Introductions- Introduce yourself!

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tony Dale on September 13, 2008 at 11:57pm

Hi Laura and Kumar. Tony Dale here. It is love to see you two starting this discussion. Although Felicity and I now live in the States, (and twenty years does produce ever deeepening roots), we still closely identify with the UK. We will actually be over there in a week for a few days on the start of our next "missionary journey" that includes France, India, Mongolia, Hong Kong, and Germany.

We are watching with awe the wonderful things that the Lord is doing in simple/organic church movements around the world, and even the rapid growth of this www.simplechurch.com site and the networking that it is facilitating. I am going to invite some UK friends to join this group in the hope that the site will become a real blessing to all of you in the UK, and a place to inter-connect.

Permalink Reply by Miriam Lantsbury on September 15, 2008 at 12:19pm

well I've repsponded to the invite and here I am, although coping with three social networking sites at once is a bit of a stretch!!!
for those who don't know me, I live in east London with Rob and we are simply being church here. i would love to see more people around me responding to god's love but i am beginning to see some small but exciting things happening, especially in my family and at work.
i really should get my act together and do more to get some of us together in the UK as its on my heart, but it still seems like early days and I'm sure God will draw us all together in time

Permalink Reply by Laura S on September 15, 2008 at 12:42pm

Hi Miriam
don't worry, I'm not after heavy commitment! I started this to broadly find out where others were in the UK and who we are---we are in Guildford and the only people we know who are not in a 'church' as such.
You are one of the first people I know of in UK who is being simple church! Besides us. We want to network, know where people are, and fellowship/learn as God leads.

We've been doing this for about 12 years.

Thank you so much Tony and Felicity for your encouragement!

Permalink Reply by Miriam Lantsbury on September 16, 2008 at 11:28am

we've been on this journey for a while - recently 6/7 years but we were part of the home church fellowship that the dales started in the east end in the late 70s/early 80s and, although that church eventually became a larger institutional church, what we saw god doing in those days was always embedded in our hearts - touching ordinary people in ordinary homes.

we know a few people around the country who are of like mind, but not any near to us. there have been one or two simple church gatherings over the last few years but i haven't heard of anything for a while; my heart is just to get people together for prayer and encouragement but these networking sites are quite good for hooking up in the mean time. we've just been contacted by someone in st neots who wants to meet up so we'll def do that. i'll also email a few people and see if i can get them to sign up to this site and this group

M x

Permalink Reply by Laura S on September 18, 2008 at 2:43am

Are the Dales meeting with you on their next visit---we are not far away, is there anything we could come to, to meet up?

Permalink Reply by Steve on September 21, 2008 at 3:24pm

Hi to all,

I'm Steve and I live in the Manchester area of the UK. I recently posted on another social network site and was kindly pointed in this direction by Laura. I'm still finding my way around, but I'll get there eventually.

I'm currently on my own mission of discovery after being previously involved in a church but fell-away as we just didn't gel for some reason. I then went on with my life until I got the feeling I had to look into my desire to learn more of Jesus and God. He certainly moves in mysterious ways as not long after Laura contacted me and the rest is, as they say, history.

Blessings to you all,

Steve

Permalink Reply by David & Elaine Lee on September 22, 2008 at 3:14am

Hi,

My wife & I live near Bradford, West Yorkshire. We have been Christians for a lot of years (late 60's) & have been involved in a number of churches & been on the mission field in India. We were both involved in the early "house church" movement in the 70's but, unfortunately things went wrong & we left. Since then we have been involved in several other churches but there has been a longing in both of us for something more. I left a charismatic church about 18 months ago because I was not happy about the way things were going & my wife left the beginning of this year. We went to a local Baptist church for a short while, but there was "something missing".
At the moment we don't "go" anywhere but are praying that God will gather us together with like-minded people from this area. We look forward to fellowship with people on the same road.

Yours,

David & Elaine

Permalink Reply by Laura S on September 22, 2008 at 8:26am

Dear Steve
When you get time, have a browse through the discussions and also on the Dales and Frank Viola sites; there is wisdom.

