September 2008 Blog Posts (58)

What in the World are we giving to? A Discussion on Missions and Giving

Giving comes in many forms. Though we can give of our time, talents and treasures, this discussion will focus on our treasures (in simple church talk: our money!) and specifically, how our giving can make a significant impact for the kingdom around the world.

I'd like to begin by making three assumptions, followed by a statement, and then ask three questions. The assumptions are:

1) Since you found your way onto this simple church social networking site, that you are probably… Continue

Added by Bob Emery on September 11, 2008 at 6:54am — 2 Comments

what's next

Again I love working for Karl. Turns out, he is a pastor working with www.therefugeonline.org here in Denver. He pays me daily and I know my skills bless him with this project.

On another note, my sister-in-law, Sue, pasted away Tuesday morning in Billings, Mt. This was totally not expected even though we knew she had a heart condition. So we are off to Mt Friday morning for funeral on Saturday. Sue Leffler was a faithful attendee at a local… Continue

Added by Keith Broadbent on September 10, 2008 at 9:30pm — 1 Comment

San Francisco-A City On A Hill-Why hide it?

So is this what Jesus was refering to when he talked about "a city set on a hill cannot be hid." Who would even want to hide such a facinating and wonderful place. Felicity and I arrived here earlier today for a business conference that I am attending. It has been non-stop for us for the past 10 days because of conferences and book deadlines. So today, having left our home in Austin at 5:45 am, we just took things easy. And what a great city to take things easy in.

We went from the… Continue

Added by Tony Dale on September 10, 2008 at 6:00am — 2 Comments

I LOVE THIS JOB

The job I got helping a pastor remodel a home he bought for a rental but decide to move into it. So I am doing drywall, tile, installing doors and windows. The guy has had a hard time finding skilled help for more than a few days.

Added by Keith Broadbent on September 8, 2008 at 8:58pm — No Comments

Why are we so program oriented?

Several years ago I was invited by one of our Baptist churches in Ecuador to preach their Sunday evening message. Even though I came prepared to preach, as I sat waiting my turn, I sensed from the Lord to use the allotted "message time" to lead the church in a 1 Corinthians 14:26 gathering. When given the pulpit, I briefly shared two brief passages about what we should be seeking when the Body of Christ assembles:

Hebrews 10:24-25 and let us consider how to stimulate one… Continue

Added by Guy Muse on September 8, 2008 at 7:37pm — 1 Comment

Disciple-makers are invisible, possibly 'failures' by the standards of Christendom

Being a disciple-maker, you are invisible. You are not on a platform, but you are doing the essential, daily nurturing, edifying labour which is sourced from the Lord’s passionate love for the young ones He has brought alongside for the season. You are continually giving of your time, in my husband's case---hardly ever programmed---continually, by phone, visit, email, and rarely in a formal ‘spiritual’ gathering. Sometimes we do 'meetings' (these days we like to have a no-leadership-structure… Continue

Added by Laura S on September 8, 2008 at 3:43pm — 5 Comments

Paul's Vision for the Church

In the book A Vision for the Church: Studies in Early Christian Ecclesiology (ed. Markus Bockmuehl and Michael B. Thompson, Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1997), the authors of the various essays attempt to describe the "vision" of the church described in different parts of Scripture as well as the apostolic fathers. Andrew Chester is… Continue

Added by Alan Knox on September 8, 2008 at 1:30pm — No Comments

Debt - The slow killer

It is my observation that most people seem to default to off when it comes to getting into debt. At what point did people let banks and banking institutions decide our financial destinies. Sorry if I seem like I am ranting I am just so tired of seeing Papa's precious babies trapped and enslaved by debt. It strangles the life out of families and destroys marriages. We seem to willingly leverage our future to get what we want now, signing our futures over to the lender thus becoming what the Word… Continue

Added by Wayne Armstrong on September 8, 2008 at 12:57pm — 3 Comments

When Movements Become Monuments

From Michele's Weblog LOVE IS THE MOVEMENT

A friend emailed me a few weeks ago with some thought inspiring questions. The organizationally challenged person that I am, his email just now a month later got found in the recesses of my inbox. His thoughts provoked me to more of my own dialogue with Jesus and well here you have the result. Keep in mind this was typed with a two year old on my lap trying to play discover and land… Continue

Added by Michele Perry on September 8, 2008 at 9:39am — No Comments

Work for now

I have had 30 yrs with GM and a stint at a new Lowes near my home and I do not want to go back to corporate America, but I still need additional income to add to my pension, of which I am so grateful. I have been experiencing some disappointments as far as our income. My pension pays the mortgage and utilities but does not leave room for much more. So I showed up at H2H conference with a pocket full of dimes and I was broke. Through the gracious gifts of four people, I was able to eat and stay… Continue

Added by Keith Broadbent on September 8, 2008 at 9:16am — 2 Comments

Planting churches or making disciples?

