Simple Church
Recently finished the book Simple Church and we are in the process of moving our church in that direction. Anyone have experience on the challenges of simplicity?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dena Brehm on -
Hi Eric --
I'm Dena Brehm, in Dallas, Oregon, wife of Mark, mother to multitudes, and neighbor of Paul and Lori Byerly. It's nice to meet you!
Simple Church is lovely, isn't it? I gobbled it up about 3 years ago, when we were fresh to this phase of our journey (& passed it on, as I'm supposed to, so I don't have a copy to re-read!).
From what you've said, if I'm reading you right, you're in an institutional church (IC) which is wanting to move into a house church network...? I'm not an expert on that specific transition, but that never stopped me from diving in and schmoozing a bit about it. (where's the "smilies" here? I need a winking face!)
Our particular path didn't allow for that ... we got catapulted out of an IC without an option, and left reeling. We stumbled upon house church through a series of God-incidental events. We opened up our home, and the people came, and we (thinking we were so free and agenda-less) set up meetings that had a lot more agenda and form than we realized...! But, we were no match for God, and He took over (because we wanted Him to), and it gradually became less of a 'meeting' and more of an extended family gathering ... now we just get together because we love each other, and we share whatever God is showing us, and He, being in the details, blesses us to become a blessing to each other. When folks come to visit, after sitting around and schmoozing a while, they often will say, "so, when are we getting started?" We laugh -- when did we ever quit? We're always the Church, being the Church, always in His Presence, always in His Kingdom. It's not a thing to start or stop, but a way of life. And sometimes we express it together.
I do know this -- the transition from IC to SC will likely be a bit messy, and that's ok. God seems to love to work in what appears to be messes -- to Him, He sees the order, the process, the unfolding goodness that comes out of the raw material of our messes. We see chaos and He sees possibility. We see crap, and He sees fertile soil.
When we're in the middle of a paradigm-shift, when our worldview is being shaken and transformed, there's a lot of defragmentation and deconstruction -- almost more UN-learning than learning going on. It's not about right or wrong, as if there's only one way to do it, but about seeking unity with one another, regardless of whether there's group-unanimity.
If each one suspends the way they think it *should* go, and trusts God to work it out, it will happen. Therein lies the struggle, however, as we humans seem to prefer clinging to rules, rather than to Relationship. Rules feel safe -- relationships feel risky. And, they are. When we get vulnerable with one another, we get hurt. And yet, there's no relationship apart from vulnerability.
Only Papa-God knows the way it needs to work out for your particular group, including for each particular person in your group. And, the really cool thing is that He won't waste a thing -- He can and will use every part of the process, for each one's good. And we know that a thing doesn't have to look, feel, or even smell good, in order to BE good...!
I guess, bottom line in what I'm hoping to share to encourage you is this: He's the One behind your desire to seek Him in simplicity. He's the One moving you in this direction. He's the One giving you the desires of your hearts. He is IN those desires. He doesn't start a thing without bringing that thing to completion -- He's in this for the long-haul. He meets you right where you are (each one of you), and draws you to Himself. Jesus is both the Goal and the Guide who leads each one of us into All Truth. He IS All Truth. Trying to plan it all out ahead of time would be like trying to nail jello to the wall -- it ain't happening. But He will lead you one step at a time ... He will give you just enough Light for the next step. All you can do is to walk in the Light you've been given.
Love Him, love each other, and walk out together, trusting Him to make the way clear for you on the way. It's about the journey, not about the destination.
(not sure if ANY of that was even remotely helpful, but if something in my meandering blatherings blessed you - wonderful! and, if not, hey, it kept me out of trouble for at least 10 minutes!)
Shalom, Dena
"The unanswered questions aren't nearly as dangerous as the
unquestioned answers."
"We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking only to
learn that it is God shaking them." - Charles West
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Permalink Reply by michael on -
Hi Eric et al,
My family started a group (we rarely even call it a church) in 2004...and it keeps growing! That's one challenge to simplicity, although a good one. :D What we have done through the last 4+ years is to train (without, like, acting as if we're training) servant-leaders to start new HCs in the metro-Manila area. So far we have five "spin offs" and some more in "training." Thus, with our regularly scheduled Friday night get-togethers for our initial group, the average number is less than 20 people...usually between 15-18. This keeps things intimate (although one spin-off now has around 60 people and they are renting a room in a downtown building) while making provision for multiplication. So far, so good. :)
Shalom from Manila,
--Michael
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Permalink Reply by Jason A. Wilson on -
The shift is a larger one than I thought. It is well worth it and I offer you this encouragement; God will pick up the short fallings that happen, as drastic change is most certain to cause. Be blessed on your journey and know that you have friends here who have been in it for around 10 years.
Jason
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Permalink Reply by Marc&Nan on -
We just made the transition from IC to SC 6 weeks ago with one other family. My husband was pastoring and has felt called out of the IC and into a simpler, more biblical way of "church". Now that the other family no longer feels the SC is for them, I am left wondering what next. I really appreciated your words you left for someone else. They were very helpful. So, immediately, my mind starts thinking of who we could call that might be interested, what we could do next to get another group started, etc. But then I struggle with do we just sit and wait for the Holy Spirit to make the next move? Where is the balance of acting and sitting and waiting? Are these thoughts being instigated by the Spirit on who to contact or is this a human way to "organize" our next group?