Feel free to open a discussion here if you want with any questions and get the feed back from some of the wisdom here. Or anything privately through Premiere messaging facility, I'm happy to help if I can.

Blessings to you Steve (is it raining :) )


Steve said:

Hi to all,

I'm Steve and I live in the Manchester area of the UK. I recently posted on another social network site and was kindly pointed in this direction by Laura. I'm still finding my way around, but I'll get there eventually.

I'm currently on my own mission of discovery after being previously involved in a church but fell-away as we just didn't gel for some reason. I then went on with my life until I got the feeling I had to look into my desire to learn more of Jesus and God. He certainly moves in mysterious ways as not long after Laura contacted me and the rest is, as they say, history.

Blessings to you all,

Steve

Permalink Reply by Laura S on September 22, 2008 at 8:36am

Welcome! and thanks for adding on here David and Elaine, we are really pleased to get to know fellow searchers here in the UK.

When we left church, we had formed some thinking around 'being' church because of our own journey/prayer/study, and then we came across the books of Frank Viola, Gene Edwards and others which added more knowledge to what we were sensing. They are some decades down the line in experience and I find their testimonies and day to day wisdom inspiring. I am particularly enjoying some newer material from Frank's site---it is opening up vision for organic church rather than just simply living, which we have done.

And what I'm reading is thrilling (for me!), same old words but I think I'm getting a glimpse of how their 'reality' was SUPPOSED to be!

Please feel free to open discussions, we look forward to getting to know you!

Laura (and Kumar)

David & Elaine Lee said:

Hi,

My wife & I live near Bradford, West Yorkshire. We have been Christians for a lot of years (late 60's) & have been involved in a number of churches & been on the mission field in India. We were both involved in the early "house church" movement in the 70's but, unfortunately things went wrong & we left. Since then we have been involved in several other churches but there has been a longing in both of us for something more. I left a charismatic church about 18 months ago because I was not happy about the way things were going & my wife left the beginning of this year. We went to a local Baptist church for a short while, but there was "something missing".
At the moment we don't "go" anywhere but are praying that God will gather us together with like-minded people from this area. We look forward to fellowship with people on the same road.

Yours,

David & Elaine

Permalink Reply by Steve on September 22, 2008 at 9:43am

Hi Laura,

Many thanks for the help and encouragement, I will be making myself aware of the different aspects of simple church. And, would you believe it? No it isn't raining, weather man says at weekend though!

Blessings,

Steve

Laura S said:

Dear Steve
When you get time, have a browse through the discussions and also on the Dales and Frank Viola sites; there is wisdom.

Feel free to open a discussion here if you want with any questions and get the feed back from some of the wisdom here. Or anything privately through Premiere messaging facility, I'm happy to help if I can.

Blessings to you Steve (is it raining :) )


Steve said:

Permalink Reply by Chris Jefferies on September 22, 2008 at 10:23am

Hi Laura and Kumar, and indeed all the others who've replied here so far. Isn't it exciting to see there are more of us than we thought!!

I'm the person from St Neots that Miriam mentioned. My name is Chris, I'm another of the 1970s home meeting bunch and at that time was living in Yatton just west of Bristol. Like Tony and Felicity, David and Elaine, and I dare say many, many others, our experience in those days was like a breath of fresh air but people often moved on and built something instead of just living. A classic case of 'doing' instead of 'being'.

The various movements that arose in those days (Kingdom Faith, Newfrontiers, etc, etc) have been a real blessing and have changed church in the UK almost beyond recognition. I don't want to take anything away from that.

But over the last ten years or so there does seem to be a new realisation of the particular opportunities available to smaller groups, a growing understanding that Yahshua called the church to go out to people rather than try to draw them in, and that love eventually compels us to do just that.

