The difficulty is that we often make discipleship far too difficult.  When we see discipleship as primarily about imparting knowledge from one to another, then we need an expert (knowledgeable) who also excels at communicating knowledge to another (teaching gift).  Many people do not see themselves as qualified enough (not enough knowledge as compared to professionals or those who have attended seminary) and not gifted enough (again, comparing themselves to those with excellent teaching gifts).

The result is that we have turned discipleship over to the professional teachers (pulpiteers and well-known author/teachers) and the programs that these same people develop.  In the process we exclude 90% of the Body of Christ from being active disciplers which is exactly what Jesus asked each of us to do.

Fortunately, simple/organic church planters, and those who have studied or experienced church planting movements, have re-discovered the keys to discipleship and have given those keys back to every-day-believers where they belong.

Here are two of those keys:

1. Discipleship can and should be discovery-based.  This means that new believers can actually discover what they need to know about God by opening the Word of God themselves while the Spirit leads and teaches them.  In this case, I do not need to be highly knowledgeable nor an effective teacher to come alongside someone who is going directly to the Word to learn from God and to encounter God.

We have put far too much effort into spoon-feeding new Christians by providing milk for them to drink through our pre-digested sermons, notes, teachings, and pre-packaged lessons.  The result is that believers do not learn the basics of understanding the Word for themselves, listening to the voice of the Spirit through the Word, and applying it.  This latter is the meaning of a disciple: one who hears Jesus speak and follows him.

While teachers can play a helpful supportive role, scripture is abundantly clear that the Holy Spirit is to become the primary teacher in a believer’s life (1 John 2:27).  This takes the pressure off of the discipler if we are willing to take on a support role in a disciple’s life rather than the main role.

2. The second key is often called “obedience-based discipleship.”  However, since the word “obedience” often conjures up images of legalistic adherence to rules (which is not the same as simply obeying Jesus), I sometimes prefer the term: “active-surrender-based discipleship.”  In using this term I will quote Thomas Merton who said: “we must know the truth, we must love the truth we know and we must act according to the measure of our love.  Truth is God himself who cannot be known apart from love and cannot be loved apart from surrender to his will.”

Okay, so maybe that’s just a way to say that the way to experientially know and encounter God is to love and obey him.

But, here’s the point.  A disciple is one who loves and obeys.  Period.  Therefore obedience-based discipleship (or surrender-based discipleship) focuses on becoming one who follows, one who walks out what God has shown, one who consistently steps into the place of “your will not my will be done.”  Why does this matter?  Because, again, knowledge is not the focus here.  A new disciple will gain the knowledge that he/she needs over time if he is applying what he is hearing through obedience.

Therefore, again, an expert is not needed (nor a great teacher) in order to show the way.  Rather, simply a fellow-Jesus-follower is all that is necessary to come alongside other disciples and point the way (through his/her own walk) to an abundant, Spirit-filled, life-filled, adventure-filled, personally-transforming, world-impacting, miracle-walking, Jesus-following lifestyle.

The bottom line here is that a disciple is one who is coming to know God himself through personal experience (followership) NOT merely a bunch of knowledge ABOUT God.  The former comes through self-discovery of who God is and walking with him. 

To disciple someone, then, is nothing more than:

1. Bringing them to the Scriptures to feed.
2. Asking how God is speaking to and leading them (through the Scriptures and the Spirit).
3. Being a friend.

It really IS that simple.

The promise is still in place: that all the people on earth will be blessed… through us.  (Gen. 12:3).  And, Jesus’ promise that all nations (literally, ethnic groups) would hear the Good News before the end comes (Matt. 24:14).

The needs are still great: 13,000 of the 27,000 people groups in the world are still unreached. Additionally, 9.7 million children die annually from the direct effects of poverty.  Almost one in four people on the planet live in extreme poverty.  By the way, extreme poverty is more than not having enough; it is often accompanied by a degrading sense of powerlessness.

Yet the kingdom of God is moving forward.  Each of us is an integral part of that.  AND, yes, progress is being made in each of these areas!

So, what does that have to do with simple/organic/house church folk?

Imagine With Me!

Consider what God might be doing through the simple/house/organic church movement!

