5000 strong and growing fast!

Friends,

Felicity and I want to take a moment to thank all of you for your time and interest in participating in this site.  SimpleChurch.com has been up and running for almost three years now.  Maybe this is what the Wild West felt like as it was being settled and tamed.  You are never quite sure what you may encounter around the next corner.  Setting up a social networking site for the simple/organic church community has been somewhat similar.

With around 5000 people using the site, and with hundreds of discussions groups and forums, the site is proving to be a useful place for simple/organic church folk to congregate and to discuss issues that are relevant to our journey with the Lord.

Inevitably, some challenges come up in the running of a site like this.  We have done our utmost to leave this site to police itself.  Our belief is that Christians, with a little encouragement at times (!!) are well able to listen to the Holy Spirit and to treat each other with love and respect.  But sometimes contentious issues make such a stance difficult.  Because of this, we want to post a statement put together by the House2House board, which we view as an informal oversight to this website.

It is the purpose and goal of House2House and SimpleChurch.com to serve the larger Christian house church movement.  As long as very basic Christian beliefs, behaviors and character are maintained, an person or group may participate in H2H or SimpleChurch communities or discussion group.  While we are open to discussion and debate of many issues, some are off the table.  Issues on the no go list include Mormon doctrine, Universal Reconciliation and derogatory comments about the traditional church.  It is the policy of H2H and SimpleChurch.com to extend this "position of inclusion" to followers of Christ from all Christian denominations while at the same time barring any proselytizing between groups or discussion focused on the differences.

So, enjoy the site, and pass it on to your friends.  May the Lord use this site to encourage followers of Jesus all over the world to pursue passionately a life of meaning and transformation impact for the King and His Kingdom.  Thank you so much for visiting this site.  The more we all use it and get relevant information and stories onto it, the more useful it becomes to everyone.

Tony and Felicity