Simply ChurchAs part of my study on Disciple Making Movements, I’ve been reading through the gospels to see how Jesus approached making disciples. Jesus invited people to become his disciples. In Mark 2:14, Jesus said to Levi (Matthew), “Follow me and be my disciple.” He didn’t tell him, “Follow me and when you’ve learned enough, you… Read More
It seems that the terminology is changing. People now are referring to Disciple Making Movements (DMMs) rather than Church Planting Movements (CPMs). After my last post on this subject, one where I am just beginning to explore the differences, a few people, who have far more experience (at least of DMMs) than I do, commented.… Read More
Modern wisdom would have us spend much time discipling new believers. But consider the following: Philip had no time with the Ethiopian eunuch after his baptism (which occurred at salvation). The Philippian jailor became a disciple in the middle of the night, and next morning, Paul was gone. Paul was in Philippi for “several days”… Read More
One-on-one is a preferred method of discipleship within evangelicalism. I have no doubt as to its effectiveness (wish someone had been there to disciple me as a young believer). However, recently I’ve been questioning this. Presumably we all believe that the way Jesus worked with his disciples is the best pattern to use. So I’ve… Read More
Some of our deepest theological conversations occur in our hot tub. This past weekend was no exception. Some close missionary friends of ours who work in Asia came to stay. We always have fun debates with them, Here’s the gist of one of our conversations that took place late at night in our jacuzzi: Missionary:… Read More
I love the church that meets in our home. We are so blessed! How does one communicate the fun that we have just being together–the laughter and warmth as we share a meal? The joy in having visitors with us? Usually we start the “spiritual” part of our time together by asking a question: “What… Read More
I often get asked questions about whether or not it’s possible for a more traditional legacy church to become involved in organic/simple/house church life. Thankfully, I now have a resource to point them to. I just finished reading Church Transfusion: Changing Your Church Organically–From the Inside Out by Neil Cole and Phil Helfer. Neil is… Read More
Sometimes it helps people to get completely “out-of-the-box.” For a number of years I ran a local fellowship for businessmen and women. Because they never thought of it as a “church” they didn’t come with their church straight-jackets on; consequently we had amazing results. The vision was never intended to be about getting people saved, although… Read More
It’s probably not what you think! Most Christians, especially those from a more traditional form of church background, assume the obvious way to start any kind of church is to invite a few Christians to their home for fellowship. As other believers join them and the group gets large enough, they will multiply out into… Read More
Do you want to be happy or sad? While there are some people who are unhappy because they need emotional healing from a broken heart, others choose to be pessimistic, to look on the negative side of life. There are a couple of very interesting verses in Proverbs 15. Verses 13 and 15 say this:… Read More