Be encouraged, all of you - there must be many, many little groups meeting at home. The church is like an iceberg, much of it is hidden from view, but I sense Miriam isn't the only one keen to meet up. The right time for that will come, maybe very soon. Just in my local area there are at least five regular meetings and we are beginning to find one another and network; you can read notes from some of our meetings if you like. It must be just the same where you live. They're out there!

Be very excited because the Holy Spirit is stirring his people up once again.

I was just about to sign this and logout but I've just been given a picture to share with you all. I saw a lot of people windsurfing. Some of them would only manage to go a short distance and would then lose the wind from their sail or fall off the board. Others with more experience managed to keep going and made better progress. But they came back to help those having trouble, and the entire group made progress together, moving in the direction the wind wanted to take them. And with practice all of them got better at keeping the wind in their sails, and all the time more and more windsurfers were joining them.

The wind reminds us of the Holy Spirit who is guiding us and pressing us forward in the way we should go. We do fall off sometimes, and we do lose the wind, but we just have to get back on our board and catch the wind again and continue. Falling off doesn't matter, getting back on is the important thing.

Grace, peace, and abundant blessings to you all. See you soon!

Chris

Permalink Reply by Laura S on September 23, 2008 at 10:28am

Hi Chris
where is St Neots, I have never heard of it--apologies!
Thank you for the blog link. I think we will have things to learn from you all. 5 groups in your area! I wonder how many there are here that I don't know about?

The Dale connection! My contacts from earliest days (1981) were Tony's parents and Uncle Neil in Hong Kong (did he ever sail round the world on his boat?). The Dales have quietly influenced the 'church' despite 'noisier' contemporaries. I also met Tony's brother in Taiwan, whose name has gone for me, but I will always remember the scented artificial roses!

We were involved with Australian or American versions of New Frontiers etc eg faith word, pentecostal movements, and by the time we came back to the UK, we were not interested to join in the British versions, we had already learned lessons in those movements.

I do value what the Lord has revealed through the various movements but we need so much more than IC expressions offer. I know I'm not crazy though my friends here think I am!


Chris Jefferies said:

Hi Laura and Kumar, and indeed all the others who've replied here so far. Isn't it exciting to see there are more of us than we thought!!

I'm the person from St Neots that Miriam mentioned. My name is Chris, I'm another of the 1970s home meeting bunch and at that time was living in Yatton just west of Bristol. Like Tony and Felicity, David and Elaine, and I dare say many, many others, our experience in those days was like a breath of fresh air but people often moved on and built something instead of just living. A classic case of 'doing' instead of 'being'.

The various movements that arose in those days (Kingdom Faith, Newfrontiers, etc, etc) have been a real blessing and have changed church in the UK almost beyond recognition. I don't want to take anything away from that.

But over the last ten years or so there does seem to be a new realisation of the particular opportunities available to smaller groups, a growing understanding that Yahshua called the church to go out to people rather than try to draw them in, and that love eventually compels us to do just that.

Be encouraged, all of you - there must be many, many little groups meeting at home. The church is like an iceberg, much of it is hidden from view, but I sense Miriam isn't the only one keen to meet up. The right time for that will come, maybe very soon. Just in my local area there are at least five regular meetings and we are beginning to find one another and network; you can read notes from some of our meetings if you like. It must be just the same where you live. They're out there!

Be very excited because the Holy Spirit is stirring his people up once again.

I was just about to sign this and logout but I've just been given a picture to share with you all. I saw a lot of people windsurfing. Some of them would only manage to go a short distance and would then lose the wind from their sail or fall off the board. Others with more experience managed to keep going and made better progress. But they came back to help those having trouble, and the entire group made progress together, moving in the direction the wind wanted to take them. And with practice all of them got better at keeping the wind in their sails, and all the time more and more windsurfers were joining them.

The wind reminds us of the Holy Spirit who is guiding us and pressing us forward in the way we should go. We do fall off sometimes, and we do lose the wind, but we just have to get back on our board and catch the wind again and continue. Falling off doesn't matter, getting back on is the important thing.

Grace, peace, and abundant blessings to you all. See you soon!

Chris</</body>

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