simplechurch.co.uk

Hard ground in Europe?

2008-11-04T13:28:00.002Z

I have the advantage of having been away from Europe for almost a year. I realize something now of which I was previously unaware - here in Europe when things don’t seem to be working as quickly and as easily as we think they should (leading people to Jesus, making disciples, starting simple churches, initiating church planting movements) we start an endless debate on a range of topics to do with the gospel and the church in an attempt to solve our difficulties and magically provide a silver bullet answer.

In Africa we are engaged in leading people to Jesus, baptising new believers, gathering them in small communities (churches), making obedient disciples and training potential leaders to do the same. Our dream is to see a disciple making, simple church planting movement spreading up through Africa. It is hard work and challenging; nothing happens easily or quickly. In one of the communities we work in, after nearly 2 years of effort we find ourselves with little visible fruit and having to start again from scratch. In another M-slim community a couple have been working for more than 10 years and have only seen one person begin to follow Jesus. In other places we find people (black and white) in need and open, they are good soil.

None of this happens without a lot of prayer, hard work, fierce intentionality and passionate commitment. We make mistakes; we experiment; we fail; we try again; we don’t stop just because we don’t see immediate fruit. We pray, sometimes for months before we find these people. It doesn’t come quickly or easily. There is a cost involved to obey Jesus’ command to make disciples; but there are no short cuts. We have to pour out our lives on behalf of others, we have to be willing to leave our own comfort to go to the places, socially and physically, which we would not choose to find these people. This is what it means to obey Jesus.

Let’s face up to this truth; let’s get real; let’s find people who are willing to pay this price. Jesus gave us very simple instructions, ‘Go and make disciples’, just because this is costly and difficult doesn’t mean we should replace it with something more immediately satisfying. In some places it will cost you your life; in fact in ALL places this will cost you your life, but what a reward.

Let's quit talking round in circles about secondary issues and get stuck into simple obedience to Jesus' instructions. Who are you discipling to Jesus today?

lessons learned from overseas

2008-10-21T10:56:00.002Z

Felt these "Lessons Learned Overseas" from David Watson are worth mentioning.

1. Effective church planting teams spend 3-6 hours per day in prayer.

2. Training is continuous. Leaders are constantly reproducing more leaders, and disciples are constantly reproducing disciples.

3. Do extensive planning, but expect God to show up and do the unexpected.

4. Be flexible in order to take advantage of the unexpected.

5. Young Christians and young leaders are encouraged to lead and reproduce new Christians and leaders from day one.

6. Ownership of the work is in local hands, never in the church planters' hands.

7. There are no founding pastors. Church planters are church planters. They raise up and train local leaders who become the pastors of the the churches.

8. Family-based and group-based evangelism through Guided Discovery Bible Studies.

9. Every new Believers is trained as if he or she will be the next leader of a movement. People self-select out of training. We often see people become leaders who would have been overlooked with any selective training process.

10. Discipleship is about teaching to obey through word and deed. High accountability in close community is foundational.

11. Failure happens. Start over. Failure happens. Start over. ...

12. Church planting starts with ministry that leads to appropriate evangelism.

Simple Church School 2008/09

2008-09-07T03:27:00.003Z

Gareth Duffty who now leads the "Together" group of churches (formerly CMI) has welcomed and encouraged some of his leaders who are exploring the simple church route. Now they are pioneering some classroom based training for others actively involved in planting simple churches. Here's their spiel:

What is church? How does it work? And how does it grow and multiply?

The Simple Church School of Covenant College is a part-time programme for those wanting to be trained and equipped within all aspects of simple church and simple church planting.

Those involved with Covenant College recognise that this kind of church expression is rapidly growing in the UK and across the world. Simple Church represents an exciting vehicle for the rapid advance of the Kingdom of God in our day, and we recognise a specific need to train and empower those on this journey.

This course is designed for practitioners and led by practitioners. You will be empowered for your journey and equipped for church multiplication and growth… as we seek to fill the whole nation and beyond with the good news of the Kingdom of God.

Over seven weekends during the academic year you will journey together with others, learning, sharing and discovering together through a variety of informal and conversational sessions. Teaching and leadership of the course comes from those currently involved in expressions of simple church; with two weekends during the year involving key well-known simple church practitioners from overseas.

Course Content
The programme consists of seven weekends including bible teaching, guided learning, application and practical discussion, mentoring and support, prayer, worship, personal study, reading and case studies.

