It is rare these days that I am so gripped by a book that I read it all in one day.  That was the case with Michele Perry's book "Love Has a Face."  It doesn't hurt that we know Michele well--I was chatting with her on Skype just the other day.  She is the real deal.

Michele is one of my heroes.  She was born with only one leg, one hip and one kidney, yet despite her physical condition manages to pack more into life than most people I know.  In 2006, the Lord led her to Sudan.  She started her work there by throwing a party for 1,000 people.  She is now "Mama" to more than 100 children; she has started a school and plants churches.  When she prays, the blind see and the deaf hear.  Her love for Jesus and for others shines out of every page.

Although her story is like reading Acts 29, Michele's writing is humorous and down to earth.  I believe God will use this book to help others fall in love with Him all over again and to cause them to reach out to "the least of these."

Warning:  Don't read this book without an adequate supply of tissues. 
http://tinyurl.com/p7xc5u

I believe God is taking our thinking beyond the planting of individual simple churches or even networks of churches to movements.  What are the principles of movements?  How can we cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the movements that are taking place in the world today.  It's one of the reasons I'm so excited about the House2House conference over Labor Day. (http://tinyurl.com/m2l9ef) Neil Cole will be sharing about movements.  I've had the privilege of reading the manuscript of his book (due out early next year) called Church 3.0.  He'll be sharing some of his thoughts and ideas about the principles behind movements.  If we can grasp some of these and put them into action, it will change how we think and the way we do things.

I've also recently read a book by Steve Addison from Australia called Movements that Change the World.  He describes several characteristics of movements:  white-hot faith,commitment to a cause, contagious relationships, rapid mobilization, and adaptive methods.  He examines various missionary movements that have changed the face of Christendom and encourages us to continue the missionary movement that Jesus started.

When I was a teenager, there was a popular satire on TV called "Not so much a Programme--More a Way of Life."  Isn't that a great description of what this life of following Jesus is about?  We are followers of "the Way."  We are not living a cookie-cutter approach to life--a series of rules or behaviors that conform to some preconceived norm.  We are free to follow the "Wild Goose" (as John Eldredge likes to call the Holy Spirit).  It leads to a life of adventure, a journey where the ultimate destination may be known but the route is a surprise.

I'm getting excited about this year's national house church conference.  The theme of the main conference is going to be on Kingdom and movements--both topics I'm passionate about.  I believe the scope of what God is doing across this nation (George Barna's research indicates around 6 million people) could be justifiably called a movement, and that movement is becoming increasingly Kingdom oriented.  After all, Jesus' main emphasis was on the Kingdom of God.

Added to this, there will be various tracks going on.  See http://tinyurl.com/l2bwxn 

Let me mention a couple of these.  The Luke 10 House Church Advanced track will look at viral and vibrant simple church communities  If you're familiar with the lk10 website, you will understand my excitement.  Robert Ricciardelli is running a marketplace track looking at how we can impact society--not just business, but politics, education etc.  Apex Community Church was a 3000+ member church that has transitioned into a network of simple churches and they will be talking about the lessons they have learned on that journey.

You can learn more about the conference by clicking on the links on the house2house website at www.house2house.com or www.simplechurch.com

For two or more years now, I have been having regular conversations with a group of women--all leaders, strategists in the Kingdom.  Our conversation today was on the subject of movements.  What characterizes a movement?  (Examples of movements today would include the GLBT (gay/lesbian etc.) movement and the New Age movement.)

Here are some things we came up with:

• It generates momentum, feeds passion, attracting and uniting people with like passions
• People start doing similar things because of their shared values
• Usually there is a quick change in a relatively short amount of time—the concept of the tipping point
• There is a change in change public perception, law—even changing culture 
• There are people who are change agents/catalysts (either one person or a group or an amalgam of different people at the grassroots)
• There needs to be a climate for change that either exists or is set by the catalysts
• A movement can last for a short or long time—often depending on how the movement was generated (e.g. Hitler and the Nazi movement was thankfully a short-lived movement)
• An appetite and energy for change often begins with younger people
• They are often a reaction to the status quo--hence persecution may follow

There are three structural components to a movement:

1. Decentralization--things don't just happen with one leader or in one place
2. Segmentation--things may look different in different places but they share similar values
3. Interconnection--those involved in the movement are able to connect together

Are we part of a movement?