• He might be providing a way for many, many leaders and missionaries to be raised up. The core value of simple church—everyone participates—provides a platform in which everyone gets involved, everyone grows spiritually, everyone discovers his/her spiritual gifts and calling, and everyone lives a 24/7 lifestyle of following Jesus. That sounds like a platform for developing fruitful influencers and missionaries to me!
• He might be providing a way for financial resources to flow not into church buildings but, rather, into the streets of our own neighborhoods as well as the harvest fields around the world!
• He might be preparing an entire generation of believers who are not going to merely live “culturally-appropriate” Christian-religious lives, but who will step into more radical lifestyles that reflect the Jesus way of life.
• He might be getting ready to create a whole new thrust that could impact our entire planet through a small group of “revolutionaries” who believe that we are the church, the embodiment of Jesus, and not just church-goers.

Here are a couple of quotes from former participants:

“A unique and extremely insightful collection of resources, experiences, and other people who will finally let you know that – “You are not crazy for hoping that there is more of Jesus to be known and shared in a way that is actually simple!”

"I came to the course wanting a better understanding of simple church and how to implement it... I’ve gained a better understanding of what it means to be on mission with God and how to invite others on the journey. The potential impact of the course for me is life changing."

"I found [the Simple Church Course] material to be very solid and helpful. Engaging with others globally has been eye-opening, enjoyable and definitely faith-building."

• From institutional to organic: the living church
• Simple Gatherings: participatory, Spirit-led, family
• The lifestyle of a Jesus-follower, 24/7
• Reproductive principles that can lead to church planting movements
• Reaching others: incarnational, relational, and genuine love
• Discipling disciple-makers

The Decade That Changed The Church: The longest lasting Revival in Church history took place during the Communist persecution in China from 1947 to late nineties. During this period the Christian population grew from one million to the present hundred + million without foreign missionaries, dollars, pastors, tele-evangelists, crusades, leaders, sacred buildings, Sunday worship service, guitars, Bibles or tithing. All these have sneaked back through the backdoor and succeeded in killing the movement. 

“The early churches were strong in faith and grew in numbers daily” (Acts 16:5). There was both quality and quantity. But even in the first century, the seven churches of the Revelation of St. John were already lukewarm and corrupted. Then came Bishop Ignatius (Martyred AD 110) who ruled that the Bishop was to be treated on par with the Lord and that no baptisms or love feasts (Holy Communion) could be celebrated without the presence of the clergy, thus introducing the Reverend culture, killing the Body Ministry of 1 Corinthians 14:26 led by the Brethren (fraternity of men and women). This Episcopal decree resulted in 1% of the clergy dominating as legislators, administrators and worship leaders and dehumanized over 99% of believers as laymen.

Then came the Roman Emperor Constantine (CE 272-337), a sun worshipping hybrid Christian who did a lot of good but also imposed the solar cross instead of the Menorah the lamp, as the sign of the church (Revelation 1:20). He built the first Cathedral, appointed professional clergy, declared Sun-Day as a day of worship, appointed himself the virtual Pope, banned the house churches and herded all believers in the brick and mortar buildings and called it the church and corrupted the Bride for 1700 years. However the authentic church survived in secret, often illegal house churches.

Then came Martin Luther’s Reformation (AD 1545) who preached “Sola Scriptura and Priesthood of all Believers” but in practice further concretized church structures and the Reverend culture by banning house churches. With the voices of the apostles and prophets suppressed, the modern church has firmly planted herself in Babylon and sucked in the tide of the world. She has gone into the ways of the flesh and everyone is doing his own thing.  Judges 21:25

The church has however, undergone cataclysmic changes, especially in the last decade, as had not taken place in centuries. With 80-100 million followers in secret house churches in China; 100,000 house churches planted in India; one million evangelical Latin Catholics now worshipping in Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC) and five million Americans in 30,000 house churches and several other countries reporting explosive growth, the return of the prodigal church back to the house church is a full circle reversal to God’s intended original form and function.  It seems that the 2000 years of incubation period is over and suddenly the green shoots are sprouting everywhere in the spiritual landscape to welcome Christ the King.

From a paper entitled "Global Trends, Concerns and Challenges."

Here is a quote from a recent participant who is finding renewal and excitement in simple church:

What we have unleashed here in Philadelphia is unstoppable. In the few short months we have been talking about this thing called Simple Church, two others have asked us about what we are doing and we've learned that one lady has started a church in her house on Sunday evenings. My wife and I are going to visit her next week. Another man started further north of us and we'll be meeting with him soon. Then we have heard of a couple of other places near here that has a meeting going on. So, the network of churches is beginning to take shape. I hope to visit all of them over the next couple of months. It is unstoppable.

