Testimonies
Andy Hammer
My name is Andy Hammer and I have been a part of the ministry Anthony and Kylie Watts have led for the last year. I have worked as a pastor since 2005, and I am finishing a masters degree in Divinity at Asbury Theological Seminary. So, after15 years of ministry, I firmly believe that the style of ministry that Anthony and Kylie do is some of the most effective ministry I have ever seen. Their emphasis on building relationships with God and between people bears good fruit. I think that what the Lord accomplished in my life this year has borne more fruit than any five years of my Christian life working at a traditional church.
Matt & Deanna Spangler
Matt and I joined Inspire at one of the most exciting and scary times in our journey. After two years of infertility and many failed procedures we had just found out we were having twins and boy did we need the support! Not only did we need support but we were longing for community. We started seminary in 2014 and had tried multiple groups. While we enjoyed various fellowships, we truly desired a group of people who were utterly fixed on God and growing in Him. We desired more than habits and tradition. This group was exactly that! Everyone was honest and transparent but not stuck in their faults. Each person involved has had great soil, ready to receive seeds of truth but also bearing enough fruit in their lives that they have some to give to others. It took us five years to find such authenticity and I'm so thankful that God met this very real need in our hearts at such a tender and celebratory time.
Isaac & Ashley Watson
Our path to getting involved with Inspire's House Fellowship here in Wilmore was covered in the workings of The Holy Spirit.
My husband and I had been a part of another house church movement in Kentucky since we moved here in 2016, but we always struggled to form deep, lasting relationships with the folks we were with every Sunday morning. We had experienced quite a bit of hurt from things that had been said and done over the last 4 years, and we both desperately wanted to know and be known. Right before Covid hit, we decided that we would start praying that God would either lead us to where he wanted us next, or tell us to stay put. I emailed Anthony 2 days before Covid hit and everything closed down, and I asked him if Isaac and I could meet up with him to just kind of hear about what Inspire was all about. We ended up having to cancel our plans to meet...but that wasn't the end of our story.
After everything closed down, our house church decided to not meet in person. This gave us some space to really pray about what God wanted for us, but at the same time, we went months without attending any sort of church or fellowship group, and by the time July rolled around, we were longing for something. We felt that gentle nudge again to reach out to Anthony. Something just kept leading us back to Inspire, and by this time, we had already peacefully broken away from our old house church. So, we reached out to Anthony again and set up another time to come chat about Inspire.
The day before we were scheduled to meet, our family got some bad news and we were all feeling just a little bit hopeless. My husband, Isaac, decided to go take a walk to clear his mind and try to process what was going on. He ended up heading to the downtown green, a little grassy park area here in Wilmore with some seating areas and a little gazebo. Little did he know, a member of the house fellowship that Anthony hosts was about to come find him.
As Isaac sat at that bench, he was approached by a guy named Andy. Andy had heard Jesus say to him "you need to go to the downtown green, find a man, and pray with him." That man was Isaac. Andy sat and listened as Isaac talked about what he was feeling, how hopeless it all seemed, and then Andy prayed for us. Isaac came home shortly after and I could tell something was different. He told me what had happened and how the Holy Spirit had led Andy to him. He also told me that Andy was involved in Inspire, and we both just felt such a sense of peace, not just about the bad news we had received, but a sense of peace that Inspire was our next step. That next day, we met with Anthony and Kylie, and decided that we wanted to get involved.
It's been 4 months now and we can't even begin to express how beautiful this season of life has been with Inspire. To love and be loved is such a beautiful gift. We are constantly encouraged by the people we get to be with and not only that, but we are convicted when we need to be convicted. I spent most of this year feeling so dry and thirsty for more. So much about House Fellowship has brought me closer to Jesus. It has made mission a focus in my family's life. It has increased my trust in God, just to simply share a meal with each other and talk about where we've seen God this week. Hearing everyone's stories and praying for each other has been such a gift. There's something so genuinely honest and raw about house fellowship and we are so grateful that this is where God has placed us.
Laura Steager
Joining a House Fellowship has been one of the best decisions I have made. The House Fellowship has become a place of peace and encouragement. The people in my House Fellowship have encouraged me through times of doubt and grief and rejoiced with me in time of joy. I have grown deeper in my faith while being connected to a House Fellowship. I would encourage anyone to join a house church if they are struggling to find a connection within a church.
Mason & Meghan Stewart
The ministry of Inspire has been such a blessing in my life over the past two years! When we arrived at Seminary, we were burned out and weary, we felt uprooted and in need of a family, and we were hungry for a deeper relationship with Jesus.
Luckily, we were able to connect with our new British neighbors, over bike repairs and lemon-lavender muffins. Within a few days, we were invited to dinner at their home, and Sam even took the time to find out about my allergies & make a special meal that I would be able to eat with everyone. I don’t remember everything about that meal or discussion, but I remember feeling warmly welcomed, encouraged, & loved.
Before long, we found ourselves as part of their house fellowship, where we began to learn how to really see Jesus in all the big and small moments of our days. Suddenly, we saw Jesus everywhere! And as we became family with the group gathered around the table, we learned how to really share, listen, & pray for one another. My Inspire friends became the ones I turned to with my most desperate prayer requests, and the ones I enjoyed being around for meaningful connection & fun.
I was particularly grateful during our time together to share my grief over our struggle with infertility, receive prayer from our friends, and then later be able to share the miraculous news that we had become pregnant! Sam & Phil were among the first to know of & pray over our pregnancy (even before our own parents), some of the first to meet & pray over Evie the night we returned home, and the ones we called when we needed help going to doctor appointments with a newborn & when we panicked over how to tend to boo-boos on our new baby. Furthermore, I am so grateful to God that Evie is in an environment where she is being discipled from her youngest days. It is such a blessing to have her playing on the floor during worship, babbling during prayer, and napping in the next room as we discuss Scripture. What a gift to walk through the stages of infertility, pregnancy, bringing our daughter into the world, and now raising her with our Inspire family.
There is so much more that I could say about how Inspire has impacted my life - how I’ve gained trustworthy friends to share life with, how I’m learning to follow Jesus more closely how I’ve been encouraged to grow in gifts & talents and use them for God’s Kingdom, how I eat my best & most meaningful meals around our fellowship table… and so much more! I am so abundantly blessed to share my soul & experience Jesus within this family.
Parker & Emily Outman
In my first semester here at Asbury I have come to deeply love the ministry of Inspire. I was involved in a band during my undergrad at Indiana Wesleyan University and this experience was imperative to my spiritual development during that time. Because of Inspire, I was able to enter into a new band, and not miss a beat in my ongoing spiritual development and pursuit of holiness. Not only has Inspire served me, but they have served my family as a whole. My wife has become a part of a band and it has been wonderful to see the fruit of the ministry of Inspire in her life as well. The move from our hometown to Wilmore was much more difficult for her than I and the community of her Inspire band has served her so well in this difficult time. Because of the way we have grown through band we became interested in what Inspire does through their House Church. This has further grown the scope of our discipleship in a way that is new to us, but entering into this new type of Christian community has been a great joy. Altogether, my wife and I have grown a great deal through the ministry of Inspire.