We have just come off the phone with a friend of ours in India who is involved in a CPM there.  He described briefly the events of this last Pentecost Sunday.  They had a goal in their network of 100,000 baptisms on that day.  The results are coming in.  They exceeded their expectations with 285,083 baptisms and still counting.  (Many of these are in very rural areas and so it takes time for the information to come in.) 

The smallest number of baptisms in a single location was 36, and the largest number around 51,000.  They prayed for the eyes of the authorities to be shut, and for the most part that  happened.

Praise God for this abundant harvest.  Pray now for the ongoing discipling of these new believers.

 
Our new book, "The Rabbit and the Elephant," co-authored with George Barna comes out on June 1st.  It has been a two year labor-of-love to write it.  We are asking that if anyone is planning to buy it, they order from Amazon.com.  Here’s their link to the book: http://bit.ly/DFD3k  This will increase our Amazon sales rank and hopefully make it more likely that others will buy the book.

Here's Tyndale House Publisher's version of what the book is about:

Rabbits, Elephants and Simple Church

If you put two elephants in a room together with plenty of food and water, close the door, and come back in three years, if you’re lucky, you may have one baby elephant. But do the same thing with two rabbits and you’ll get thousands of baby rabbits.

In their new book, The Rabbit and the Elephant: Why Small is the New Big for Today’s Church, simple church planters Tony and Felicity Dale, with acclaimed researcher George Barna, use the rabbit illustration to show the pace at which the Christian faith can (and should) be growing—through a way of life that is explosive and transformational. Through observations supported by the Barna Group research, the Dales document how church all across the world is changing from being event-based to life and relationship-based.

The Rabbit and the Elephant explores the simple church phenomenon and the ideas and experiences behind its concept of every member ministry. You will learn how to incorporate spiritual growth and outreach into every aspect of your life, while discovering the key to 21st century evangelism.

A few months ago, Steve Lyzenga (www.house2harvest.com) did a survey on simple church finances for his doctoral dissertation.  I was on the committee and so had the privilege of seeing some of his results.  One of the results in particular surprised me. 

One of the questions he asked was concerning how long the participant's simple church has been in existence.  Popular anecdotal opinion says that the average simple church lasts two years or less.  Steve's results contradict this and don't forget, the churches he surveyed are still going strong.

Steve writes concerning the results of his survey, "Yes, the average age is 5.06 years with a range from 6 months to 40 years. If I remove the one at 40, the average drops to 4.78.  If I remove three more at 30, the average drops to 4.15.  If I remove three more at 20, the average drops to 3.75."

Simple churches last longer than we thought!

Several years ago, a friend from the UK gave Tony and me a prophetic word that we should spend some time speaking over our four kids (now grown) any promises or prophetic words that we had been given for them over the years.  We chose to do that over Easter weekend that year, and all of us (including our kids' spouses) went away to a retreat center where we handed each of them a letter containing the words we had been given for them over the years, the promises we had been praying over them and so on.  We read the letter out to each in turn and then all of us prayed over each person there, blessing them with anything else the Lord gave us at that time.  It was a profound and moving experience for each person.

Easter weekend has become a tradition for us since that time, and each year we do something a little different--including the spiritual component.  This year we were loaned a lake house about an hour from where we live.  Fourteen of us were there (we've taken the command to be fruitful and multiply seriously!) and as usual, we had a fun-filled weekend boating, playing tennis, Easter egg hunts, games and so on.

On the Saturday evening we gathered together after the evening meal.  First we blessed the three younger grandkids, who, exhausted after the day's activities, soon went to bed.  For the first time, this year our oldest granddaughter, Anna aged 9, stayed up for our spiritual time together.

This year, the Lord led us to speak over each person the ways in which we could see they had grown over the past year or so, how they had matured through the challenges they faced and so on.  When it came to Anna's turn, she was speechless and beaming from ear to ear as her aunts and uncles, parents and grandparents told her the wonderful things they saw God doing in her life and complimented her on her character and the artistic talents she is developing.  (This is the girl who was ill with Henoch Schoenlein purpura a few weeks ago).  It was an evening she will never forget!