cookies shared as we sing carols and read the story of Jesus' incarnation from the Gospel of Luke.

If you're in the SoCal area be sure to join us!

Peace!
kg

You Don't Know Jesus

In this message, recorded October 3, 2010 at the Motel Church in Santa Ana, Ca, author and teacher Keith Giles shares how he met Jesus and what their journey together has been like over the years.

[Click link above to listen to this testimony]

ADVENTURES IN MOTEL CHURCH

I’ve talked a lot about our adventures in “Motel Church” over the years. For those who might not be up to speed, our family started serving people who live at a local motel about 12 years ago. We started out just bringing free groceries and setting up a bounce house for the kids. No one preached, no one passed out literature. We simply loved people and blessed them. When they asked us why we would do this we told them about the love of Jesus and let them know that because Jesus had loved us, and because He loved them, we wanted to share that love in tangible ways.

Eventually another church showed up [Saddleback Church] and started serving breakfast on Sunday mornings. We helped them out with that for a few years, and then eventually our partnership developed into starting an actual church that meets every Sunday morning in the back parking lot. We read through the scriptures together, one book at a time, and we share breakfast together, and we pray for one another and try to learn what it means to follow Jesus where we live.

Today, several other Christian brothers and sisters from other local churches have showed up to serve and to share to help out. It’s been really amazing to partner with these wonderful people in this Kingdom work.

For most of this time, our house church family has not been directly involved in this work. Yes, their offerings have been spent to help people in need here, and their donations have made a huge impact over this time. Several in our house church have shown up to serve now and then, but these were usually limited to our monthly Saturday grocery ministry, not the Sunday morning Motel Church services.

This was partially by design. Wendy and I, and our boys, have always felt a calling to this motel. We’ve actually been serving here longer than we’ve been doing house church! But as much as we feel called to this, we also haven’t wanted to impose our passion and calling on anyone else. So, we’ve always shared what God was doing through this ministry, and we’ve always let people know they were welcome to join us, but we’ve also gone out of our way not to make anyone feel pressured or guilted into anything.

Once a month, when I would teach at the Motel Church, our house church family would meet without us. That was also by design. We were actively trying to help everyone see that we were not “the leaders” and that there was nothing special or overtly spiritual about our home, or our leadership within the house church family. During that time it was actually great to hear what the Lord was doing on those Sundays when we weren’t there!

But about a year ago I invited our house church family to consider taking one Sunday a month and serving breakfast at the Motel Church. At first it was just a suggestion. They could have said “no”. But we talked about it and everyone was interested in trying it – at least once. If we didn’t like it, we could just say, “that was nice” and move on. No expectations were placed on anyone by anyone. So, we tried it. It was great. So, we decided to try it for the next three months and reevaluate after that. We did. Everyone loved serving, so we decided to commit for a six month window. That turned into an every month commitment.

Now, I want to tell you what just happened.

Over the last few months, I have taken a step back from my usual role as teacher at the Motel Church. As much as I do love to teach, and as much as everyone has been encouraging me to continue doing it, I really felt like I needed to give everything away. So, I did.

Actually, it wasn’t even my idea. It was my youngest son, David, who suggested it at first. We were talking about how to engage people at the Motel more in our discussion time. He suggested we break into smaller groups and get more intimate with everyone to hear what they were thinking about the scriptures and to listen to what they were struggling with in their daily life.

The first Sunday we tried that, it was great. I introduced the scripture we were going to cover and we each took turns reading verses out loud together. Then I passed out a few questions to some of our own house church family members who were each seated at various tables. They started asking the questions, and then people started talking, and sharing. I stood back and watched them listening, nodding, sharing, and even spontaneously praying for one another. It was glorious!

I even gave away the guitar playing during worship time which allowed one of our younger members to step in and lead, and people seemed to respond even more to what was happening than when I was doing it all myself.