Dena Brehm said:Hi Eric --
I'm Dena Brehm, in Dallas, Oregon, wife of Mark, mother to multitudes, and neighbor of Paul and Lori Byerly. It's nice to meet you!
Simple Church is lovely, isn't it? I gobbled it up about 3 years ago, when we were fresh to this phase of our journey (& passed it on, as I'm supposed to, so I don't have a copy to re-read!).
From what you've said, if I'm reading you right, you're in an institutional church (IC) which is wanting to move into a house church network...? I'm not an expert on that specific transition, but that never stopped me from diving in and schmoozing a bit about it. (where's the "smilies" here? I need a winking face!)
Our particular path didn't allow for that ... we got catapulted out of an IC without an option, and left reeling. We stumbled upon house church through a series of God-incidental events. We opened up our home, and the people came, and we (thinking we were so free and agenda-less) set up meetings that had a lot more agenda and form than we realized...! But, we were no match for God, and He took over (because we wanted Him to), and it gradually became less of a 'meeting' and more of an extended family gathering ... now we just get together because we love each other, and we share whatever God is showing us, and He, being in the details, blesses us to become a blessing to each other. When folks come to visit, after sitting around and schmoozing a while, they often will say, "so, when are we getting started?" We laugh -- when did we ever quit? We're always the Church, being the Church, always in His Presence, always in His Kingdom. It's not a thing to start or stop, but a way of life. And sometimes we express it together.
I do know this -- the transition from IC to SC will likely be a bit messy, and that's ok. God seems to love to work in what appears to be messes -- to Him, He sees the order, the process, the unfolding goodness that comes out of the raw material of our messes. We see chaos and He sees possibility. We see crap, and He sees fertile soil.
When we're in the middle of a paradigm-shift, when our worldview is being shaken and transformed, there's a lot of defragmentation and deconstruction -- almost more UN-learning than learning going on. It's not about right or wrong, as if there's only one way to do it, but about seeking unity with one another, regardless of whether there's group-unanimity.
If each one suspends the way they think it *should* go, and trusts God to work it out, it will happen. Therein lies the struggle, however, as we humans seem to prefer clinging to rules, rather than to Relationship. Rules feel safe -- relationships feel risky. And, they are. When we get vulnerable with one another, we get hurt. And yet, there's no relationship apart from vulnerability.
Only Papa-God knows the way it needs to work out for your particular group, including for each particular person in your group. And, the really cool thing is that He won't waste a thing -- He can and will use every part
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Permalink Reply by Mark Winstead on -
Who wrote that book? If it is Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger, I don't believe it is using the term in the same way that this site does. Rainer and Geiger are talking about simplifying the discipleship methods of the IC, not a move to being organic.
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Permalink Reply by Steve Queen on -
Hi. We are going this route. The keys is in what we think, believe and DO being scriptural and from a genuine heart of love for God and other people. It's a starting point:
www.livewickmedia.com/simply_follow/
My family and I have found it takes time to shed the old IC mindset and simply follow Jesus with a renewed mind to what life in Christ is about.
Your comments on the SF ideas would be welcome!
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Permalink Reply by Marc&Nan on
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I have to agree with Mark. I think it is important to clarify that the Rainer/Geiger book is not from the same perspective as much of the other material about simple/organic church. In their book, there is still a very institutional approach to ministry, even taking guidance as much from the contemporary business model as from scripture. Although there were some good insights and points in the book, I was pretty disappointed with it.
Mark Winstead said:Who wrote that book? If it is Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger, I don't believe it is using the term in the same way that this site does. Rainer and Geiger are talking about simplifying the discipleship methods of the IC, not a move to being organic.
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Permalink Reply by Katie Mather on -
Eric, The challanges of simplicity are whatever you make them. There are degrees of less institutional all the way to organic functioning.
Are you pastoring and want to take your whole fellowship into that direction? A classic book that can guide you is Open Church by James Rutz. It describes how a gathering needs to have open participation by all. It was written in 1993 and is from the early years of house church blooming in the US.
If you want to identify an institutional mentality and learn how to function outside the IC, the I highly recommend Escaping Church: A Guide to Life Outside the Institution by Tim Mather. Currently it is only available as an ebook at www.timmather.com.
Tim and I pastored a church that we broke up onto 15 house groups in 1994. It was an educational experience to say the least. Probably the most important lesson we learned is that you can take people out of the instution, but it is dang hard to get the institution out of the people. That part comes by revelation within the individual and that too not without a struggle.
Remember the simplest form is where two or three are gathered in His Name, He is there.
Katie
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Permalink Reply by Carl Willis on -
I do agree that Rainer's book looks at this from an IC perspective, but I recently left my role as an IC pastor to plant "simple" churches in both the SC mode that we discuss here, but I also am utilizing one freestanding simple model church as well, that would hardly be institutional in nature. It utilizes much of the SC principles we discuss here, but recognizes that the freestanding, attractional model can be another tool in the kingdom arsenal.
The SC as we think about it here is by far my preferred expression of body life, but I am watching God reach different groups of people through both forms of expression. Just my $.02.
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