Our Vision

Greetings in Christ’s name,

My name is Jeffrey Henning, and I am the host of the Break Bread Ministries (BBMIN.ORG) web site. I have been involved with house church since 1996. Before that, I spent the previous 15 years in Pentecostal churches serving as an assistant pastor, Evangelist, Bible teacher and faithful believer.

I am married and work in the automotive parts manufacturing business as a Master Scheduler. I also host a thriving house church of 18 adults and 3 children

We started Break Bread Ministries for two reasons:
First, to restore the NT fellowship / house church pattern shown in the Bible.
Secondly, to provide resources to aid those who want to start a house church but don't know how.

Being in the ministry for many years, I was led to believe I was teaching and practicing biblical christianity, but instead, I found out I was perpetuating myths and traditions of men. We (ministers) were part of a social club where "club leaders" (the clergy, deacons or elders) established rules of their own making and used bible verses to support the agenda. If income became low, the tithing messages with condemnation came along. As long as you attended faithfully, gave, and said "amen" with the pastor, you were a member in good standing. Your growth was secondary to supporting the programs of the church.

I started to question the effectiveness of such a system. In our churches, peoples lives are filled with brokenness, our marriages are failing, our homes contain alcohol and drug abuse, spousal abuse, gambling, lust, sexual addiction, greed and materialism at about the same level as the society which we are called to disciple.

God began to show me that the reason the church is dysfunctional was that the blueprint to build it was not being followed. A blueprint is an engineering drawing that gives all the details needed to build a finished product.

The NT pattern included leaders who were servants, a body of believers who shared, exhorted, confessed to and built up each other as well as practicing the love and care they professed. The blueprint also called out to meet in small groups to maintain an intimate environment. Here believers break bread and build each other up in love while living out their faith for all to see. The Lord drew up this blueprint and said that the Kingdom of God was within you. Jesus wanted us to realize that christianity was not a social club, but an invisible kingdom that calls us to witness to society by how different we live in this world, not by how we impress society with our buildings and our status. We are the Church!

On a more personal level, I want to continue to teach this vision of reformation and to call for the disillusioned and the visionary to "launch out into the deep" and be set free from the chains of religion, to the freedom of NT Christianity lived out in the homes of the believers . Remember, if God’s word didn’t ordain it, then man invented it.

Love in Christ,

Brother Jeff