I have been wondering about this lately: should we as followers of Jesus, desiring to see the world be reconciled to Him, focus on planting churches or making disciples or both? My training and background tells me that "planting churches" is the most successful way to bring in the harvest. However, in my mind, even after we strip down the "church" to its basic essence without buildings, without paid clergy, without choirs and without programs it still seems to require a certain amount of… Continue

Added by Bill Benninghoff on September 7, 2008 at 6:40pm — 11 Comments

Ecclesiastes 12:12 There is no end of opinions ready to be expressed!

The writer of Ecclesiastes goes on to say, "Studying them (opinions) can go on forever and become very exhausting!" (Ecc 12;12 NLT) I think he must has been thinking about the blogasphere! This is an amazing world. Anybody and everybody both can and does have an opinion, and in the marketplace of ideas, some are going to have impact, and most are going to disappear into oblivion. And that's OK.

i have no idea if anyone reads this blog, though I suspect the technology is there to tell… Continue

Added by Tony Dale on September 7, 2008 at 10:39am — 1 Comment

Site Looks Great

This site looks great. So many wonderful people on it already. Glad to be a part.

Frank

Added by Frank Viola on September 7, 2008 at 7:50am — 2 Comments

Fasting and Praying for Muslims

J (James) and I have been fasting and praying for muslims around the world. We have been following a 30 day prayer guide. We are doing a pretty strict Daniel fast. Just fruits, veggies, grains and nuts. No salt or oil or spices.

This is my 4th year doing this. Each year I try and go a little deeper. The first and second year I just fasted for one day a week (total fast) and last year I did a Daniel fast but I had oil and salt and some spices.

I love geography so I really… Continue

Added by Carole Steinberg on September 6, 2008 at 5:26pm — No Comments

Hi everyone!

I'm excited to join SimpleChurch.com

I'm interested in speaking with others about house churches.

I've been a Christian for about 12 years. I've lived all over the world as my husband is in the military. Because of that, I've had the chance to be in various types of traditional churches. I've had the opportunity to be a part of different denominations, sizes and styles of churches. All along I just felt a deep troubled spot in my soul. I loved the preaching (preaching is one of… Continue

Added by Carole Steinberg on September 6, 2008 at 5:09pm — No Comments

Seeing legacy churches through simple church eyes

We've been back in the USA for 90 days now. During this time we have had the opportunity of visiting some wonderful Baptist churches here in Texas. Texas Baptists are some of God's most precious saints on the face of the earth! However, after years of being immersed in simple church values and practices, it has been quite a personal adjustment to re adapt to the way "traditional church" is done with its programs, practices and structures.

After now sitting through three months of… Continue

Added by Guy Muse on September 6, 2008 at 2:11pm — 3 Comments

Welcome to simplechurch.com

I am now a member of three social networks. I joined Facebook about a year ago, LK10.com a few months ago and now this one.

I have been able to start at least one simple church with the help of Facebook (not to mention the Holy Spirit), and there are probably a couple more churches in the works. However they have yet to meet IRL (in real life).

I have recently completed reading a book called Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay… Continue

Added by Ken Eastburn on September 5, 2008 at 11:09pm — 1 Comment

Just how much "networking" can I cope with?

Last weekend I was at the National House Church conference in Dallas. It was such a blessing listening to and learning from the likes of Paul Young (author of The Shack), Wolfgang Simson, Frank Viola, Dennis Balcombe (veteran missionary to the Chinese house church movements) and many others. I met gazillion new friends. And now I can hardly even remember anyone's name! Does that mean that I didn't really pay attention in the first place, or is my internal "remember" function on… Continue

Added by Tony Dale on September 4, 2008 at 8:29pm — 4 Comments