The teaching component of the course includes the following: Being like Christ in our communities; Reproducing ourselves and planting churches; Listening to the Holy Spirit, knowing His strategy and working with Him; Integrating into and transforming our culture; Raising up leaders in church and society; Producing an apostolic and prophetic people.

We will also be exploring the many practical aspects of simple church, including: finance, involving children, prayer and worship, facilitating small group meetings, leadership, pastoral issues, administration/communication, reaching new groups of people and impacting communities.

The year programme also includes an ‘onsite visit’, where students will be visited by a course teacher, to encourage and inspire them in their current situation.

Course Dates
Weekends are all residential and fully catered, taking place at Nettle Hill, Coventry. Each weekend will commence with breakfast together on the Saturday, and finish after lunch on Sunday. Dates for 2008/09:

Weekend One: Saturday 1st – Sunday 2nd November 2008
Weekend Two: Saturday 6th – Sunday 7th December 2008
Weekend Three: Saturday 24th – Sunday 25th January 2009
Weekend Four: Saturday 21st – Sunday 22nd February 2009
Weekend Five: Saturday 28th – Sunday 29th March 2009
Weekend Six: Saturday 25th – Sunday 26th April 2009
Weekend Seven: Saturday 30th – Sunday 31st May 2009

Course Cost
Course fees for the academic year 2008/09 are £700 residential and £525 non-residential. This includes all course costs (tuition, books, resources etc) and catering costs (plus shared accommodation for residential students).

To apply for the Simple Church School please download and complete an application form from www.covenantcollege.co.uk, and send with a deposit of £50 (made payable to ‘Covenant College’) to Covenant College, Nettle Hill, Brinklow Road, Ansty, Coventry, CV7 9JL.

For further information, please email info (at) covenantcollege.co.uk or contact the Covenant College office.

living missionally in europe

2008-08-06T11:21:00.002Z

A brief article on intentional missional living by Floyd McClung, written for the European context. Link to full piece is below.

There is much talk these days about missional church. I am more interested in missional living. When we speak of the church we can easily point out the church’s faults and irrelevance but exclude ourselves from the criticism. It is easy to find fault with “the church” but much more difficult when we accept that we are the church.

Accepting Jesus’ invitation to “go and make disciples” gets at the heart of what church is all about. That is missional living. When I think of making disciples I think of it in a holistic sense of being involved in every area of a persons’ life.

Missional living is about investing in the lives of other people. It is not a program. It is certainly more than organized outreach activities. Being a missional person means intentionally building bridges to other people – for the sake of them knowing Jesus and discovering what it means to be a fully alive, free human being. It is an attitude that says, “I will invest my life in others for the sake of Christ and his purposes on earth.” It means I will live that way in every sphere of life and every day of the week.

Link to full article.

lk10.com

2008-07-07T02:33:00.004Z

www.lk10.com

Some of you this side of the pond may be interested to check out this new site which some of the guys previously part of the DAWN US team have put together.

Their vision is to build a 'community of practice' to help nurture a growing number of simple church leaders and planters.

I see an army part 9

2008-07-01T15:49:00.000Z

“The kind of leadership that is needed in church-planting movements should not be highly visible. It is leadership that follows what is happening, not tries to be in control of what happens.

Because we are sunday-meeting focused, instead of everyday-movement focused, we immediately think about how disorderly our church meetings will become if there is no order. But think bigger: if our churches are growing spontaneously, our problems will change. Our focus will not be about meetings alone, but how to disciple the leaders as they disciple new converts and equip leaders to lead and reproduce themselves.”
You see bones I see an army, Floyd McClung

I see an army part 8

2008-06-30T15:49:00.000Z

“What gives the church cohesion in such a model? Its values and vision. When the values and vision are clearly understood by those who father and mother a movement, and they are clearly articulated for all to understand, and imparted through discipling relationships, the DNA of the movement takes hold in people’s hearts.

To the degree people in a movement of simple churches hold their values and vision in common, the movement does not need top-down ‘command-and-control’ church government.”
You see bones I see an army, Floyd McClung

I see an army part 7

2008-06-29T04:20:00.000Z

“The latest research reveals that 3.3 billion people have never heard the name of Jesus one time. I love simple church because it makes church accessible to the greatest number of people. It doesn’t require a professional or a building or a charismatic personality to lead a simple church...

