Simple Church Journal

I want to mention our own “SimpleChurch Conference” we are hosting, October 12-14, in San Luis Obispo, California.

We are not making a big “to-do” about this as we are intentionally keeping it small (35 or so people) so that it can be interactive and experiential.

However… if you know of anyone that might be interested, particularly people who are new to simple/house church, please do pass the word along.

All of the details can be found here: http://www.simplechurchconference.com/

Flyer download: Download SCCFlyerB.doc

Sometimes it’s helpful to step back and ask the question: “Why are we doing this house church / simple church thing?”

Fame?  Fortune?  Prestige?  Probably not!

Is it because this is the “Scripturally correct” thing to do?  Well… I do think Scripture has something to say about the primary church gathering being small, simple, family-style, and home based.  Paul repeated this type of statement a number of times: “Please give my greetings to the church that meets in their home.”  (Romans 16:5)

And, well, I do see Scripture pointing significantly to participatory gatherings, as per 1 Corinthians 14:26.

On the other hand, I do not see the overall tenor of the New Testament church as being one that focused heavily on “the form” or “the model” of church.  Church, the people of God, is simply believers living an everyday lifestyle of worship, service, obedience, loving others, etc, etc.  Yes, they gathered to bless and encourage one another, but, honestly, the form of these gatherings was not addressed with great emphasis.  I think it was assumed that if Christians lived passionately for God, then gatherings would happen quite easily, organically, and… often very simply.

So… why do we do this house church / simple church thing?

Alan Creech says that we need to understand and do church differently because there is a “deep lack of real transformation going on in the Body of Christ.”  I think this statement sheds some additional light. 

But, I would add more.  Yes, there is a Scriptural basis for small intimate gatherings.  Yes, there is a need for deeper transformation in the Body of Christ.

And… overall… we want to participate with God in His life and in His purpose on the earth.

So… here is my list:

I believe in gatherings that are small, because we need the support, encouragement, and deeper growth that comes from this type of community.

I believe in gatherings where everyone is known so that no one gets lost.

I believe in gatherings where we can learn from each other’s personal lives and stories (not just head knowledge) so that growth and discipleship takes place in the context of genuine, healthy relationship.

I believe in gatherings that are participatory because this involves and engages the entire body of Christ.

I believe in gatherings that call the body of Christ to take responsibility for its own spiritual life and stop relying on mediators, events, or someone else to “bring us the goods” because we need to grow up.

I believe in gatherings that are simple so that we are free to spend time with nonChristians and have the time to invite them into our lives.

I believe in gatherings that are easily multiplied, so that we can see people released to reach people anywhere, disciple people everywhere, and start “churches” at any time in any place.

I believe in gatherings that are inexpensive so that money is freed up for apostolic workers and the needs of the poor.

I guess that’s it!

Is there one particular “model” that all of this fits into?  I think God will constantly challenge, stretch, and re-shape our man-made attempts to “do” church gatherings.  And I think that is okay.  The point is to keep focusing on maximizing our life with Him, our partnership with His purposes, and our spiritual growth.

And, for me for now, this means keeping the whole dog-gone thing simple, simple, simple.

I am always interested by what the press is reporting.  Here is the latest, a front page article for the Los Angeles Times printed on July 23:

There’s no place like home, these Christians say

Small gatherings in believers’ houses are attended by 1 in 11 U.S. adults, a survey finds. Compared with huge church services, it’s ‘like a conversation. It’s somebody talking to you,’ one devotee say

Jason Kilp had a short commute to church one recent Sunday. He walked about 15 feet from the bedroom of his Anaheim apartment to a small worship service in the living room.

"It’s intimate," the 24-year-old graphic design student said. Unlike gatherings he and his wife have attended at a 4,000-member mega-church in Irvine, Kilp said, "this is like a conversation. It’s somebody talking to you."

The couple are part of a growing movement, mostly among evangelical and born-again Christians, that, depending on who’s talking, represents either a second Protestant reformation or a sellout of biblical principles.

You can read the complete article here.  If this link requires you to register, you can download a copy of the article here: Download LATimesArticle.doc

Nancy Kennedy wrote an article for her syndicated column that was published by several newspapers.  It is always interesting to see what is being published by media.  Here is an excerpt:

They like Jesus, but not the church. That’s the title of a book I’m reading and it’s also the sentiment of an entire generation.

According to a Gallup poll, each year 4,000 new churches start, but 7,000 close. One million people leave the traditional church each year, most of them young people right out of high school. Some return, but many, many don’t.

Dan Kimball, author of the book I’m reading, talked to scores of people who were not shy in telling him what they don’t like about church and church people. In a nutshell: Churches are like exclusive religious country clubs filled with right-wing, finger-pointing, judgmental, angry gay-haters.

