Simple Church Journal

Could a small (but growing) movement of simple/organic church-lifers lead to a revolutionary impact upon world missions?  There is something deep inside of me that says the answer to this question could be a resounding “YES.”

The promise is still in place: that all the people on earth will be blessed… through us.  (Gen. 12:3).  And, Jesus’ promise that all nations (literally, ethnic groups) would hear the Good News before the end comes (Matt. 24:14).

The needs are still great: 13,000 of the 27,000 people groups in the world are still unreached. Additionally, 9.7 million children die annually from the direct effects of poverty.  Almost one in four people on the planet live in extreme poverty.  By the way, extreme poverty is more than not having enough; it is often accompanied by a degrading sense of powerlessness.

Yet the kingdom of God is moving forward.  Each of us is an integral part of that.  AND, yes, progress is being made in each of these areas!

So, what does that have to do with simple/organic/house church folk?

Imagine With Me!

Consider what God might be doing through the simple/house/organic church movement!

• He might be providing a way for many, many leaders and missionaries to be raised up. The core value of simple church—everyone participates—provides a platform in which everyone gets involved, everyone grows spiritually, everyone discovers his/her spiritual gifts and calling, and everyone lives a 24/7 lifestyle of following Jesus. That sounds like a platform for developing fruitful influencers and missionaries to me!
• He might be providing a way for financial resources to flow not into church buildings but, rather, into the streets of our own neighborhoods as well as the harvest fields around the world!
• He might be preparing an entire generation of believers who are not going to merely live “culturally-appropriate” Christian-religious lives, but who will step into more radical lifestyles that reflect the Jesus way of life.
• He might be getting ready to create a whole new thrust that could impact our entire planet through a small group of “revolutionaries” who believe that we are the church, the embodiment of Jesus, and not just church-goers.

 

I haven’t written much about the Simple Church Online Course that I offer because it tends to fill up as soon as I make it available (it’s limited to 15 participants at a time).

However, there are a couple of spaces available for the next offering (starts in March) so I thought I would describe it a bit.  If you are interested, don't delay.  Spaces are available on a first-come, first served basis.  More info here.

First, I want to be clear that it has been designed primarily for people who are newer to the concepts of simple/organic/house church.  That said, this course provides a way for participants to interact with some excellent resources and then digest the material by interacting with each other.

While this started as an experiment, I have been quite impressed by the quality of the participants and the depth of conversations that take place.  I believe those involved are experiencing a transformational boost in the deconstruction/reconstruction process as much because of the relationships as the material.

Here are a couple of quotes from former participants:

“A unique and extremely insightful collection of resources, experiences, and other people who will finally let you know that – “You are not crazy for hoping that there is more of Jesus to be known and shared in a way that is actually simple!”

"I came to the course wanting a better understanding of simple church and how to implement it… I’ve gained a better understanding of what it means to be on mission with God and how to invite others on the journey. The potential impact of the course for me is life changing."

"I found [the Simple Church Course] material to be very solid and helpful. Engaging with others globally has been eye-opening, enjoyable and definitely faith-building."

Some of the topics that we cover include:

• From institutional to organic: the living church
• Simple Gatherings: participatory, Spirit-led, family
• The lifestyle of a Jesus-follower, 24/7
• Reproductive principles that can lead to church planting movements
• Reaching others: incarnational, relational, and genuine love
• Discipling disciple-makers

More info here.  Limited space available.

Victor Choudhrie, who has facilitated a massive house church planting movement in India, has described his thoughts on what God is doing today around the world.  This is a very inspiring read (as well as challenging)!

The Decade That Changed The Church: The longest lasting Revival in Church history took place during the Communist persecution in China from 1947 to late nineties. During this period the Christian population grew from one million to the present hundred + million without foreign missionaries, dollars, pastors, tele-evangelists, crusades, leaders, sacred buildings, Sunday worship service, guitars, Bibles or tithing. All these have sneaked back through the backdoor and succeeded in killing the movement. 