We teach people to be a servant leader who raises up others to carry the torch from the beginning. This is a new style of leadership that requires serving behind the scenes, being secure enough to be a coach to new leaders without position or title. The goal of a simple-church-planting movement is not being an up-front pastor or elder, but being a spiritual father or mother to a movement of elders and church planters...

There is still spiritual authority being exercised, but it is authority based on relationship. It is apostolic not hierarchical.”
You see bones I see an army, Floyd McClung

I see an army part 6

2008-06-28T04:19:00.000Z

“The difference between complicated church and simple church is that the complicated church relies on programmes to disciple people, while simple church empowers people to disciple people...

Leadership in this family is about serving, not positions or titles. The man or woman who serves is greatest. When we attempt to decree who can serve, or the extent to which they have spiritual authority, we have moved out of sync with the Spirit of Jesus, because we have reverted back to the Old Covenant way of thinking.”
You see bones I see an army, Floyd McClung

I see an army part 5

2008-06-27T04:17:00.001Z

“I believe there are distinct advantages to such a simple expression of church and ministry:
1. It is simpler to get things done
2. Accountability is more natural and powerful with 2 or 3 people
3. There is greater flexibility
4. Communication flows more easily with a small group of people
5. There is greater proximity to people who don’t know Jesus
6. Direction is more quickly and clearly confirmed in simple church
7. Leadership has to stay natural and relational
8. Multiplication can happen spontaneously as the group grows”
You see bones I see an army, Floyd McClung

I see an army part 4

2008-06-26T02:14:00.000Z

“Apostolic leadership functions in a simple-church movement by pioneering new communities and ministries that are aimed at reaching those outside the church...

Apostolic leaders are groundbreakers and strategists who initiate new endeavours to ‘go where no one has gone before...

The ultimate purpose of the apostolic gift is gathering those who come to faith in Jesus into vibrant, reproducing, obedient communities of faith...

A movement is an attitude, a mindset that says, ‘we are not going to wait for history to happen, or watch it happen, we are going to make it happen’...

Apostolic leadership yearns for the ‘not yet’. Dreaming, faith, imagination, risk taking, pioneering and future goals characterise apostolic leadership.”
You see bones I see an army, Floyd McClung

I see an army part 3

2008-06-25T01:54:00.000Z

“I believe in simple church for several reasons...

A small church is able to keep on going when all else fails. Further, small groups of Jesus-followers are easily reproducible. People can’t hide or get lost in a small community. Caring for one another is made easier because everyone knows each other...

simple expressions of church, like a cell group or a house church, can function in closer proximity to those who don’t know Jesus by meeting in homes, businesses, on campuses etc.”
You see bones I see an army, Floyd McClung

I see an army part 2

2008-06-23T04:40:00.001Z

“We need more than new models; we need a new paradigm of church and the right core values to empower us to live what we believe...

The challenge before us is major reformation, not tweaking the meeting format...

Jesus defined leaders in the new way of doing things as servants. If leaders are servants, anyone who serves Gods people through their gifts, leads.

In the religious systems of his day, religious rulers used religion to control people. When Jesus came he turned everything on its head: he made EVERYONE who believed in him a leader.”
You see bones I see an army, Floyd McClung

I see an army part 1

2008-06-22T10:43:00.001Z

Here are a series of posts quoting from Floyd McClungs latest book on movements of simple churches.

“I have a conviction: the way we do conventional church is no longer relevant to the vast majority of unchurched people in the West...

I don’t think one model of church is better than any other, but I do believe the more complicated we do church, the more difficult it is to reproduce...The more complicated and bigger a local church becomes, the more people and the more money it takes to lead one person to Christ...

I believe the effectiveness of any movement that makes a lasting impact will be measured by how effective it is in fostering a culture of discipleship that thrusts its members out amongst the lost...”

You see bones I see an army, Floyd McClung.

you see bones, I see an army

2008-04-21T14:00:00.003Z

If you want to be challenged to your socks and taken on a paradigm shifting journey towards a new way of seeing life, church and mission, then fasten your seat belt and get a copy of this book. Floyd McClung's words have impact because he lives by them. I can testify to that personally.

Floyd is passionate about Jesus and seeing Him worshipped by people from every tribe, tongue and nation around the world. To see that passion satisfied he is willing to go to any lengths that Jesus asks of him; including pioneering new forms of church and mission at the cost of misunderstanding and even rejection by others.