Sadly, some are like that and I don’t blame people for not wanting to be a part.

In the Religion feature story today, I wrote about home churches, or “simple churches” as they’re called. People who gather together because they like Jesus, but not so much the institutional, traditional church.

Dave Shirkey, who used to pastor a traditional church, is now a part of a simple church that meets in his home.

He’s not the pastor, he said, but more like a coach. When they meet, they don’t have an agenda or follow a program and everyone has an equal say. No one teaches or preaches, but they share knowledge with each other as God teaches them individually.

They just all like Jesus and like each other and want to be the church rather than attend a church.

Kennedy goes on to describe her own fondness for her traditional church.  But she also acknowledges that there is an increasing number of people who are frustrated by the organized church’s focus on attendance, buildings, and collections (the ABCs).

Her conclusion is: "Maybe house churches are the answer. Maybe the traditional church will change and care less about carpet color and more about people… After all, the church is God’s idea. Therefore, it will prevail. But it needs to change."

You can read the entire article here.

In our last tele-conversation we discussed the issue of helping people to transition from an institutional to organic mindset.  For more on these tele-conversations see here and here.

Out of that last conversation we developed a list of resources that may be helpful as we encourage people through this transition.  I thought I should share these resources with all of you with thanks to Kathleen for keeping notes for us.

To prepare for the conversation we looked over Wolfgang Simson’s diagram on “Apostolic Migration.”  If you have not seen this illustration, it is very helpful in understanding the transition that we and others are walking through.  You can see a good summary of this diagram here.

The following are other resources that were mentioned during the course of our conversation:

Frank Viola books and articles:
Rethinking the Wineskin
Pagan Christianity
Who’s Your Covering

Wolfgang Simson’s “Houses that Change the World.”

Jake Colsen’s “So You Don’t Go to Church Anymore.”  See previous post.

Video by House2House entitled “When You Come Together.”  This is an excellent summary of simple church concepts using interview snapshots along with visuals of gatherings.

“Real Christianity” by William Wilberforce (late 1700’s subject of the recently released Amazing Grace movie) who changed the world because, as he wrote in this book, the church ought to live as she says she believes.

“Purifying the Prophetic—Breaking Free from the Spirit of Self-Fulfillment” by R. Loren Sandford.

Music by Jason Upton: Upton’s music calls to the inner man and to the church to awaken.

Music by Alberto and Kimberly Rivera.

International House of Prayer has many free resources on intimacy with Jesus.

The Praxis website.

Dawn Ministries website.

Please note: I am not personally familiar with all of these resources, but I have a lot of confidence in everyone that has been participating in this tele-conference so I am certain that you will find them all to be helpful.

Note on the tele-conversation: It has been very rewarding to develop relationship with each person involved and see how God has brought us together.  It has been a powerful “house church” type experience in which everyone’s contribution has produced insights, new awarenesses, and encouragement.  I have enjoyed it immensely.  I am not sure yet what next steps will be on future tele-conversations, but I will keep you posted.

I am probably the last person left on the planet who had not read So You Do Not Want to Go to Church Anymore by Wayne Jacobsen aka Jake Colsen.  I finally tackled it in its entirety last weekend.  In case there are one or two of you left who have not read it, it is available online free here.

Jacobsen’s tour de force is his ability to deliver crushing blows to religious systems.  He may not always give us clear direction into the Promised Land, but he certainly helps free us from the Egypt of religious and institutional thinking.

Here are a couple of excerpts.

On religious institutions:

“Once you build an institution together you have to protect it and its assets to be good stewards. It confuses everything. Even love gets redefined as that which protects the institution and unloving as that which does not. It will turn some of the nicest people in the world into raging maniacs and they never stop to think that all the name-calling and accusations are the opposite of love…

It’s love with a hook. If you do what we want, we reward you. If not we punish you. It doesn’t turn out to be about love at all. We give our affection only to those who serve our interests and withhold it from those who do not.”

“Institutionalism breeds task-based friendships. As long as you’re on the same task together, you can be friends. When you’re not, people tend to treat you like damaged goods.”

On living in the Father’s love as more important than church models:

“Nothing we as believers can ever do together will make up for the lack of our own relationship with God. When we put the church in that place we make it an idol and others will always end up disappointing us.”

“No church model will produce God’s life in you. It works the other way around.  Our life in God, shared together, expresses itself as the church. It is the overflow of his life in us. You can tinker with church principles forever and still miss out on what it means to live deeply in Father’s love and know how to share it with others.”

On living free of dependency on leaders:

“That’s where religion has done the most damage. By making people dependent on its leaders, it has made God’s people passive in their own spiritual growth. We wait for others to show us how, or even just follow them in hopes that they’re getting it right. Jesus wants this relationship with you and he wants you to be an active part in that process.”