“The early churches were strong in faith and grew in numbers daily” (Acts 16:5). There was both quality and quantity. But even in the first century, the seven churches of the Revelation of St. John were already lukewarm and corrupted. Then came Bishop Ignatius (Martyred AD 110) who ruled that the Bishop was to be treated on par with the Lord and that no baptisms or love feasts (Holy Communion) could be celebrated without the presence of the clergy, thus introducing the Reverend culture, killing the Body Ministry of 1 Corinthians 14:26 led by the Brethren (fraternity of men and women). This Episcopal decree resulted in 1% of the clergy dominating as legislators, administrators and worship leaders and dehumanized over 99% of believers as laymen.

Then came the Roman Emperor Constantine (CE 272-337), a sun worshipping hybrid Christian who did a lot of good but also imposed the solar cross instead of the Menorah the lamp, as the sign of the church (Revelation 1:20). He built the first Cathedral, appointed professional clergy, declared Sun-Day as a day of worship, appointed himself the virtual Pope, banned the house churches and herded all believers in the brick and mortar buildings and called it the church and corrupted the Bride for 1700 years. However the authentic church survived in secret, often illegal house churches.

Then came Martin Luther’s Reformation (AD 1545) who preached “Sola Scriptura and Priesthood of all Believers” but in practice further concretized church structures and the Reverend culture by banning house churches. With the voices of the apostles and prophets suppressed, the modern church has firmly planted herself in Babylon and sucked in the tide of the world. She has gone into the ways of the flesh and everyone is doing his own thing.  Judges 21:25

The church has however, undergone cataclysmic changes, especially in the last decade, as had not taken place in centuries. With 80-100 million followers in secret house churches in China; 100,000 house churches planted in India; one million evangelical Latin Catholics now worshipping in Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC) and five million Americans in 30,000 house churches and several other countries reporting explosive growth, the return of the prodigal church back to the house church is a full circle reversal to God’s intended original form and function.  It seems that the 2000 years of incubation period is over and suddenly the green shoots are sprouting everywhere in the spiritual landscape to welcome Christ the King.

From a paper entitled "Global Trends, Concerns and Challenges."

One of the things I enjoy about offering an online course on Simple/Organic church is that is keeps me in touch with people who are discovering many of the principles and joys for the first time.

Here is a quote from a recent participant who is finding renewal and excitement in simple church:

What we have unleashed here in Philadelphia is unstoppable. In the few short months we have been talking about this thing called Simple Church, two others have asked us about what we are doing and we've learned that one lady has started a church in her house on Sunday evenings. My wife and I are going to visit her next week. Another man started further north of us and we'll be meeting with him soon. Then we have heard of a couple of other places near here that has a meeting going on. So, the network of churches is beginning to take shape. I hope to visit all of them over the next couple of months. It is unstoppable.

And what we see and hear is that God is moving and the miraculous is taking place. People are being healed, marriages are being restored and in one case a woman on methadone was instantly delivered from the dependence on any drug or substitute. How awesome. I have one methadone user in our group and I am expecting to have her delivered. Her husband was delivered months ago, now it's her turn. I believe the the steps to her deliverance will come about because the group is beginning to see and hear of others who are being set free in the House Church. The Big Church prays for people but then they get on with the service.  In the House Church we can concentrate on the needs of one person for the entire time and see God work.

Neil Cole's workshop, called "Greenhouse" will be taking place in our own local area: San Luis Obispo, California, on March 5-7.  Neil (author of Organic Church) does a great job of orienting people toward the principles of organic church life and church reproduction.  You can find more information here along with more details here: Download Greenhouse Weekend Intensive SLO

The Way is hosting a retreat in White Bluff, Tennessee, that will be facilitated by Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings, on April 16-18.  "Join other followers of Jesus… as we gather for a weekend of fun, relaxation, and encouragement.  Life in Jesus is not about getting it all right. It is about learning to live in His love. Jesus is the Way!"

I continue to reflect on the “stages in the journey of simple church life” that I outlined in a previous post by looking at each stage one at a time.

Since our old paradigm of church life has often revolved around the Sunday morning gathering, we often find ourselves on a quest to discover what “New Testament” gatherings might look like and feel like.  We have learned from our church traditions that the make-up and how-to of the gathering is at the crux of the Christian life so, if we are transitioning into simple/organic/house church type experiences, we tend to become very focused on the make-up and how-to of these new types of gatherings.

The result is that stage two, for many transitioning Christians, is the exploration of New Testament gatherings.