If you want to learn some more about the global context of and reasons for the grassroots simple church movement then this will help answer some of your questions.

Be challenged; then go out and do it. It's that simple.

Organic church planting w/e with Neil Cole

2008-03-11T17:52:00.002Z

A report from the guys at Neighbours & Nations who hosted this weekend:

Around 90 eager participants gathered from across the country to hear Neil Cole deliver his ‘Greenhouse Training, part 1’ (as they call it in CMA circles) on the subject of planting organic churches.

We had a fantastic time both listening to and learning from Neil, as well as getting to know each other and hearing the exciting things that God is doing in different places through simple church adventures. I’m sure that many friendships have been formed that will strengthen in times ahead, and that all present were encouraged and helped practically to be effective back on home soil.

What is so attractive about Neil’s teaching is that he doesn’t come with formula or methodology but rather a passion for Christ, his church, and reaching people with the Good News of God’s kingdom in very simple, reproducible ways that everyone can do! More than once in response to questions, his reply was simply “that’s something you’ll need to ask the Holy Spirit to show you”.

Specific subjects covered in the teaching were ‘What is church?’, ‘Reaching your oikos’, ‘Sending out workers’, ‘Multiplying disciples’ and ‘Multiplication movements’.

If anyone would like to get hold of a copy of the teaching sessions, you can download an MP3 order form here.

Finally, a date for your diary – we have the privilege of hosting Tony Fitzgerald on Saturday 28th June, sharing his journey and thoughts on simple/house church. More details to follow soon…but it will be somewhere in the Midlands!

simple church gathering - bristol

2008-02-19T13:23:00.002Z

Carriers of the Kingdom - A simple church gathering in Bristol - MARCH 1st.

An invitation from Mark Cutliffe:

Martin and Alison Holland who some of you may know and myself hosted a gathering in September of last year at the Bible College of Wales called the Catalyst Gathering. Due to the response we had from that event we have felt that it would be good to once again gather those involved in simple/organic church together for a day, to share, pray and encourage one another.

Our friends, Ken and Helen Stout are also helping us out on this one and have found a great venue at a more central location for everyone. The Old School rooms at St Michael's Church, Stoke Gifford. (For more info on the venue please see: www. st-michaels-church.org.uk)

Directions to the venue are as follows:
Leave the M4 at junction 20, then at roundabout take the 1st exit onto the A38 (signposted Filton)
At roundabout take the 2nd exit onto the A38
Branch left, then merge onto Gipsy Patch Lane - B4057
At roundabout take the 3rd exit onto Hatchet Road
At roundabout take the 2nd exit onto Hatchet Road
Turn left onto North Road
Turn right onto The Green

The venue should be quite visible from there but we will make sure that there are some signs to make it easier. If you want to double check the directions the post code is BS34 8PD.

We will be aiming to start around 10:00am and probably finish about 4pm. Lunch will be provided as will tea and coffee.
For any more info please contact Mark on: 01792 555412 or email water.fall (at) ntlworld.com.

Could you also please contact us to let us know how many are planning on coming, just so that we can make catering arrangements?
Thanks - Mark Cutliffe

counter-intuition

2008-02-18T06:40:00.002Z

With thanks to New Generations International.

The revolutionary impact of Church Planting Movements can be traced to the counter-intuitive nature of the characteristics that make up these movements.

Counter-Intuitive Characteristics of Church Planting Movements:

• Spend a long time preparing to multiply rapidly

• Don’t teach the Bible…teach every new Christ-Follower how to discover God’s truth and obey what they learn

• Expect miracles to accelerate the church planting process

• Stay only where a “person of peace” (Lk. 10) is ready to hear and obey

• Disciple people to conversion…not vice versa

• Focus only on the few who can be leaders now, so many will hear later

• Expect the hardest people and places to yield the greatest results

• Focus on discipling ordinary people, not developing professional Christians

• Always enter as a servant, never a master

• A novice insider will produce more fruit than a highly trained

the person of peace

2008-02-17T16:31:00.000Z

Lots has been shared about this subject; I thought this was a pretty good overview from someone with a lot of practical experience, albeit from a non-european context. See what you think:

The Person of Peace is the one God has prepared to receive the Gospel for the first time into a community. Our understanding of the Person of Peace changes the way we plant churches. It radically increases the number of churches planted. We have seen church planting teams go from planting a few churches per year to planting dozens of churches every year, and in some cases, even hundreds of new churches every year. I developed the Person of Peace strategy from a composite view of Jesus’ teachings when He sent out His disciples in Matthew 10, Luke 9, and Luke 10...