“But can we do it on our own? Don’t we need some help?” Marsha asked.

“Who said you’re alone? Jesus is the way to the Father. As you learn to yield to his Spirit and depend on his power, you’ll discover how to live in the fullness of his life. Yes, he’ll often use other people to encourage or equip you in that process, but the people he uses won’t let you grow dependent on them. They wouldn’t dare crawl between you and the greatest joy of this family—a growing relationship with the Father himself.”

On developing a healthy community:

“People learning to live in relationship to Father in freedom from shame is the core of body life. Find out how to share that life and you’ll be the body.”

This book also has an excellent chapter on children… take a look for yourself if you’re interested.

Reading Henri Nouwen’s “The Way of the Heart” was the beginning of moving me and my wife toward simple church.  His chapter, entitled “The Compulsive Minister” provoked the start of a longing for an inner transformation.  Years later, when God blasted us out of our traditional church roles, we were searching not so much for a new way to “do” church but a spiritual life that was free of the compulsiveness that Nouwen describes.

I reflect on this today because it reminds me that the heart of the matter is always inner transformation… not just a switch to a different form of church.  I am also reminded that I need to continue to hold up Nouwen’s words as a mirror to my soul to keep me free of the false motivations that can still sneak up on me.

Our society is not a community radiant with the love of Christ, but a dangerous network of domination and manipulation in which we can easily get entangled and lose our soul. The basic question is whether we ministers of Jesus Christ have not already been so deeply molded by the seductive powers of our dark world that we have become blind to our own and other people’s fatal state.

Just look for a moment at our daily routine. In general, we are very busy people. We have many meetings to attend, many visits to make, many services to lead. Our calendars are filled with appointments, our days and weeks are filled with engagements, and our years filled with plans and projects. There is seldom a period in which we do not know what to do and we move through life in such a distracted way that we do not ever take the time and rest to wonder if any of the things we think, say or do are worth thinking, saying or doing. We simply go along with the many “musts” and “oughts” that have been handed on to us. People must be motivated to come to Church, youth must be entertained, money must be raised and, above all, everyone must be happy. Moreover, we ought to be on good terms with the Church and civil authorities; we ought to be liked or at least respected by a fair majority of our parishioners; we ought to move up in the ranks according to schedule; and we ought to have enough vacation and salary to live a comfortable life. Thus we are busy people just like all other busy people, rewarded with the rewards which are rewarded to busy people.

All this is simply to suggest how horrendously secular our ministerial lives tend to be. Why is this so? The answer is quite simple. Our identity, our sense of self, is at stake. Secularity is a way of being dependent on the responses of our milieu. The secular or false self is the self which is fabricated by social compulsions. “Compulsive” is indeed the best adjective for the false self. It points to the need for ongoing and increasing affirmation. Who am I? Whether I am a pianist, a businessman or a minister, what matters is how I am perceived by my world…

Nouwen goes on to suggest that solitude provides the primary furnace of transformation that can free us from the compulsions of the world by allowing us to find our true identity in an encounter with a loving God.  Out of this transformation comes a ministry life based solely on compassion.

Now that would be going straight to the heart of the matter.

I wanted to look at three more writer/practitioners on the subject of discipleship.  This is a continuation of my last post.  I am not suggesting that anyone has "the definitive way to do it" (as if there is such an animal), but I am stimulated by reflecting on the different perspectives.

David Garrison

Garrison, author of Church Planting Movements, has seen simple discipleship chains provide the key to the rapid multiplication of disciples and churches.  (Simple churches themselves are also generally present in rapid church planting movements).

Garrison suggests that six basic lessons provide a discipleship foundation for new believers.  One of the six lessons is on how to be the church and start simple churches.  In this way, new believers also immediately become new church starters.

The key, however, is the way that this basic teaching is passed on.  Person A teaches Person B a basic lesson.  He then asks Person B to teach the lesson back to Person A so that Person A knows that he has grasped it.  Then, Person B takes the lesson and teaches it, in the same manner to Person C, Person D, Person E, Person F, and Person G.  Yep.  Five more people are taught the lesson and they are taught how to pass the lesson along to five more people each.  So, everything a person receives he must pass along before a next lesson is given.

Of course, discipleship in this model does not have to be limited to just six basic lessons, but you can see the focus: every person learns to become an immediate discipler as well as a disciple.

Much of Garrison’s material is available online here.

