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Christmas Network Gathering 12.18.16!

Join friends and family of the Simple Church Alliance as we come together to celebrate Christmas!  Open Mic. The microphone will be open this evening and we want to encourage every simple church community to bring a Christmas song, poem, reading or story to share with everyone.  Please email me your communities idea for sharing! Food and Drink. We invite everyone to bring a dessert and finger food to share.  We will be providing tea, lemonade, water and coffee.  Specialty drinks will be available to purchase. Baby Dedications.  In year’s past we have taken this opportunity to have special prayers for children that the Lord has given us this year.  If you would like to take part in a special prayer of dedication during this time please contact us. Visit this event on facebook here.  @… Read More »Christmas Network Gathering 12.18.16!

Baptisms and Such

God has been moving! The past six weeks have been some of the fullest, most rewarding, and most draining times of our lives and certainly of our ministry. Since the middle of September we have seen eight young people profess faith in Jesus as Savior and step into the waters of baptism. To put this in perspective, in the previous year we had baptized four people, all of which were amazing stories of redemption. During the past few weeks though, God has really been doing some cool stuff…..early church in the book of Acts type of stuff! Our gatherings have been lasting for hours because no one wants to leave. Teenagers who are rough and ragged are stopping people on the street to pray for them and tell them about what Jesus is doing in… Read More »Baptisms and Such

Fall Network Gathering This Sunday!

Sunday, November 6th, 10AM-Noon at Raven Run Nature Sanctuary Join simple church friends and family from the region for a time of worship, fellowship, picnic and hiking!  this coming Sunday, November 6th, 10AM-Noon at Raven Run Nature Sanctuary! *Bring a picnic lunch for you and your family! *Coffee provided * Enjoy meeting others in simple churches from the region * Worship Jesus through songs led by simple church folks * Plan to stay after and enjoy the trails with others! Each simple church community is encouraged to consider sharing a song, testimony, or passage with others.  Prayerfully consider how the Lord would have you “build up” others in simple church.  Be creative and have fun! Please not that this is a “picnic” so everyone is encouraged to bring enough food and beverage to take care… Read More »Fall Network Gathering This Sunday!

Ying and Grace Kai Story

This week I had the privilege to meet and spend a little time with Ying Kai and his wife and Grace. It was great to have my faith stretched by their amazing story, humble attitude, and burden for the world to know the love of Jesus. Ying and Grace have experienced the power of multiplication in China (a term we can sometimes misuse here in the United States to describe addition and sometimes even division). Their story is a great encouragement and reminder to us that God is in fact a God of multiplication.  Through their example, we learn that when we expect multiplication to happen and we help others follow Christ in ways that are not dependent on complex systems and hierarchical structures of leadership. When we focus on the simplicity of the Gospel and disciple making, The Church… Read More »Ying and Grace Kai Story

Summer Updates (in Photos)

Summer Updates It’s hard to believe that we are about to turn the page on yet another summer!  I wanted to take a few seconds and share some byte-sized updates from simple church happenings.  Thank you for having covered many of these opportunities with prayer. University of Kentucky Simple Church Training         Zumé Project – Kentucky   Summer Celebration Gathering       Water Blast Camp     Awaken Conference in Paintsville, KY     Regional Gathering with Gospel Fellowships       Simple Church Conference Coming Up! Golf Church Finally… What is going on in your neck of the woods?  We would love to hear about what God is doing in your life and in your simple church!  How can we pray for you?  Any news to pass along?  Let us continue… Read More »Summer Updates (in Photos)

Summer Network Gathering – July 30

  July 30th, we will return to the Wheeler’s Farm for a network wide summer gathering.  Worship, Prayer, Fellowship, Picnic, Fishing? Rock Skipping? Playing in the creek? The possibilities are endless.  We even hope to celebrate baptisms! Simple Church Summer Network Gathering Saturday July 30, 6-9PM Music By Gideon Maki What To Bring: Your Own Picnic Dinner (Food, Drinks, utensils, etc.) Chairs/Blanket Water shoes (if you want to get into the creek) Everyone in your simple church community! flashlight A Friend (or two or three) A Song or Encouraging Testimony To Share? (optional)   Baptism:  Would you like to take part in believer’s baptism?  Do you have a friend or a child that might like to profess their faith in Christ by being baptized?  This will be a great opportunity for you or a friend to take… Read More »Summer Network Gathering – July 30

Church By A Big Tree

God is giving birth to a simple church composed of folks who originally connected through an “ultimate frisbee” team.  I met Lynnette Malott and her family a week ago when visiting this neat new community of Jesus followers.  Today she posted to her Facebook page the comments below.  I asked her if I could repost here.  — One year in Kentucky today. We moved out here to be part of a church plant, but tonight we did church by a big tree in the park with a group of entirely different people. One of the women that I had just met said to me last week that our church plant didn’t fail, it just ended up looking differently than we thought it would. What a great perspective. Yes, we moved out here to plant Renovation Church ,… Read More »Church By A Big Tree

New Podcasts Up!

Hello friends! We have several new podcasts up at keepitsimplepodcast.com. You can also subscribe on iTunes at this link as well. It’s been awhile since I’ve updated the links, so you may remember that beginning with Episode 65, Tom and I re-launched the podcast with the idea of starting from scratch and re-introducing the “Who?” “What?” “When?” “Where?” “Why?” and “How?” questions surrounding simple/organic church. Episode 75 “Who Can Baptize Others in The Simple Church?” was just released. You can check out all the new episodes and the old ones at our website.  If you feel so inclined, I review on iTunes apparently helps the podcast come up more often in searches. Thanks for listening!  I pray it encourages you along the journey and provides good food for thought and discussion!  

What are you willing to do to spread the word?

What are you willing to do to spread the word about Jesus?  If God asked you to do something hard and that would take over three years to complete would you be willing to see it through?  These are a few of the question that I left the theater last Tuesday night asking myself after the premiere of Seek First. Seek First is a skate video that was made by members of the simple church in Lexington known as “Skate Church.”  I won’t go into all the details here mostly because the Lexington Herald Leader did a great job on sharing the vision for the video in last Saturday’s paper (read here).  The short version is that God spoke to Josh Roberts several years ago and told Him to make a skate video that would share… Read More »What are you willing to do to spread the word?

Seek First Video Premiere / June 21

The folks from the Skate Church are premiering “Seek First” on June 21st at the Kentucky Theater.  Seek First is a skate video documentary featuring some of their best tricks over the last three years and also features the faith stories of Jonathan Wilson, Josh Roberts, Gideon Maki, and Sam Mullins. June 21 – 9:00PM Kentucky Theater, Downtown Lexington  214 E Main St, Lexington, KY 40507 Admission is Free! From the www.seekfirstvideo.com website: Over three years ago, Josh Roberts sensed that God was leading him to make a skate video that would share the message of hope and forgiveness through Jesus that he had recently experienced.  As Josh expressed his desire to make a video, God began bringing a host of people to the table to support this project.  What is more, as Josh began filming… Read More »Seek First Video Premiere / June 21