Last Sunday I sat back and marveled as our house church family showed up early, shared the food they had prepared at home, served it to hungry people in the food line, sat down at the tables alongside everyone else, helped lead the discussion from the book of Acts, and hold hands with people at their table as they lifted up their needs in prayer. I also watched them lead worship, clean tables, stack chairs, make friends, share life, pass out hugs, make new friends and step deeper into the lives of these dear people we have come to love and cherish at the motel.

My heart is so full! We get to be the church in such marvelous ways. We get to make disciples by being disciples who disciple one another in beautiful ways.

Honestly, I am so glad I stepped out of the way so that the rest of the Body could grow into their calling and embrace their identity as servant lovers in the Kingdom of God.

This new season we’re experiencing together is really wonderful and I’m loving every minute of it!

Halleluiah!

-kg

[VIDEO PODCAST] Episode 1: Dan Notti and Keith Giles: When Jesus Leaves The Church

My friend Dan Notti and I had an interesting conversation about what happens when the Church leaves the house and spills out into the world.

Our dialog begins with Dan's reaction to joining our house church family as we served breakfast and shared the Gospel with our friends at the Motel Church in Santa Ana.

From there, we began to wonder what might happen if the Church made a habit of being both outwardly and inwardly focused. 

Listen and share your thoughts and reactions in the comments below.

We'd love to hear your feedback and any suggestions for future Video Podcast conversations.

Follow Dan Notti at his BLOG

Thanks,

-kg

Miracle In The Carport

A few months ago Tommy was the guy at the Motel Church who was picking a fight with Don, the kind, elderly gentleman who weighs about 80 pounds and is confined to a wheelchair.

During that incident one of our fellow servants pulled Tommy aside and let him know that we don't treat our friends that way.

Weeks later, Tommy stayed after the message and helped fold chairs and put away tables. I walked up to him after we were all done and placed my hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks for your help today, Tommy." His eyes started to fill up with tears.

"Are you going to be ok?" I asked him. He nodded and looked away as the tears started to roll down his face.

The next time I heard about Tommy it was from another resident who told me that Tommy and Don had tangled again at the corner gas station. This time Tommy threatened Don.

"I told Tommy he wasn't welcome to come back to the motel church until he could straighten himself up," my friend told me.

I disagreed with that. "But the help Tommy needs is over here with us," I said. "Tommy needs Jesus. How can he get help if we make him go away?"

Tommy kept coming to the Motel Church every Sunday, however. The confrontations with Don subsided and Tommy kept mostly to himself, but he was there and he joined in whenever we talked about Jesus.

This morning as I got out of my car and started to open my guitar case, Tommy came over to me. "Keith, I wanted to ask you if I could share something with everyone after you're done."

I could see he was serious, and very emotional.

"Ok," I said.

"I also want to sing two songs but I need to say something before I sing," he explained.

"Uh...what songs are you going to sing?" I asked him.

"'Because He Lives' and 'Lord I Lift Your Name On High'", he said.

"Alright, then."

So, I kept my teaching shorter than usual to leave room for Tommy. After I was finished I invited him to stand up and share what the Lord had placed on his heart this week.

I wish you could have seen him. His face was glowing. He had tears streaming down his face. He had to stop more than once because the emotion was so nearly overpowering. But he got through it.

I stood behind him and placed my hand on his shoulder. Partly to let him know I was still there, and partly to assure him that he was doing a great job.

Tommy told everyone what a sinner he was. "I know everyone is a sinner," he said. "But I'm the worst sinner of all of you. I mess up all the time. I'm stupid. I do dumb things. But Jesus died for me. He left Paradise - gold streets and the angels in heaven worshiping him night and day - and he came down into this filth, and he died for all of us."

Then Tommy sang, "Because He Lives". I joined in and a few others who know the words did too.

After that, Tommy told us more about how much Jesus loves us, and how much we all need to make sure that we are right with God because we don't want to hear God say, "I never knew you".

Then we sang, "Lord I Lift Your Name On High" together.