The Person of Peace teaching is an entry strategy to new communities. In the Great Commission Jesus commanded us to “go.” What do we do when we get to where we are going? We find the Person of Peace...

The Evangelist Church Planter does not do any of the traditional things required by traditional church planting. He does not preach or teach. He does not hand out tracts or sell books or give away Bibles. He does not do mass rallies or healing services...

Let’s look at what the Evangelist does and how the Person of Peace strategy works. It starts with obedience to Christ. It looks for where Christ is about to visit. This is evidenced by the presence of the Person of Peace. If there is no Person of Peace then you move on. The Person of Peace is found through prayer and ministry. The Evangelist freely gives of himself or herself. We are told to pray for harvesters. The Person of Peace will be this harvester. We equip this person to be the church planter for his or her community..

We train evangelists to enter new communities after extensive prayer. When the evangelists enter the community they look for ways to meet the felt needs of the community through service, education, or business. As they meet these needs they are meeting people and sharing openly about the Kingdom of God/Heaven. When the Person of Peace reveals himself or herself, the evangelists shifts the focus to the Family of Peace...

Full article here

organic church planting conference 2008

2007-12-17T15:27:00.001Z

Click above for details and booking form.

If you are involved in organic, simple church in the UK then this will be a brilliant opportunity not just to learn from one of the key simple church leaders in North America but also to encourage and learn from one another. Don't miss it!

go slow to go fast

2007-12-15T10:15:00.000Z

From someone who has seen a CPM which has resulted in more than 40,000 churches planted here is a powerful reminder that we are called principly to make disciples not 'plant churches'.

God began to teach me through many failures that I had to focus on making Disciples of Christ, not followers of my church or denomination, and teach them to obey all the commands of Jesus, not my church/denominational doctrines or traditions. And this is what led to the breakthrough that has resulted in more than 40,000 churches among a people who were once considered unreachable.

Many people use the term “CPM” to describe or justify what they are doing. But, on closer examination, I find that many groups who use this term are simply applying it to what they have always done. CPM is not a method! It is an observation of results. In my experience, and this is what I teach, CPM is the result of obedience-based discipleship that sees disciples reproducing disciples, leaders reproducing leaders, and churches reproducing churches. If this is not happening, it is not CPM.

True CPM methodology is about being disciplined in education, training, and mentoring to obey all the commands of Jesus, regardless of consequences. The results are not quick. They only appear to be quick because of exponential growth. When one is truly engaged in the process that leads to observable CPM, then one is spending years investing in leaders. The typical investment timeline is two to four years. But, because of the replication process due to obedience to make disciples and teach them to obey, in this same two to four years, as many as five more leaders, who are also developing more leaders, will emerge. Each leader is investing two to four years in other leaders who invest two to four years in other leaders, and so on. The apparent result is explosive growth that does not seem to take much time and energy. But appearances are misleading.

CPM is extremely time and energy intensive. Leaders invest a major portion of their time in equipping other leaders. Churches invest in starting more groups that will become churches as they obey the teachings of Christ and begin to fulfill the nature and functions of church, which means they teach others to do the same.

There were no visible or measureable results the first four years of my ministry among a very resistant unreached people group. My mission was ready to discipline me for failure to do my job. But during those years I was equipping five leaders. These five leaders began to equip twenty-five more leaders, who in turned equipped hundreds of other leaders.

A few churches became more churches as leaders were equipped and trained to obey all the commands of Christ. More churches became hundreds of churches as the leadership equipping process continued. Every leader has years invested in him or her by other leaders. Nothing is quick. It only appears to be quick because more and more leaders are being produced in obedience to the command of Christ to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20, NIV)

So, CPM rapid multiplication really isn’t. We go slow in order to appear to go fast. We invest extensively in one in order to reach and train many. Our goal is to add at least two new leaders to our mentoring process each year, and equip the new leaders to do the same every year. As leaders multiply, churches grow and multiply.

