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Dear Nicolay,

Greetings dear brother!  On my recent trip to Ukraine, in nearly every conversation about church growth, church health or multiplication, I am asked, “Do you know what the secret is?”  I respond.  “No, please tell me.”  They respond with great conviction that it’s “LEADERSHIP”!  They go on to say that without leadership, nothing does or will happen  Why, just look at the ministry of brother Nicolay, he’s a great leader!  We just do not have enough leaders like him to accomplish the tasks before us.

The miracle we need most right now is one that the Lord has freely given us already. It is the power of a changed life. The world is poised and ready to see the relevance and power of our message if only we would let them see it firsthand. There is no power on earth more potent than the gospel in a heart of belief (Romans 1:16). Ed Silvoso puts it like this, in his book That None Should Perish, “The church has been entrusted with something that every politician on earth would give an arm and a leg to have: the power to see hearts changed.” We have been given this power, though we generally leave it unused. Our pews are full of “Christians” whose lives show little difference from those who are in the world.

Slavic Church – Return To The Roots

The church in every generation needs to be a church which is participating in reforming itself to follow the words and life of its founder and source – Jesus Christ. (RETURN TO THE ROOTS) After several decades of wonderful growth, the Slavic Church finds itself in need of just such a reformation to reverse the current stagnation (Crisis) of its health and growth.

While some would like to repeat the 1990’s or modify today’s church, the only way forward is to fully return to the life, work, words, and model of Jesus Christ, and to follow His examples. Jesus gave us His example of suffering, sacrifice, obedience, submission, servant hood, mercy and love, and simplicity. Jesus was a missional (sending), itinerant, and incarnational God.

Hello, We would like to thank for your participation in the Simple Church Website. It is our desire that this website would be an encouragement to you and a profitable resource for your ministry.

 In case you have not noticed, we have added a new component to our website. This new area of the site is called Community. We are still perfecting it, but our desire is that the community part of the site will look and work very similar to Facebook. It will be a place for you to put a photo and info about yourself. You can share articles, weblinks, videos and photos with others on the site. You will be able to create groups, have discussions, and even chat with others who are online. We are very excited about this new component to our site. We feel we have placed lots of good articles and information on the site, but now the greatest need is to have more community among the users of the site. 

Editors Note:
Every day new visitors are coming to our site. In order to expose them to some of our best articles, and to create fresh discussion among those of us who have been active on the site a long time, we will from time to time repost an past article like this one. This article has been a favorite of many people. We invite you to read it for the first time or read it again. Take a moment to add your thoughts and commentary and let's learn together how we can honor and magnify Jesus and join Him in building His kingdom.

Keys to missional community: 1. Go to the people 2. People of Peace. 3. Living Kingdom lives

One of the hallmarks of the simple church movement is that it seeks to be what the church, in fact, is: missional. Jesus went everywhere proclaiming and demonstrating the reality, love, and power of the Kingdom (healing the brokenhearted, setting captives free, proclaiming God’s acceptance, etc.) The church (the people of God) goes and does the same.

First, allow me to say that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching (cause to learn), rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that all God’s people may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. II Timothy 3:16-17

Second, allow me to say that God has gifted men and women to be both proclaimers and teachers of the Word of God.

Third, allow me to say that the Word of God should be central to all gatherings of Christ followers.

Dear Nicolay,

There are times that I truly wonder if I am sane or insane. Do I live in or understand reality? I just left a meeting of primarily teachers and pastors discussing the state of today’s church in Ukraine. Where have the apostolic men gone? My conclusion - God help us! We are truly an over educated bunch filled with theology and doctrine and methods and strategies. It was all quite complex and frustrating just as I fear we (I) have made this whole church and Christianity thing. None of us lack for words or ideas about what other people should do – some of us actually have spiritual gifts to explain our behavior.

We are glad to announce the publishing of a new book in Russian - Reimagining Church by Frank Viola

You can order the book by sending your name and address and the quantity of books that you want to simplechurch.books@gmail.com

I no longer try to start simple/house churches. I think house churches are great. They provide a place for people to experience participatory, everyone-matters church life. They provide a way for people to really connect into authentic, one-another community. They often provide a place for people to recover from some of the pains caused by institutional church life. But house churches are no longer the end game for me.

Jesus invited us to join him, organically, in the reproduction of life. His church is a living, thriving, reproducing organism (Mark 4) that allows life-in-the-Spirit to spread virally from one disciple to the next. His church is alive as illustrated by a seed (Mark 4) that brings forth 30, 60, or 100-fold reproduction. That is the life of the kingdom. His life in me is passed on to the life of another (2-fold) which is passed to the life of another (4-fold) which is passed to the life of another (8-fold), etc. That is the way of organic/viral life and this is what the kingdom IS. This is ultimately what Jesus invited us to become part of: discipling viral disciplers.

When I get busy, I tend forget the most important reason why I’m here, my prime directive – to make more and better disciples (Matt. 28:18-20)! In fact, unlike Jesus, the busier I become, the more I lose compassion for the lost. It doesn’t take much for the multitudes to become more of a stumbling block to impede my effectiveness rather than a reason for becoming effective. Freeway traffic is a cause of frustration rather than compassion. A busy parking lot gives me a headache from the confusion rather than a heart that aches with compassion.

Compassion cannot be something pushed on us from obligation, it is something that comes out from within. In fact, the word “compassion” used of Jesus in scripture literally means “bowels” – it is something you feel in your gut. Compassion, real compassion, doesn’t come about by lawsuits. It is a natural feeling that stirs in your stomach and comes out in your eyes, your words, and your actions. It takes “guts” to care for the lost!

There are times when I intentionally go to a crowded shopping mall or a busy restaurant and just stand among the throngs asking the Lord to break my heart.