It was glorious. So beautiful. To see Tommy - broken, simple, sincere - of all people, stand up like that in front of everyone and preach a message so heartfelt, so sublime, so tearful, and wonderful, and amazing...it was like a dream.

What I love about this so much is that it was totally, one hundred percent, God. It was all God.

Tommy told me privately how this last week God had gotten hold of him. "I started thinking about God, and about the scriptures. They all just kept coming to me, over and over, and before I knew it, two hours had passed," he said. "I looked down and realized I hadn't even touched my beer in two hours!"

The verse that came to my mind was, "the kindness of God leads to repentance" (Romans 2:4)

This all goes back to that first confrontation Tommy had with Don a few months ago. At that time we didn't chase Tommy away. We explained that Don was our friend and that we don't treat friends like that. We also affirmed that Tommy is our friend too.

It goes back to that simple "Thank you for your service" that one Sunday when Tommy helped put away the chairs with all of us.

It goes back to the reminder that the help Tommy needs is only found in Jesus.

"I'm such a sinner," Tommy told me this morning. "Why did God choose me to give this message today?"

I took him to 2 Corinthians 4:7 and read this to him: "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."

I said, "See Tommy, God loves to do extraordinary things through ordinary people like you and me because that way everyone knows it was God - not us - and He gets the Glory for it."

"But I'm such a sinner," Tommy said.

"So am I," I said.

"I don't understand why he would choose me. He could have chosen anyone else."

"God loves you, Tommy. He loves you. That's why He showed Himself to you and touched your heart this week."

Tommy just smiled and nodded his head. I could the tears forming again in the corners of his eyes.

As I looked around I could see everyone's face was full of joy. We had witnessed a true miracle today. 

God had touched Tommy's heart. Then God touched our hearts through Tommy. 

As I got in my car to drive back home, Tommy said, "Pray for me!"

"I will," I said. "Just keep following Jesus."

"I don't always do that," he admitted.

"You can do it," I said. "Just keep your eyes on Jesus. He's with you."

"Ok," Tommy said.

So, join me this week in lifting up our new brother, Tommy. Pray that God would continue to reveal himself to Tommy.

Pray that Tommy would spend many more hours away from his beer - wrapped in the arms of Jesus and becoming more intoxicated by the Spirit of God's presence.

Pray that others would listen to the Gospel message that Tommy preached today. I'd love to share even more testimonies like this one with you as we continue to serve at the Motel.

Let the Kingdom come!

-kg

THIS IS THE MOTEL WHERE WE SERVE

[FROM THE ARTICLE]

Police allege trouble with the hotel goes back more than 20 years. In the past year and a half, they said they've had 365 calls for service, ranging from drug problems to domestic violence.

"It's affecting everyone. It doesn't stay just in there," said Santa Ana resident Jose, who only wanted to be identified by his first name.

Jose worries about children's safety with two schools nearby, as well as the low income families who live at the hotel.

"I think our kids are in danger, because not only there's drugs but there's prostitution going on in there," said Jose.

Police say they are working with the city and looking at nuisance abatement as a way to try to deal with the problems at the hotel.

"They attempt to contact the owner and see if the owner will abide by certain rules and if they don't, we can try to fine the owner or do something with the property where he's forced to make changes," said Gonzalez.

It's a move applauded by some who would like to see the hotel shut down and the crime disappear. The hotel management has not returned our calls for a comment.

HERE'S THE GOOD NEWS: There is a growing church that meets every Sunday morning in the back parking lot of this same motel - and has been for over two years now.

There are people who live in this motel who love and follow Jesus and they are living out their faith in this place every single day.

The gates of Hell will be crushed beneath the advancing army of Jesus Followers who will not stop praising God, serving people, and loving others daily.

Let His Kingdom come!

-kg

What Happens When The Largest Church and the Smallest Church in Orange County Work Together?

