Simply ChurchPhoto credit: Felix Krohn (Creative Commons) Tony and I were in Nepal training church planters: "What should simple/organic church should look like?" someone asked me. My answer surprised them: "It should look Nepalese!" I have a photo in my possession that epitomizes the problem with much of what is seen on the mission field today.… Read More
Photo credit Stijn Vogels (Creative Commons) Tony and I have been privileged to travel to various countries in all five continents and to see missions at work first hand. First the good: I was brought up, in a Christian sense, on the biographies of those on the mission field. I learned from Hudson Taylor… Read More
Photo credit: Abdallah (Creative Commons) For some time now, I have been pondering the question, "What does it look like for simple/organic churches to get involved in mission?" I'm referring here to the role of what is usually known as "the missionary"–one who is called to leave their own culture and live in another nation,… Read More
Dan Hubbell is an apostolic father who works in many Third World countries where persecution of believers is common. Recently, he sent me a response he had given to a church leader from a Third World nation asking for prayer that his church could find a building to meet in. As I mentioned in the… Read More
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: 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
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