The Elusive Question - What Is DeepStream

Over the last few years we have attached several “definitions” to the DeepStream community of faith. We’ve called it a movement, a ministry, way of life, philosophy, and so on. (In some ways it is all of those things.)  Lately, we've found ourselves still asking this question, as the DeepStream community is branching out into various places around the world, reaching out in different ways.  What exactly is DeepStream?  The answer, we are discovering, is that DeepStream is a comittment to a certain way of living life with Jesus as the center.  No matter what your stage in life, He is to be the focal point of your life.  He is to be the center of your marriage, your family, your job, your dreams.  DeepStream's ideals were birthed out of a vision to follow hard after Jesus, allowing Him to shape our routines, schedules, friendships, comittments, etc... with no reservations about the journey ahead.  If He is leading, then we should go, trusting and following.

As a community we are friends and family...sharing daily life together, some in the same communities, many of us from long distance, trying to pursue Jesus along the way as individuals but sharing the experience as a group.  The desire of our hearts is to be a model of the early new testament church represented in the book of Acts. This is a church where the people provided for each other’s needs, encouraged one another daily, and lived out their faith in such a real way that others were introduced to Jesus not through ministry agendas - but through love and genuine relationships.  (See recent blog article at http://deepstreampa.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/a-gathering-force-by-francis-chan/ )

More important than gathering weekly is our daily journeying through life together and daily recognizing that we have been placed in certain "cultures", literally around the world, where we are to make a difference for God.  Our lives, filled with the Spirit of God are supposed to "drip" into the lives of those around us, pointing them in the direction of Jesus.  We like to say is this way:  "Being the church, rather than simply going to or doing church".  We feel strongly that the Bibles definition of the Church refers to PEOPLE, to those who are following after Jesus.  In today's culture the word normally brings to mind buildings, programs, pastors, ministries, etc... 

In our hearts there is a stirring for something more - for a faith that goes beyond Sundays, and a desire for true worship that flows into everyday life. DeepStream is not an organization that requires membership, or desires to fill your schedule with programs or obligations. Rather, it is a set of Biblical ideals that we feel are worth living life for, worth sacrificing for.  It is our prayer that the impact of the Stream will encourage you to embrace life, unashamedly loving God and people, and ultimately making an impact on the culture around you.