And what we see and hear is that God is moving and the miraculous is taking place. People are being healed, marriages are being restored and in one case a woman on methadone was instantly delivered from the dependence on any drug or substitute. How awesome. I have one methadone user in our group and I am expecting to have her delivered. Her husband was delivered months ago, now it's her turn. I believe the the steps to her deliverance will come about because the group is beginning to see and hear of others who are being set free in the House Church. The Big Church prays for people but then they get on with the service.  In the House Church we can concentrate on the needs of one person for the entire time and see God work.

The Way is hosting a retreat in White Bluff, Tennessee, that will be facilitated by Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings, on April 16-18.  "Join other followers of Jesus... as we gather for a weekend of fun, relaxation, and encouragement.  Life in Jesus is not about getting it all right. It is about learning to live in His love. Jesus is the Way!"

Since our old paradigm of church life has often revolved around the Sunday morning gathering, we often find ourselves on a quest to discover what “New Testament” gatherings might look like and feel like.  We have learned from our church traditions that the make-up and how-to of the gathering is at the crux of the Christian life so, if we are transitioning into simple/organic/house church type experiences, we tend to become very focused on the make-up and how-to of these new types of gatherings.

The result is that stage two, for many transitioning Christians, is the exploration of New Testament gatherings.

While this is natural, if we remain in this stage as the end-all of our transition, we will not fully grasp that Jesus calls us first to an organic lifestyle and only secondarily to organic gatherings (as a result of our lifestyle of fully following him).  I have made this point clearly here.

In fact, one of the difficulties in describing New Testament gatherings is that scripture does not provide us with the kinds of specifics that we would want.  Jesus called his followers to radically follow him, yet he offers virtually no instruction on what to do during a “prayer meeting” or a “church service.”  Yet the disciples did gather and were an intimate community.  From this, we can deduce that the lifestyle of mission (following Jesus and being a light to the world) was the guiding star of their relationship with God and one another.  Gatherings supported this lifestyle, not the other way around.

Having said this, I am again acknowledging that during the stages of transition out of our institutional forms of church life, focusing on the New Testament gathering is often part and parcel of this journey.

Furthermore, stepping into many of the principles of New Testament gatherings does help to move us out of old ways of viewing the Christian life and re-discovering an intimate, organic walk with Jesus.

SO, what are some of these principles of New Testament gatherings that are explored during this stage:

1. Participatory rather than priest led.  Much is written about this in this blog and in many excellent books today.  You can read more here and here and here.  Felicity Dale’s book “Getting Started” has an excellent chapter on this.  Frank Viola’s book “Re-Imagining Church” is helpful as well.

2. Family-type authentic community.  "There are over 50 “one another” verses in the New Testament because we live, grow, minister, become healthy, and find support in the context of real relationships."  You can read more on this here and here.

3. Incarnational rather than attractional.  A recent comment to a post suggested that simple/house churches ought to work together with institutional churches since the latter were better for inviting and involving new people in church.  The wonderful opportunity of the simple church lifestyle is that we learn, as believers, what Jesus meant when he asked us to be salt.  Rather than inviting others to join our own Christian activities (attractional) we have the opportunity to season the world with the wonder of Jesus’ love and kingdom wherever we live, work, and go.  More here and here.

4. Training ground for developing spiritual gifts.  "In a loving environment, group members are willing to risk and use the gifts they have."  More here.

5. Word centered.  Since simple churches do not have one person “delivering the word of God,” the concern is often that the word is not central.  On the contrary, simple churches become even more word-centered because God’s word becomes the one authority that all look to.  More here.

6. Spirit-led.  One of the great joys of worshiping in simple, participatory communities is that every believer learns more and more what it is to be led by the Holy Spirit as a community and as individuals.  More here.

7. Simple and reproducible.  One of the geniuses of living things is that they are made out of simple elements (cells) that grow by reproduction.  The genius of the living church is that every aspect of it,  including its gatherings, can be easily reproduced into any setting from the urban west to the remote villages of Africa with nothing more than the Spirit of God and the word of God at work through the people of God.  It really is that simple.

