Simply Church: A House Church Perspective

Survey Results

The results of the survey on women in ministry are in!  We (the Women2WomenConnect team) are very grateful to those of you who responded so quickly.  And our definite  impression is that nearly all who filled in the survey think it would be good to do something to train women so that they can take their place alongside the men in this army of ordinary people that God is using around the world today.

Therefore, we will start by running an online seminar.  This first one (and something of an experiment) will be on church planting.  It will run every other week for four sessions.  We will be running it twice, once on a Monday evening (8PM, CST) and the other on a Tuesday  afternoon (2PM CST)--that way, people who have expressed an interest  in countries other than the USA will also be able to take part.  Each  session will last for around 90 minutes and will be a small, online, participatory workshop.  (It's amazing what you can do with technology these days!)  The course will start on Monday March 16th and Tuesday  March 17th.  All you need is access to a computer and a phone.  (If  you have some kind of webcam, others will also be able to see you.)

If you are interested, please respond by sending an email to Leslie Kim at lesliejkim@yahoo.com letting her know which of the two sessions you would like to be a part of.  We will send you further details as the time draws closer.

Barna's Five Million

According to George Barna, research shows that there are now more than five million people involved regularly in simple church in this country.  These figures were confirmed in a similar study by Ed Stetzer.

"Where are these people," Tony and I often wonder.  We often refer to them as "Barna's Five Million."

Between us and all our friends who have contact with thousands involved in simple church, we reckon at the most we are in contact with 5% of them--probably closer to 2-3%.  What about the other 95%?  We sometimes wonder if they have healthy churches. Our naive assumption has been that they are mainly of the "Honey, I shrunk the church!" variety.  Our thought has been that they are people who have left the traditional church disillusioned, and who are meeting together with a few others in their living rooms.

We were therefore greatly encouraged when we met one of "Barna's Five Million" the other day.  Here was a guy, working with those who did not yet know Jesus, making disciples round his kitchen table, sending them out, starting churches in other parts of the country.  And he had never heard of House2House, or any of the other simple/organic organizations like CMA and Lk10.   In fact, he didn't really know anything about what is going on across the nations.  This was entirely the Holy Spirit's work.

If he is representative of Barna's Five Million, then there is a move of God going on!

Mega/Micro

Last week, a group of around 25 people met together in Orlando to see how mega and micro churches can cooperate together for the Kingdom.  The group consisted of representatives from four mega churches, two denominations, a missions group and several simple church networks.  Those from the mega churches were very sympathetic to what simple church represents.

We looked at what God is doing around the nation and the different strengths that both have to offer.   Mega churches are very visible, and can make an impact at a national level that simple churches cannot.  (For example, mega church leaders Rick Warren and Joel Hunter were involved in the inauguration ceremonies of Barack Obama.)  They have many different resources.  However, simple churches can reach into segments of society that will not darken the doors of a church building.  They usually have a deep understanding of community.

All of us are seeking the Kingdom, even though our expressions of church may be very different.  If we can learn to build each other up, we will advance the work of God.

It was an interesting dialog, and very encouraging for a first attempt at this.  Perhaps most important were the friendships that were formed.  I believe one of the results is that we will be working much more closely with the mega church here in Austin.