The first part of this story can be found here. It only took about three weeks before the group stopped referring to their New Age books and accepted the Bible as their authority. On week 6, we arrived at John 1:12. To as many as received him he gave power to become sons of God.… Read More
Category: House church
Have you ever wondered how to start a church with a group of not-yet believers? Here’s one story of how we worked with some New Agers.
Are we motivated for mission out of duty, or because we are in love with a missional God
Jesus had his most important conversation with his disciples after his resurrection. What did he say to them? Be filled with the Holy Spirit and make disciples by talking about Jesus everywhere you go. What will I/we do about this?
Photo credit KOREphotos (Creative Commons) Jesus said that new wine needs new wineskins (Luke 5:36-40). A new wineskin is only needed if there is new wine. If simple/organic church is like a new wineskin, what is the new wine? Is there something about the life we have together in Christ that needs a new container, that… Read More
Photo credit: Justin Masterson (Creative Commons) According to the research, millions of people in the United States find their primary place of worship outside the four walls of the institutional building. According to George Barna, this figure depends on how you ask the question, but somewhere between 4 and 12 million people are currently involved. (These groups are… Read More
Photo credit: James Marvin Phelps (Creative Commons) When existing Christians get involved in simple/organic church life they have to go through a process that our friend Wolfgang Simson calls "Death Valley." It's as though someone on the mountain top of legacy church can see the mountain top of simple/organic church in the distance, and they… Read More
Photo credit: tquiddle (Creative Commons) In the previous post, I described some of the churches we have started on our journey with simple churches. The majority of them were started with mostly unbelievers. We have also started churches with believers, but it is usually far easier and often more effective to start with not-yet-believers and… Read More
"I would love, love, love some direction about getting started. I am the only person I know in my area who has a heart to move into simple/organic/house church. Where do I begin?" A few days ago, I asked people to answer the question, "What is one thing you would like to learn about simple/organic… Read More
Back in the early 90's, Jim Mellon was on the eldership team of a megachurch with a $1 million a year budget. One Christmas, their church didn't have the funds to help a member's family where both husband and wife had lost their jobs. As he and his wife, Cathy, discussed it, they realized that… Read More