Photo credit: alles-schlumpf (Creative Commons) God has used house churches in many nations to avoid persecution–think China, the Middle East. Thankfully, here in the West, we are not in that same persecuted situation. But maybe there is another reason for the rise of simple/organic/house churches. The world situation is becoming increasingly uncertain. Questions and confusion… Read More
Photo credit: SMBCollege (Creative Commons) We love to start churches with people who do not yet know the Lord. I’m often asked, “How do you do that? How do you transition a normal conversation into one about spiritual things?” The last two posts have been guest posts by John King on Discovery Bible Studies,… Read More
John King trains church planters in the use of inductive Bible studies called Discovery Bible Studies. This is proving to be an extremely effective church planting tool in many different cultures. I read his blog regularly. The first part of this post, the story about how a group trained in this pattern has been able… Read More
John King trains indigenous church planters to teach others to do simple inductive Bible studies. This approach has been used throughout sub-Saharan Africa and has contributed to the planting of thousands of new churches there. His blog can be found at: http://johnkking.wordpress.com/ I asked John to write this guest post to help people to understand Discovery… Read More
Photo credit: CarbonNYC (Creative Commons) A post about food seems appropriate after the amount I've eaten over the past two days! Food is very important in the context of seeing multiplying churches. Luke 10 is our signature passage on how to reach out to those who don't yet know the Lord. It tells us that… Read More
Photo credit: antgirl (Creative Commons) Recently, God has spoken very specifically to Tony and me from the book of Haggai. His prophecy, “I am with you, says the Lord” was enough to get the Israelites to resume the work of building the temple after a 20 year hiatus. Those of us in organic/simple church believe… Read More
Photo credit: WingedWolf (Creative Commons) If there is one key skill in simple/organic church, it is listening to God. This skill is foundational in almost all we do. In my experience, however, God tends to speak to me about the things I ask him questions on. So if I never ask him about finances, he… Read More
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“I am second”
Have you seen the billboards showing someone well-known and with the title, “I am second”? They are all over the Dallas/Fort Worth area and in other cities too. The message of the I am second movement is that Jesus is first. This message is promoted through films where well recognized people tell the story of… Read More
Photo credit: pipnstuff (Creative Commons) Simple/organic churches can be inward looking. But when we seek Jesus, making him the center of everything that goes on and we ask him what is on his heart, we may find things change… A few months ago, our simple/organic church spent time learning to listen to God. Each week… Read More
Periodically the Lord stretches my thinking. An idea will grab me, until I find it consumes my prayer, my study, my spare-time thinking. Now is such a time. The ideas began around some discussions about Ffald-y-Brenin, a retreat center in Wales where not-yet-believers often encounter God just by walking onto the land. Could we know the… Read More