If you really want to have CPM anywhere in the world, invest in teaching, training and mentoring leaders to obey all the commands of Christ. If you want to evaluate a so-called CPM, examine the discipleship and leadership equipping process. Real and lasting CPMs invest heavily in leadership and training. CPM is a result, not a cause.

Full article by David Watson here.

the story of 'engedi' in suffolk

2007-11-21T16:53:00.000Z

'Engedi' started in 1999/2000. Several families moved from London to Suffolk to experiment with church life and to gain the freedom to enjoy God together without the restrictions of the Institutional Church and certain party lines to keep. We wanted to see what God had to say to us and not what a denomination dictated.

As with many others before us, we misguidedly assessed our church practice according to what we knew of church from previous experiences. After experimenting with cell church principles and finding that this was just a structure like any other, and that it still required very strong leadership to drive it forward and maintain it's momentum, we realized that our foundation was flawed and practically an idolatrous one. We concluded that the Holy Spirit was still active and that Jesus was still alive. No great revelation there, but knowing it and living it are two vastly different things.

Jesus should be our only true foundation. He should be our focus. Not a structure or a denomination or any thing that deflects us from pursuing Jesus. We want for our lives, our gatherings and our churches to be focused on him. For us to discover what Jesus has for us, we have thrown ourselves completely on him with no safety net. This is very scary but has proven to be a total release. In hindsight of course that is surely what the Lord requires of us anyway.

We now model ourselves entirely on what we can glean from the pages of the New Testament and what can be applied by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is alive and his Holy Spirit guides us as one man. We have no man-made structures to maintain, no salaries to pay and no building to upkeep. This brings with it new problems, but problems that we believe we are supposed to have and not those suffered by the established church.

Each person is responsible before God for the other members of the ecclesia. It is the responsibility of each believer to ensure they are developing their own walk with God and to hear from the Lord for the rest of the body. We are there for each other and look out for each other. It is no longer the responsibility of the paid professional to ensure that the body is cared for or ministered to, or taught, or served. It is the responsibility of us all. We all have to rise to the challenge and take up our job as an eye, or as a hand, or an ear, as members of the same body with Christ as our head.

In this time some have been saved, others have joined us, some have left, some have moved away, some have started new lives and we have made good friends of many - believers and unbelievers alike. We have tried to be flexible and maintain time for other people in our busy schedules. We have joined clubs and found social lives outside of church. This has meant for the first time we have been touching many peoples lives that we would never be able to with a conventional church setup.

With our emphasis on relationships and not having party lines to keep, we have emphasized the whole body and refrained from sectarian division, We have found that we have managed to maintain flourishing relationships with those that disagree with our practice and methods across the spectrum of the church. We are committed to the body of Christ and seek to live completely in harmony with all Christian groups. We are open-minded enough to realise that we haven't got it all sewn up and haven't cornered all truth. We therefore seek to find Christ wherever we can find him. It is our conclusion that he speaks to all in different ways. Ways that are relevant to them. What he has revealed to us is for us, but we love to hear his voice and remain open to all traditions. We can learn from all, and have fellowship with anyone that love the Lord Jesus.

We seek to please him and don't measure our success by numbers or sermons preached, but by the Kingdom of God being released in our lives and through our life together.

can't find an organic church near by?

2007-11-01T12:53:00.000Z

Although this comes from a US perspective I feel it is well worth a read:
Finding Organic Church by Frank Viola.

If you have disconnected from institutional church and are desperate to join a local organic/simplechurch gathering but can't find anything close by then Frank has some strong advice and some good practical suggestions.

a familiar story

2007-11-01T12:06:00.000Z

Here's a story which I suspect will resonate with one or two.

My husband and I are older Christians who have had much to do with organised religion over many years. We have visited many churches, both at home and abroad, and have observed all varieties of expressions, of faith and of worship styles, looking both from the congregations and the ministry side.

Quite simply, we began to feel more and more unhappy with the last church but one, and God began to speak. It took a year of desperately hanging on for our position in that church to become absolutely untenable. Everything became dead to us and we could no longer support in any shape or form a leadership, backed by an apathetic people, whose ways and beliefs, though we are Bible believers, we had rejected long ago.