8. Fluid and living.  By definition we will discover that truly organic processes cannot be controlled nor permanently structured.  Margaret Wheatley says it this way: “We seem hypnotized by structures, and we build them strong and complex because... this is a universe, we feel, that cannot be trusted with its own process for growth and rejuvenation... By sheer force of will, because we are the planet's intelligence, we will make the world work...”

Our attempts to “create” simple/organic church gatherings and make them work will plague all of us who genuinely want to see God shape and grow his living church.  We will not do it perfectly.  Nevertheless, the more we can rest in his ability and power to do what he said he will do (build his church) we can allow that process to be alive, changing, growing, transitioning, and flowing according to his purposes.

Enrollment is limited to 15 participants, so it is simply a first-come, first-served basis.  More info is here.

"Conference reports indicate that, from very small beginnings, in many nations fairly sizeable house church movements have emerged, including on the continents of Africa and Latin America."

Read more here.

The first stage is: Letting Go of Old Paradigms of Church Life.

Frankly, this first stage is much of what I have been blogging about right here for nearly six years.

So…  I thought this would be a good excuse to go back over past resources and posts and list those that still seem particularly relevant to the basics of letting go of old ways of thinking.

What Is Church Part 1-A and Part 1-B still seem insightful to me (if I have to say so myself):

Our first challenge in grasping what God intends church to be, is to stop looking at it through the lens of our background and through the lens of 2,000 years of “church” as a formal institution. Dee Hock says: "The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out..." So our first challenge is to de-program old definitions and wrestle with some accurate new ones.  Continue reading here.

The second chapter of my book, The Simple/House Church Revolution, is entitled “Defining Church (Webster Has It Wrong).”  This is also a good, brief attempt to re-think our paradigms of church.

Perhaps the best way to describe the church of the New Testament is as small, vibrant, caring families of believers who are loving others and reproducing themselves into every corner of the world.  You can download this chapter only here if you wish: Download SCRevChapter2

A Way to Do Life—Not a Way to Co Church is an old post that I re-posted recently (upon request), but I think it deserves a mention in this list.  Also, Planting the Kingdom Not Churches is in a similar vein.

I think that John Eldredge has contributed much to the process of re-thinking church.  I blogged on him here and here:

Church is not a building. Church is not an event that takes place on Sundays. I know, it's how we've come to think of it. “I go to First Baptist.” “We are members of St. Luke's.” “Is it time to go to church?” Much to our surprise, that is not how the Bible uses the term. Not at all.

There are obviously other key voices that have added much to the shift in paradigm of church-life including Wolfgang Simson, George Barna, Neil Cole, Frank Viola, Tony & Felicity Dale, and John White.

Also, don’t miss Wolfgang Simson’s diagram of the transition from institutional to organic.

I believe the issue of letting go of old paradigms does not just involve church life, but also entire systems of religiosity that we have often encumbered ourselves with.  Wayne Jacobsen’s “The Jake Book” does a good job of breaking religiosity off of our spirits.  Also, I wrote a post on Reflections on the American Church Culture as well as one entitled, I Don’t Like Christians:

There are, truthfully, many, many Christians that I really like… But we can also be miserably religious, ridiculously petty, unbelievably shaming of others, and embarrassingly judgmental.  My passion for "counter-cultural" church is not just a desire to "do church different" nor even an attempt to "do it better."  It's really just a passion, in any way I can, to stand up as a contrary voice to the spirit of religion that destroys true spiritual life, leaves wounded people wherever it goes, and yet is so often touted as Christianity despite the un-Christlike nature of it.

The subject of “leadership” is an important part of this paradigm shift.  Two posts to note are Hierarchies Create Dependencies and What About Leadership:

The number one issue (in my thinking) is simply this: New Testament leadership had nothing to do with c-o-n-t-r-o-l. When this is fully digested then, and only then, can we begin to grasp what leadership is meant to be.

I think that’s probably more than enough for one post.  But I will offer one last link to a fairly recent post called A Tale of Two Voices:

It feels like there are two paths to go down. One path is called church and it makes you want to have a meeting, set up structures and a church name and define who is in and who is out…

Today I feel encouraged again because I genuinely think that Jesus would be doing what we are doing. And that is all we seek - not a big church - just to be doing what we see the Father is doing every day...