About ten years ago, my wife and I started serving the people who live at the California Studio Inn on Segerstrom street in Santa Ana, California. At first, our only goal was to love people and to bless them in the name of Jesus. We didn’t market our church, we didn’t preach any sermons, we simply showed up with a bounce house, and ice cream for the kids, a short puppet show, and sometimes free groceries and clothes. Our hope was that people would start to wonder, and then to ask us, “Why are you coming out here every month to bless us like this?” We were hoping to create a desire in them – a divine curiosity – to understand our motivation. And when they did eventually ask us that question, our answer was, “Because Jesus loves you, and we love you, too.”


At first, my vision for ministry at the motel was grand. We were going to have large gatherings where I would preach the gospel and people would be saved, delivered and healed. We’d have dramatic stories to tell of how hundreds came to Christ and lives were transformed. But, as I soon learned, God’s plan was different.

The first thing God said to me was to simply love and befriend one family at the motel. He challenged us to embrace them, to welcome them into our home, to have them over for dinner, to let their kids play with our kids, and to let their challenges and their struggles become our own.

Over time, we did begin to see dramatic transformation and deep spiritual growth. But that growth, and that transformation, was mainly being done in my own heart, and in my family.

We learned that when we can’t, God can. We learned that getting burned and taken for a ride was the best way to develop our instincts for how people survive in this environment. We learned how to love people, even when we knew they were trying to play us. We learned how to bear the burdens of people who had never known the love of Christ. We also learned when to stop carrying the burdens of some people so that they could learn to lean more on Jesus than on us.

Eventually, someone from Saddleback Church contacted us about wanting to start a Sunday morning church service at our motel. Over time we began to work together to facilitate this weekly service.

Ron Wilbur was the main person I dealt with on a regular basis. He and I became fast friends and we both learned to work together as we began to see God at work in this motel.

People started making professions of faith in Christ. Baptisms started happening in the swimming pool, or in people’s homes. Residents of the motel started volunteering to help set up, post flyers at the motel, serve the food, even teach on Sunday mornings as needed. Slowly, we started to see God at work in the lives of the people here, and we realized that He cared much more about this than we did.

Just over a year ago, however, things changed dramatically. After a particularly loud Sunday morning worship service in the parking lot, the manager shut everything down. We thought it was over. But, as we were soon to learn, God had everything under control. See, this particular motel is actually two motels in one. While we were kicked out of the first motel, the manager at the second motel – herself a committed follower of Jesus – gave us carte blanche to re-start the Church on her side of the fence.

In the process, we made a few changes to the format. Rather than have teachers come and share the “sermon of the week” with us, we decided to have everyone read the same scriptures together during the week and discuss those verses when we gathered together on Sunday morning. We started off with the Gospel of Mathew and the Sermon on the Mount.

Over the next few months we witnessed a dramatic change in the lives of the residents. They were actually growing in their faith. They were reading the scriptures and they were coming on Sunday morning to share their insights, their thoughts, and their questions with everyone else. The participation factor was much higher, and as a result, we started to see them becoming disciples of Jesus – real followers who were grappling with the words of Jesus and working to live out His teaching in their actual lives.

Now, after just about a year and a half of this new format, we’re seeing new opportunities emerge. On Easter Sunday we planted four new motel churches in Anaheim, and two of those motel churches were led by members who came out of our little motel church. We’re starting our first weekly Bible Study soon, too. Led and hosted by the residents themselves, not Ron or myself. In fact, one former motel resident, who is now part of our house church family, and who was recently baptized himself, wants to join the Bible Study group. So, it’s all coming around full circle.

I’m amazed at what God has done. It blesses me so much to see what happens when the largest church in Orange County and the smallest church in Orange County come together to let God build His church in a little motel. The key has been working together, laying down our own agendas, and letting go of our need to own or brand the process. Ron has been a joy to work with. His humility and his transparency are phenomenal. I’m honored to serve alongside a brother like him.

Now, we get to see what God has in store for this little church in the next few years. I can’t wait.

-kg
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