Curtis Sargeant

Curtis, former missionary to China, is also a student of Church Planting Movements.  He encourages us to consider that discipleship is not a knowledge-based process, rather it is about modeling a lifestyle of surrender and obedience.  He asserts that the reason Paul was able to leave behind growing disciples in a short amount of time is because they were in contact with a man who was “thoroughly in love with Jesus Christ, filled by the Spirit, and completely surrendered to the Lord’s control.”  Curtis contends that Paul’s lifestyle “painted an indelible picture in the minds and hearts of the new believer-leaders…”

Curtis also suggests that a simple church, with the above characteristics, will have a dynamic transformational impact just by being the church:

“A simple group in love with Christ and with each other, sharing freely with each other and with a lost world and constantly in his Word and in prayer.  ‘Together,’ discovering more each week about him and his will.  If they continue to abide (John 15) in a relationship with Christ and the Body (church), they will have everything they need.  The Holy Spirit will be their resident teacher…”

Curtis’ book is available free online here.  He asks that when quoting from his book you make reference to his website: https://www.peace.gs/.

Alan Hirsch

Hirsch, in his book “Forgotten Ways,” uses the term “action-learning discipleship.”  He suggests that we should look at the way Jesus discipled:

“As soon as they are called he takes the disciples on an adventurous journey of mission, ministry, and learning.  Straightway they are involved in proclaiming the kingdom of God, serving the poor, healing, and casting out demons.  It is active and direct disciple making in the context of mission.  And all great people movements are the same.  Even the newest convert is engaged in mission from the start; even he or she can become a spiritual hero.”

Hirsch describes his own missional training network:

“[We] host an internship, where the intern is placed in an environment where he or she is somewhat out of his or her depth.  We do this because when people are placed in a situation requiring something beyond their current repertoire of skills and gifts, they will be much more open to real learning.  It’s called jumping in at the deep end.  The vast majority of the interns’ learning is by ‘having a go’ and actually doing things.”

A good summary of Hirsh’s grasp of discipleship is his statement that “mission is the catalyzing principle of discipleship.”

The introduction to “Forgotten Ways” is available online here.

Much here to chew on!

Our last tele-conversation (previous two posts) raised the issue of “discipleship pathways.”  How do we address healthy disciple-making (spiritual formation) in the context of simple/house church?

I think this issue has much to do with how we view the process of discipleship.  If it is just information downloading (my old way of thinking), then it’s simply a matter of a well-designed program.  If, however, it is about relationship, modeling, life and lifestyle transmission, well… that is going to be a different matter altogether.

To get my own juices flowing on this subject, I decided to review some of the different perspectives and approaches to this topic that I found interesting.

Neil Cole

Neil encourages discipleship to begin in groups that are smaller than organic/house churches.  He calls these small incubators “Life Transformation Groups.”

"This is a group of two or three people who meet weekly to challenge one another to live an authentic spiritual life.  Members of these non-coed groups have a high degree of accountability to one another in how they have walked with the Lord each week, which involves mutual confession of sins as well as reading a large volume of Scripture repetitively.  LTGs are also missional, in that they actively pray for the souls of lost friends, associates, and neighbors."

These groups, as you can see, focus on accountability, Scripture (lots of Scripture reading), and actively praying for the lost.  Neil feels strongly that one cannot improve upon the Bible for curriculum and that helping people immerse themselves in Scripture provides them with the needed foundation:

"Do we really think we can improve upon God’s Word?  Why do we so often give people our own teachings and curriculum rather than Jesus’ teaching? … The helps that are available to us are not sinister or wrong, but they are also not the seed of God’s Kingdom."

I particularly agree with Neil’s desire to see Christians learn to be “self-feeding” as quickly as possible.

Neil sponsors Greenhouse Conferences and the quotes above are from his book, Organic Church.

Wayne Jacobsen

Wayne’s view of discipleship is far more fluid.  Here are some quotes from his book…

“Jesus didn’t leave us with a system he left us with his Spirit. He gave us his Spirit as a guide instead of a map. Principles alone will not satisfy your hunger. That’s why systems always promise a future revival that never comes. They cannot produce community because they are designed to keep people apart…

“Just keep in mind the simplest lesson that has been repeated countless times since Jesus was here: The more organization you bring to church life, the less life it will contain…

“That’s where religion has done the most damage. By making people dependent on its leaders, it has made God’s people passive in their own spiritual growth. We wait for others to show us how, or even just follow them in hopes that they’re getting it right. Jesus wants this relationship with you and he wants you to be an active part in that process…

“‘But can we do it on our own? Don’t we need some help?’ Marsha asked.

“Who said you’re alone? Jesus is the way to the Father. As you learn to yield to his Spirit and depend on his power, you’ll discover how to live in the fullness of his life. Yes, he’ll often use other people to encourage or equip you in that process, but the people he uses won’t let you grow dependent on them.”

The value of Jacobsen’s writings is that he challenges us to stay away from formulas and remain dependent on our relationship with the Father.

These quotes are from his book that is available free online.

More to come on this subject…