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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We trust and pray that you are rejoicing in the hope that you have in Christ. You are receiving this letter because over the last eight years you have taken part in a simple church conference or training event or you have been a visitor to the simple church website.

Certainly there is a wide array of people who will read this letter. Some of you have a strong interest in what is happening and what is planned among simple churches. Others of you may have little to no interest. Regardless we greet you with the love, grace, peace, and hope that we share in Christ.From the time we started the website, offered our first training event, and published our first book there has been an underlying desire to stay true to what Paul expressed so clearly to the church in Phillipi:

The promise of the New Covenant is this: “„I will put My laws into their minds, I will write them upon their hearts. I will be their God and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach every one his fellow-citizen, and everyone his brother saying, „Know the Lord,‟ for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.‟”

 “All shall know Me” . . . this is the beating heart of God. I‟ll be blunt: Either you and I can  know God intimately, or the gospel is a sham. One of the rewards of our Lord’s suffering is that we all shall know Him . . . “from the least to the greatest.”

 Living in organic Body life for many years has taught me the reality of a major teaching in the New Testament. Namely, the Lord dwells in all of us, and He is a speaking God. But the primary vehicle He uses as His mouthpiece is His Body.

In a previous post in this series, I suggested that it is dangerous to the spiritual maturity of believers to place an extraordinary emphasis on Sunday as “The Day” for Christians to meet together as the church.

But there is another more dangerous emphasis that is often found among the modern, traditional church today: the place – typically a building designated for church meetings (i.e., worship services). (Of course, those who ‘house church’ could look at their particular house in the same dangerous manner.)

When I was growing up, the church building was like the temple in many ways. Oh, we SAID that our bodies were the temple of God, but we ACTED as if the church building was. There were even different levels of holiness attached to the church building.

There were things you could do/say elsewhere that you did not do/say while on church grounds. There were things you could do/say on church grounds that you did not do/say while in the church building. There were things you could do/say in the church building that you did not do/say while in “the sanctuary.” There were things you could do/say in “the sanctuary” that you did not do/say while on the platform. There were things you could do/say on the platform that you did not do/say while standing behind the pulpit.

This is the beginning of a four part series by Alan Knox noting the dangerous emphasis we can place on a certain day, a certain place, a certain program, and a certain man.

Typically, I try to write about the church from a positive perspective. Instead of writing about what’s wrong with the modern church, I usually write describing the positive characteristics and activities of the church as we see it in Scripture. Now, many of my readers automatically recognized the negative side of what I write. However, I still try to write from the positive perspective. I write about what the church should be, not what it shouldn’t be.

In this series, though, I want to write about modern, traditional church. Now, right away, there are problems with the design of this series. You see, no church will exactly look like or do the things that I write about. But, I hope that each reader will consider their own church and their own practices in order to determine if some of these aspects of the “general” modern, traditional church may apply. I think that we can all find “dangerous” practices of each of our churches.

Session 1—Victor John!s Story

My family was Christian and I met Christ myself when I made a commitment to him at age 16. The CPM movement we are involved in has seen over 1.5 million people baptized. They are in over 30,000 churches. The last six years we have begun reaching out to Muslims and have seen 15 imams reached and 1,000 Muslims baptized. We are having worship services in three mosques. We see a lot of miracles. We see healings and deliverances. I have also seen people raised from the dead. About half of those who come to Christ come because of a healing or miracle. The rest come because of the influence of a friend or relative. We are now reaching out to two new people groups in the north and one in the south of India. We have a lot going on but we have a lot of help. I spend 60% of my time in India and I am now spending 40% of my time helping churches in other countries—to-date about 40 countries. I am married and have three daughters. We are currently living in Sweden where my wife is from.

Recently, Josh Reeves wrote several great articles with simple ideas and ways you can be missional in your workplace, as well as simple ways to engage your neighbors. And although the word “missional” has become quite a buzzword recently, it really just means that we live every day as missionaries. Jesus said that “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21). That word “sent” is where we get the word “missional.” It simply means that we live as Jesus lived – as sent people who live everyday life with gospel intentionality.

In fact, most of the simple ideas you’ll find below are very much in the context of your everyday life, but when looked at with a lens of gospel intentionality – when viewed through the eyes of a missionary – become not just ordinary tasks, but eternally significant rhythms of your life that are teeming with gospel opportunity:

1. Participate in the local festivals, parades and celebrations of your city.

2. Find a park where you will consistently spend time with your community.

3. Pick a few restaurants to frequent getting to know the staff and regulars.

4. Go to the same coffee shop when you can.

It is hard to believe that our website has been in existence for four years. During that time we have posted almost two hundred different articles. More importantly, through the website, we have been able to get to know many of you personally and we have been able to help one another in our walk with God and in the ministry that He has called us to. We are particularly amazed and blessed by the number of people across the Russian-speaking world that have contacted us and let us know that the principles discussed on this website are close to their heart and are a reality in their ministry.

There is no real way to measure the influence and impact of this website, but as we hear stories of changed lives, new disciples, and new churches, we realize that God has had a plan to use this website as at least a small instrument in the building of His kingdom.

Note: This article is written by Guy Muse, a Southern Baptist Missionary serving in Guayaquil, Guayas, Ecuador.

One of the issues continuing to resurface again and again in Baptist circles is the variance in interpretation of the baptism portion given in the Great Commission. Does baptismal authority rest with individual believers or with a local church congregation?

What was Jesus intent when he gave the Great Commission?

We have over one hundred articles available on our site, so if you are a new visitor, you may be overwhelmed. Where should you start? Here you will find some of our best articles that we have posted since the start of the site.
These articles will give you a good taste of the resources that are available here. Enjoy!

I was born in Ukraine in Mariupol city in 1975, in period of the Soviet Union. I had very various intereststs in my childhood. A couple of years I was interested in Biology, I even reared different animals at home. But in the age of 12 I took a great interest in Physics. I was very interested in the world structure and it's origin. I took part in different physics contests pretty successful. I was also interested in math. In the age of 14 I wrote a small research about the solution of differential equations. In general I was interested in everything that was logical, everything that slightly opened a curtain of mystery over how everything was organized. I almost didn't attend school in my last years, I had an individual schedule. I entered university on a physical faculty without any exams. I was interested in programming since my childhood. During my last years of school I was usually sitting at my mom's work and programed. At that time the most cool processor was 8086. When I was on my first year of University I wrote a valid debugger on Assembler. That was my first really big program.