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The process of thinking about, practicing, re-thinking, re-imagining, and re-experimenting is exactly where the church needs to be today as it struggles to shed some irrelevant outer garments and seeks to uncover the shape it is morphing into.

I have seen the benefits of moving away from more traditional structures and into church forms that are simpler:

* Small, so that community and family can be experienced
* Participatory, so that every person’s gift is valued and developed
* Non-positional in leadership status, so that submission is mutual and leadership is situational and gift-based
* Non-programmatic, so that mission, discipleship, and leadership training is relationally-oriented
* Simple, so that it supports a 24/7, Jesus-following way of life

Dear Nicolay,

Greetings, dear brother!  I hope your family is well.  Greet your wife, Anna, and children for me.

Nicolay, I should probably define what I mean by “a church planting movement”.

Neil Cole who was with us in Kiev in November of 2006 describes a church planting movement as follows:

“A rapid and multiplying increase of indigenous churches planting churches…”

THE DANGER AHEAD

“Go your way, behold I send you out as lambs among wolves.”  Luke 10:3

A/ HARVESTING IS SUPPOSED TO BE DANGEROUS WORK!

When we went to Central Asia I asked how the gospel first came to the  region.  The reply was  that the first missionaries came  courtesy of “Apostle Stalin”.  I had heard Stalin called many things but never “apostle” so, of course, I asked what was meant by that statement.

I believe we all want to see our gatherings fueled by the Holy Spirit’s leading and empowerment.  It is good to remind ourselves some of the ways that we can help facilitate this.

1. Relax.  This is not a performance-oriented event.  In our past church-life we gauged the value of our gatherings by how “good” the church-event was.  We have grown past that.  Our church-life, now, is about being the church everyday, living a 24/7 lifestyle, and about being part of a community of people whom we love and share life with.  We don’t look to the gathering to be the “big event” that will make up for our own lack of relationship with God.  So, we can relax and enjoy whatever God does in our midst.

Current Question for Discussion

We want to try an experiment to encourage more interactive learning among those who visit our site.  We will call this experimental feature- Current Question for Discussion.
We will put a question or questions here on the front page from time to time that we hope will encourage interaction and learning from one another. We will start with the topic of committed relationships and being a spiritual family. Share any verses or thoughts (it can be short) on this topic that you want, but here are a few questions to stir your thinking.

• How can a church be a true spiritual family, instead of just programs and meetings?
• What does it mean to live in committed relationships with other believers? What does it practically look like?
• What are you learning about relationships and being a spiritual family in your church?

Encouraging and teaching one another is one of the biblical principles that we promote on this website, so take a few minutes and share your thoughts with our online community. Feel free to ask questions as well. You will need to be registered to add a comment, but it only takes a minute to do so. Thanks for your participation in the website.

Our fascination with celebrities often becomes personality cult.  One of the things which I simply do not understand about  American politics is the messianic fervor which seems to flow through the presidential process.  Can one person really solve the problems of a nation?  That leadership cult also flows through the church.  So much teaching on leadership seems to have as its goal the creation of dependency!  We have our own versions of the celebrity, personality, leadership cults!

In John 16:7,  Jesus is telling the disciples that  "It is to your advantage that I go away".  After three years with Jesus, after all the miracles and after all the dreams of the Kingdom it comes to this?  How could it possibly be better without Jesus?  How could it possibly be better without the moment by moment flesh and blood presence of Jesus?

How did the early church teach their children? Did it involve Sunday school, children's church, or nurseries?

At a Virginia house church conference, before a panel discussion was about to begin, I whispered to a friend that I bet the first question was going to be: “How do we handle the children?” Sure enough, it was. This, in my opinion, is the number one question asked by those contemplating the house church. It is a tremendous stumbling block, but it shouldn’t be. This chapter will examine three things: first, the differing philosophies or mind sets that the institutional and house church have toward children and the church; second, practical issues that arise; and third, the advantage to children of the church in the home.

Is This Really Church?

This is a video that we highly recommend that you watch. Francis Chan, well known author and former pastor of a mega-church, underscores some of the key principles that we try to emphasize here on this website. Namely, that the real issues facing the church do not so much concern size or model, but being honest to recognize that much of what we call church today often does not align with the truths we see presented in scripture. Francis Chan can be respected for his courage and honesty after having been very successful in building a mega-church and then personally recognizing that there were many issues in which his church was not reflecting the essence of the church as it is seen in the New Testament. His straightforward look at what the scripture teaches about the church is both challenging and inspiring. The key part of this video starts at 34:00 and continues to the end.

Thanks to Vitally Keller of St. Petersburg, Russia for translating this video and making it available to us.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq3DfUPAQiY

We are excited to invite you to a special time of fellowship and learning together with other servant-leaders from simple churches in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. We are calling this gathering a Kingdom Building Conference. Our discussion will be focused on disciple-making and church planting and we will talk about such topics as deepening our faith and walk with God,prayer, building strong fellowship and love in our churches, incarnational evangelism, finding people of peace, participatory meetings, leadership, networking and relationships between simple churches,  and how to reproduce disciples and churches.

JESUS, THE REAL HEAD AND NOT JUST A FIGURE HEAD

Again, we are to demonstrate the Kingdom by how we honor the King. How does the church in the home function? How does a group of Royal Priests function? How do the members of the body of Christ express their common Head? How do the living stones of the temple of the Holy Spirit express their honor and worship to the God who is at home in each of them? The metaphors for the body of Christ in the New Testament range from body, through temple to family and army. The metaphor of audience is never used! The body is not made up of passive observers who pay to watch super leaders do the ministry. We are not divided into clergy and laity, gladiators and spectators. If we believe that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer then we need to see that worked out as every member participates and expresses the Spirit who lives in them.