While this is natural, if we remain in this stage as the end-all of our transition, we will not fully grasp that Jesus calls us first to an organic lifestyle and only secondarily to organic gatherings (as a result of our lifestyle of fully following him).  I have made this point clearly here.

In fact, one of the difficulties in describing New Testament gatherings is that scripture does not provide us with the kinds of specifics that we would want.  Jesus called his followers to radically follow him, yet he offers virtually no instruction on what to do during a “prayer meeting” or a “church service.”  Yet the disciples did gather and were an intimate community.  From this, we can deduce that the lifestyle of mission (following Jesus and being a light to the world) was the guiding star of their relationship with God and one another.  Gatherings supported this lifestyle, not the other way around.

Having said this, I am again acknowledging that during the stages of transition out of our institutional forms of church life, focusing on the New Testament gathering is often part and parcel of this journey.

Furthermore, stepping into many of the principles of New Testament gatherings does help to move us out of old ways of viewing the Christian life and re-discovering an intimate, organic walk with Jesus.

SO, what are some of these principles of New Testament gatherings that are explored during this stage:

1. Participatory rather than priest led.  Much is written about this in this blog and in many excellent books today.  You can read more here and here and here.  Felicity Dale’s book “Getting Started” has an excellent chapter on this.  Frank Viola’s book “Re-Imagining Church” is helpful as well.

2. Family-type authentic community.  "There are over 50 “one another” verses in the New Testament because we live, grow, minister, become healthy, and find support in the context of real relationships."  You can read more on this here and here.

3. Incarnational rather than attractional.  A recent comment to a post suggested that simple/house churches ought to work together with institutional churches since the latter were better for inviting and involving new people in church.  The wonderful opportunity of the simple church lifestyle is that we learn, as believers, what Jesus meant when he asked us to be salt.  Rather than inviting others to join our own Christian activities (attractional) we have the opportunity to season the world with the wonder of Jesus’ love and kingdom wherever we live, work, and go.  More here and here.

4. Training ground for developing spiritual gifts.  "In a loving environment, group members are willing to risk and use the gifts they have."  More here.

5. Word centered.  Since simple churches do not have one person “delivering the word of God,” the concern is often that the word is not central.  On the contrary, simple churches become even more word-centered because God’s word becomes the one authority that all look to.  More here.

6. Spirit-led.  One of the great joys of worshiping in simple, participatory communities is that every believer learns more and more what it is to be led by the Holy Spirit as a community and as individuals.  More here.

7. Simple and reproducible.  One of the geniuses of living things is that they are made out of simple elements (cells) that grow by reproduction.  The genius of the living church is that every aspect of it,  including its gatherings, can be easily reproduced into any setting from the urban west to the remote villages of Africa with nothing more than the Spirit of God and the word of God at work through the people of God.  It really is that simple.

8. Fluid and living.  By definition we will discover that truly organic processes cannot be controlled nor permanently structured.  Margaret Wheatley says it this way: “We seem hypnotized by structures, and we build them strong and complex because… this is a universe, we feel, that cannot be trusted with its own process for growth and rejuvenation… By sheer force of will, because we are the planet's intelligence, we will make the world work…”

Our attempts to “create” simple/organic church gatherings and make them work will plague all of us who genuinely want to see God shape and grow his living church.  We will not do it perfectly.  Nevertheless, the more we can rest in his ability and power to do what he said he will do (build his church) we can allow that process to be alive, changing, growing, transitioning, and flowing according to his purposes.

I am offering an interactive, online course on the Simple/House Church Revolution.  This course will be looking at the basics and is probably most useful to people who are newer to some of these concepts or fairly fresh into the transition (a year or two, perhaps).

Enrollment is limited to 15 participants, so it is simply a first-come, first-served basis.  More info is here.

There is an interesting post here quoting from Joel News about the growth of house churches around the world.  This report came out of a house church conference in Delhi, India:

"Conference reports indicate that, from very small beginnings, in many nations fairly sizeable house church movements have emerged, including on the continents of Africa and Latin America."

Read more here.

I want to reflect the “stages in the journey of simple church life” that I outlined in a previous post by looking at each stage one at a time.

The first stage is: Letting Go of Old Paradigms of Church Life.

Frankly, this first stage is much of what I have been blogging about right here for nearly six years.

