This is the first part of a short video series on simple church provided by Erik Fish. Erik has helped students and adults alike to see simple churches multiplied in the US and abroad. Enjoy and share!
There is no formula for how to start a simple church. The Holy Spirit must be the Initiator and Leader if a real church community is to be birthed. Even still, I have seen several ways God can use you to give birth to a new simple church family! 1. LTG – As you and a friend or two begin a Life Transformation Group (LTG) and you see that LTG multiply into two LTGs, a simple church can be formed. It’s logical and natural that you say, “why don’t we all share a meal together?” If married, the husband’s and… Read More »8 Ways To Start A Simple Church
For many of us who started simple church here in Central Kentucky, the idea of a “word” for the year is familiar; asking God to place a word on our heart that He wants to serve as a theme for the coming year. Many people have had interesting stories of how God has spoken to them through this practical exercise over the years. This morning as I was meeting with a friend, I believe that God showed me my word for 2014–Direct. This word flows into everything that He seems to be saying to me presently about simple church and… Read More »“Direction” for 2014
Hey Gavin, have you seen this commercial? I like it because it visually shows how the body of Christ is meant to reproduce. Individually, we can all reproduce ourselves and make disciples. If you notice in the commercial, these people are just going about their business, hanging out with one another. Then BAM! They reproduce. Two becomes four. Four becomes eight. Eight becomes sixteen. Soon there are hundreds in the commercial. It is also a good visual example of how simple churches can reproduce themselves. No programs. No systems. Just natural. It is a strong image. I recently received this… Read More »Verizon Shows Us Relational Multiplication
Below is a short encouragement and follow up from this blog post: Gavin came to speak at the Perspectives class on UK’s campus a few weeks before the end of the semester. After hearing about the simple church movement, I had an idea that I couldn’t get rid of: start a church in my dorm. So many people and things were telling me not to go forward with it; it was too late in the semester, I was crazy, that’s heretical. But I went for it anyway. God’s movement stirred up some commotion in my dorm. Everyone was talking about… Read More »Church In My Dorm?
Upon returning from a recent trip to India, a friend took me out for coffee to tell me of his encounter with a former nun, Sister Angelica, who has trained over 20,000 Christian “soldiers” to lead “troops” throughout her country. Below is a training handout that Sister Angelica uses while helping to start troops and train up new leaders. Some of this may seem odd to our western use of language and sensibilities. To be clear, I would not advocate starting simple churches here with such guidelines. That being said, I wonder if there are more than a few good… Read More »“Troops” in India
“I really want to start following Jesus…what should I do?” If a friend asked you this question today, how would you respond? For me this scenario highlights the “church” paradigm shift that has transpired in my life and touches on a key reason why I believe so strongly in the simple church journey. For most of my life, I have thought the appropriate response to a disciple would look a little like this checklist: –“Find a good church”–maybe mine, maybe another if it would be a better fit. –Set up a meeting with the pastor of the church to talk… Read More »How Would You Answer?
Most of my life I have enjoyed satire. Satire will often seek to approve of or accept as normal ideas that the satirist is actually seeking to attack. Such is the case in this goofy song that applies attractional, hierarchical, personality driven, pulpit centered, church growth, clergy/laity ideas to simple/house/organic church ministry.
In recent months, a simple church here in Lexington sent out a family to join a new family with the hopes of seeing a new simple church birthed. It’s been very exciting to see how God is growing a new community of faith through the willingness of these families to “go” and not simply stay where they were most comfortable. Recently, several members of the original simple church wrote a creative letter of encouragement to this new simple church. I was really impressed with the time and energy they put forth and I thought i would share it with you… Read More »A Letter To A Church
At a recent simple church training, we discussed the importance of clearly communicating the values and vision of simple church. We challenged the leaders from each simple church to visualize simple church alliance. Below are a few of the images. How would you visualize simple church multiplication?