In the next church, which in many ways suited us better, things went reasonably well (ignoring any 'uneasy feelings' and taking the good along with the bad) when, after about a year, God started to speak again. I wrote it all down, with a sinking feeling, as I knew it meant trouble. One day, the pastor, curious as always to know everything about everybody, asked me what I was musing about, as he knew something was on my mind. So I told him just one of the things which the Lord had told me. Just one. Pastor, I said, you are doing a one-man-band-act.
He didn't like it, and he soon isolated me from the rest of the 'flock'. Very soon, we were out of there, too.

His parting words were 'I am very sorry you haven't found a place with us, but I hope you find somewhere else you can be happy'. In other words, try another church. But, by this time, we were thoroughly disillusioned with every church and - as far as we were concerned - they were all the same, all building their own little empires, and we were pretty sure that disillusionment would set in again, sooner or later, if we were to join somewhere else. As I said, we knew the scene very well, because we had a very large and wide experience of the churches.

The only thing for it was to start a church in our home and we soon had put together a good dossier from the Lord and other sources on how things should work. We started off as three, with meeting together over a shared meal and sharing together. After that, we added the Lord's Supper after the meal and tried to cut down the chatting afterwards (with mixed success). Then our chatty member left and we gained another from a Gene Edwards conference we attended in Bournemouth - a young Polish man.

That was in 2004, and we have grown in our Christian faith and in freedom of expression ever since, though we are still small in numbers.
We are extremely happy and would never go back to organised religion now. Currently, we are checking out new contacts nearby which have come from the Simplechurch website.

L and A

cpm in central asia

2007-10-25T12:25:00.000Z

Steve Hill has been involved out in Central Asia helping to start a church planting movement. Here's some of their story.

A/ History!
We started in ------ five years ago with a simple vision of relational disciple making and with one couple committed to carrying that vision. We are now a movement in at least 50 locations with about 3,000 disciples most of which are from mu--im background.

B/ The Story We Told!
You can enter the Kingdom of God through Jesus. You do not need to go through "the church" as we know it. If you have a vision of Jesus, you know that He is your Lord, Savior, Covering, Shepherd, Counsellor, King, Head and with that revelation you know that He can direct you to be community, to be His body and to express His life in the earth.

We told the story from Luke 10 and told them that Jesus was not a westerner! He was an easterner and understood eastern family values. We told them that the goal was not to get the disciple to "come to your church" but to teach them to be the pastor, leader, disciple maker in their home and then move on to the next home and create a community of disciples there.

We contrasted oak trees and strawberry plants, elephants and rabbits. We emphasized that strawberry plants multiply and cover the ground by sending out shoots to start the next plant but that each plant must seek its own sustenance from its own roots and must seek its own energy from the sun! Each community of disciples must be grounded in and seek the King for themselves! We told them that no one strawberry plant ruled over the others but were relationally linked! And that once the ground is covered with strawberry plants, you cannot tell which was the first one!

The story we told was one of functional leadership, foundational leadership rather than positional which left Jesus alone as the King and head of every man and the builder of His body. We told this story so often that I am called "Apostle Strawberry". This was the "sticky" concept that helped solidify what we were teaching and doing and placed a new paradigm in their minds.

The danger is that we talk new and act old! The old hierarchical picture is welded in people's thinking. We need to dismantle it and the Holy Spirit needs to burn a new, true picture of the Kingdom of God into their minds!

The Gospel of the Kingdom is good news since God Himself will be your God and will rule over you! There is no mediator between God and you except the man Christ Jesus! This is a completely counter culture movement!

C/ The Practice we Practiced!
Our leadership has remained hidden, servant and never based in permission giving. They have done things with which we did not necessarily agree. Our counsel has always been wise or foolish never permission based. They are always left free to decide even if we do not feel such a decision is best. Most often time has proven them to have understood the Master in their situation better than we did. However, they have also had to face the consequences of not accepting our wisdom. We then work through the consequences together.

We taught this from I Corinthians 3 where Paul speaks of laying the foundation of Christ and then stepping back and allowing each man to build upon it. He does not step in with mother love to make sure they do not make mistakes! He steps back in true father love and hands them full responsibility to succeed or fail in their building! The example we used was how Paul left them to work out the two issues of the day- eating meat and which day to gather as given in Romans 14. They will never learn to trust the foundation of Christ in their lives unless the one who laid those foundations does so! We step back and trust the foundation of Christ in their lives!

We continue to learn and continue to see that this message is absolutely primary! Not only in the Mu--im world do they wish to come into the Kingdom of God without going through the kingdom of the church as we know it but also in the West!