So…  I thought this would be a good excuse to go back over past resources and posts and list those that still seem particularly relevant to the basics of letting go of old ways of thinking.

What Is Church Part 1-A and Part 1-B still seem insightful to me (if I have to say so myself):

Our first challenge in grasping what God intends church to be, is to stop looking at it through the lens of our background and through the lens of 2,000 years of “church” as a formal institution. Dee Hock says: "The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out…" So our first challenge is to de-program old definitions and wrestle with some accurate new ones.  Continue reading here.

The second chapter of my book, The Simple/House Church Revolution, is entitled “Defining Church (Webster Has It Wrong).”  This is also a good, brief attempt to re-think our paradigms of church.

Perhaps the best way to describe the church of the New Testament is as small, vibrant, caring families of believers who are loving others and reproducing themselves into every corner of the world.  You can download this chapter only here if you wish: Download SCRevChapter2

A Way to Do Life—Not a Way to Co Church is an old post that I re-posted recently (upon request), but I think it deserves a mention in this list.  Also, Planting the Kingdom Not Churches is in a similar vein.

I think that John Eldredge has contributed much to the process of re-thinking church.  I blogged on him here and here:

Church is not a building. Church is not an event that takes place on Sundays. I know, it's how we've come to think of it. “I go to First Baptist.” “We are members of St. Luke's.” “Is it time to go to church?” Much to our surprise, that is not how the Bible uses the term. Not at all.

There are obviously other key voices that have added much to the shift in paradigm of church-life including Wolfgang Simson, George Barna, Neil Cole, Frank Viola, Tony & Felicity Dale, and John White.

Also, don’t miss Wolfgang Simson’s diagram of the transition from institutional to organic.

I believe the issue of letting go of old paradigms does not just involve church life, but also entire systems of religiosity that we have often encumbered ourselves with.  Wayne Jacobsen’s “The Jake Book” does a good job of breaking religiosity off of our spirits.  Also, I wrote a post on Reflections on the American Church Culture as well as one entitled, I Don’t Like Christians:

There are, truthfully, many, many Christians that I really like… But we can also be miserably religious, ridiculously petty, unbelievably shaming of others, and embarrassingly judgmental.  My passion for "counter-cultural" church is not just a desire to "do church different" nor even an attempt to "do it better."  It's really just a passion, in any way I can, to stand up as a contrary voice to the spirit of religion that destroys true spiritual life, leaves wounded people wherever it goes, and yet is so often touted as Christianity despite the un-Christlike nature of it.

The subject of “leadership” is an important part of this paradigm shift.  Two posts to note are Hierarchies Create Dependencies and What About Leadership:

The number one issue (in my thinking) is simply this: New Testament leadership had nothing to do with c-o-n-t-r-o-l. When this is fully digested then, and only then, can we begin to grasp what leadership is meant to be.

I think that’s probably more than enough for one post.  But I will offer one last link to a fairly recent post called A Tale of Two Voices:

It feels like there are two paths to go down. One path is called church and it makes you want to have a meeting, set up structures and a church name and define who is in and who is out…

Today I feel encouraged again because I genuinely think that Jesus would be doing what we are doing. And that is all we seek – not a big church – just to be doing what we see the Father is doing every day…

I have been reflecting, for some time, on the stages that I have seen and experienced in the simple/house church journey.

I would love to have your feedback on this to help clarify and further illuminate this subject.

When I speak of “stages” I do NOT speak of progressive steps.  I am not suggesting that one stage is better than the previous nor that this is about a plan to follow.  I am simply seeking to describe some aspects of the journey itself.  However, since the journey is one of change and transformation, I thought it might be helpful to try to describe some of the experiences in that journey that may be common to most.

Also, these “stages” typically refer to those who are transitioning from traditional church to simple/house church NOT to people who are discovering church-life for the first time in their life.

1. Letting go of old paradigms of church life.  This stage is described in a variety of ways from “taking the red pill,” to frustration with old wineskins to discovering what the Bible teaches about church life to…  It is sometimes accompanied with periods of disorientation, wandering through valleys of confusion, or (alternatively) great relief and a new sense of freedom.  People discover that they no longer want to “go” to church, rather they want to learn what it really means to “be” the church.

2. Exploring New Testament gatherings.  Since our old paradigm of church life has often revolved around the Sunday morning gathering, we often find ourselves on a quest to discover what “New Testament” simple/house church gatherings might look like and feel like.  In this stage, “the gathering” often remains the focus of our church-life as we seek to explore and experience small, Spirit-led, participatory, Christ-filled gatherings.  Our freedom continues to grow and we become more and more enamored with the reality that we really are 24/7, kingdom-living, Spirit-directed believers.  The dividing walls between secular and sacred continue to come down and we become excited about integrating our spiritual life with our “everyday” life.

3. Re-boot to Jesus.  Using Frost & Hirsch’s term (from ReJesus), part of the overall transformation we walk through is the re-centering of Jesus in our life.  This takes place as we find ourselves removing pieces of our religious life that have sometimes taken center stage alongside of Jesus or as mediators between us and Jesus: our church, our pastor, certain leaders, certain teachers, doctrine, our church’s culture (fitting in to the culture), religious rules for church life or behavior, etc, etc.  The result is often a personal renewal of our own relationship with Jesus, a greater longing to understand what it is to be an uncompromising follower, to hear his voice, to respond to him, and to live out of a deep intimacy and love relationship with him that is truly center stage in our life.

4. A new missional heart and longing.  It is inevitable that the process of re-booting to Jesus stirs in us a fresh desire to see his kingdom, his love, his power known and experienced by others.  However, this stage is sometimes fraught with severe challenges because our background around “missional” has sometimes been so pre-packaged and programmed that we are challenged to grasp the unique and fresh ways that Jesus wants to make himself known through us.  This is especially true for those whose spiritual gifts do not seem to fit into the “missional” spectrum.  However, for those who are more apostolic and evangelistic in gifting, this stage often leads to an entirely new excitement and fervor for taking the “real Jesus” into the streets, neighborhoods, and unreached segments of the world.  For those who have NOT seen themselves as “missional,” (in our previous church experiences) this stage can lead to some exciting discoveries of how God wants to embody himself uniquely through each of us (see stage #5).

(Side-note: It has been my experience that each of these stages may lead to changes in one’s own worship community and gathering.  For example, stage 4 may literally lead to someone moving geographically in order to better fulfill his/her calling.  Or, we may find that our own transformation draws us to connect with different people than when we started—or even NO people for a season as we become re-oriented.)

5. Fresh discovery of our own passions, spiritual gifts, and calling.  As we are freed up from church/religious boxes, we are able to more thoroughly discover our uniqueness in the way that God shaped us (passions, gifts, and calling) leading to a new understanding of how he wants to work in and through our lives.  I believe that, in some ways, this stage may lead to the most significant impact on the world as Christ’s church is renewed to walk in all of her splendor according to the unique way that each person is shaped.  This may be considered a “convergent stage,” a coming together of several stages at once: our experience of re-booting to Jesus, our missional excitement about seeing the “real Jesus” shared among our neighbors, friends, and world, and our discovery of how we are uniquely created and gifted to serve and embody Jesus.

(A second side-note: transformational journeys are perilous in that they may lead to new directions in our life that we never imagined.  My wife and I are spending much of our time traveling to developing countries which has come directly out of these converging stages.  Of course, this process will lead in different directions for different people, but it should be noted that transformation always asks us to let go of our own life and allow Jesus to re-shape it.)

6. Integration of an organic, fruitful lifestyle with organic gatherings that support it.  This is simply to re-iterate that gatherings may change as our life and lifestyle shift and that they ultimately support, synergistically, what God is doing through us as we experience stage #7

7. Our kingdom influence spreads and even becomes reproductive in its impact.  Since organic life grows and reproduces, we will discover the life that God has shaped in us not only influences others but becomes a living, reproducing influence.  For apostolic workers in unreached segments, this can lead to church planting movements.  Although our callings and influence may differ from this (and from one another) I do believe that similar types of reproductive fruitfulness can and will occur as we walk out this process of re-discovery of life in Jesus.  Ultimately, it is a transformational process that we are on.  As we are fully renewed in Jesus and he draws out of us who we really are, the Spirit’s influence through us becomes more and more dynamic, natural, compelling, and living (i.e. reproductive in influence).

Please let me know how you relate (or don’t relate) to these stages!