"Simply what we are doing now"

My wife and I left a large suburban church in 2006. Church had gotten to be such a high octane, professional Rogers and Hemerstien production that we were disillusioned. Right after we left a missionary friend of ours was over to visit and mentioned a House Church Conference near Lancaster PA that was coming up. It clicked with us and we got on the internet and checked out the whole idea. We registered for the conference. He also gave us a book by Jim Rutz called "Mega-Shift".  In it he shows how God is taking the power and authority away from the big and professional and putting in the hands of no-bodies. He records miracles and signs that are happening around the world in small meetings. I could go on and on about that but I'll stop. This book really excited us and helped motivate us to keep digging. We attended the conference and were incredibly blessed and had many questions answered and issues confirmed. We later felt led to visit the Zadok house of Prayer in So. Carolina and the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. In both places God confirmed his Word and His leading for us through people that had never met us. He supernaturally gave them knowledge and caused us to cross paths and share with us.

In 2006 we incorporated and became, "Freedom Ministry Network". Freedom from that old wineskin and a network that can encompass many areas of ministry. We have seen in different areas of the nation and the world that God is giving people some new terminology that does not alieanate people because of their presuppositions. What we are doing we are calling, "SIMPLE CHURCH". It's the house church concept with more (I should say less). A lot of the ministries and people God was positioning and using in the House Church Movement have come up with this term and God is using it in this move.  The idea of 'House Church' had begin to pick up some negative sterotypes and that whole idea was too limiting. The idea of 'Simple Church' goes all the way back to the Catacombs and the Book of Acts, it blows the walls out of the idea that "Church" happens just in a house, building or some specific place. It happens when believers come together, where ever that may be. Because God already inspired this move in China the fact that the government outlaws and forbids the 'unofficial' church from meeting doesn't matter. The Church of Jesus Christ is already off the grid and thriving. Who's to say that God isn't getting the church here prepared for some kind of opposition?

Just as it was in the book of Acts where, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraclous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Acts 2:42-47

 Those elements: the Word, fellowship, breaking bread and prayer are the Simple Church idea in a nutshell. The great thing is that it doesn't have to be that way. You can have one or all of those and you can meet anywhere. Remember Jesus said that when we gather in His name He is there and we have church.

The idea of meeting in big buildings and designated place didn't occur until Constantine became head of Rome and made Christianity the 'state' religion. He did that basically so he could control where believers met, keep tabs on them and tax the places of worship. All the 'traditions' that we have from the order of service, choirs, sermon's, passive listeners even passing the plate and the way we like to put the furniture in our churches weren't a part of believers getting together for at least the first 400 yrs. of Christianity.  That set up came from the way the rooms were where the Roman orators taught and spoke. It's what the people of that time period were used to. If you look at what the Lord is doing in the 'world' at the moment it seems that He is returning many to this 'simple' mode. Us and God without all the distractions. The awesome thing is that this can be replicated in any third world country. In fact this has already been happening in China and many Asian countries for years now. Even though the US may lead in sending and getting the gospel out we usually lag behind in what God is doing on the cutting edge. Well it's finally hitting home and it's exploding. Check out some of the links on our links page to get a better idea.

You know at one of our last meetings at the Freedom Center a young unwed mother attended with her baby. It happened to be a Saturation Service but that didn't matter, we felt God had sent her there. Her fiance' was in an accident and couldn't work. She didn't ask for anything but told us her story when we asked her to. To make a long story short I asked her what bills she had coming up that were 'urgent'? She said electricitiy and gas.  The ministry wrote her a check that she left with that night. One of the people attending felt led to give her a handful of bills. One young man had dropped a wad of 20s in the giving can and I asked him I it was OK to give her that. She was bawling and blessed at the same time. No boards to go before. No begging and pleading her case before a committee. No red tape. God is wanting to make it SIMPLE. Small is the new big with what He is doing right now.

Listen to 1 Cor. 14:26 "What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done fo the strengthening of the church." You can't get much clearer than that. Paul says, "Everyone" should allow God to use them and participate. It does not take much of an imagination to see that would never work in the majority of 'churches' we have today.

All the churches in the book of Acts were home, family or just smaller groups. That's where the New Testament dynamic can operate. Why do we sit for hours listening to sermons and watching good (many times anointed) 'Christian' entertainment and we don't feel impacted personally or changed or fulfilled? I believe it's because we have made a business out of church. We are competing with the world for people's attention and their affection. Do we have an example in the New Testament of the early church trying to make the gospel 'look good' to people. I think just the opposite is true, in fact Paul said that the gospel was an 'offense' to people. Why do so many churches find it so hard to get people to commit to anything? Maybe what they are offering is one thing and the reality of what people find when they accept it is another.  I believe it's because they aren't personally engaged. According to 1 Cor. 14:26 when we get together in Jesus name 'everyone' should contribute something. Personal participation is what Paul is describing here.

I don't want to make this a book but what about the over 50 "one another's" in scripture? We are told to bear one another's burdens, to pray for one another, to confess our sins to one another etc. The conclusion I have come to is that the only way we can be obedient to New Testament commands is in the small group setting. That's the way it all started (1st 400 yrs.)  and that's where God is bringing the church back to. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against 'Mega-Churches" as long at those churches have small groups where Jesus is the head of the meeting and can use everyone there in a significant way.

Well, this is the direction we are heading. We want to plant 'simple churches', When they grow from 5 to 10 or 12-15 those involved pray and ask the Holy Spirit to identify who they want to send out to begin a new church in their home (or where ever God is leading them to, it could be at their place of employment, it could be at Starbucks on Tues. mornings or even at the mall. ) The key to success here is intentionally keeping the groups small and intimate. Normally if it is going to be in a members home they will send a few members with them to help birth it and be the foundational members. I use the term "member" loosely, if they are there I am considering them a member, there's nothing to join. If you have received Christ you are a member of THE Church. All the simple churches we begin will be in our network. We have our network not for control but for organization and so we can submit to the laws of the land. We are incorporated and funds can go through the network for tax purposes but all money goes to the church where it was given, they each have their own account. We don't take an 'administrative" fee. They can talk and pray about how and when they want to spend the money God gives them. In that way God's money goes to God's people and where they agree to invest it. God has blessed me in that for the large part my financial needs are taken care of. I don't have to depend solely on the ministry to get by. You know, the idea of paid, professional clergy also came on the scene through Constantine, 400 yrs after Christ ascended into heaven. Until that time the "Priesthood of the believer" wasn't just talked about but actually lived out.

Remember Jesus said in Matt.18:20 "For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them."

It's so hard to break the mind-set that tradition has stamped in our minds of what church "should" be. We just spoke with some friends of ours that were asked to leave the church they attended. Did they leave the body of Christ? No They didn't committ some gross sin that would separate them from God. I don't want to go into any details but as it ended up they didn't have a 'church' to go to on Sundays. They said it felt so 'weird'.  I can testify that it feels weird for about the first month then it feels liberating. Being delivered from the big rush of preparation to attend the show we have made church into these days is a relief. At least it has been for us. Where do we get off saying we have the market on 'church' anyway? Didn't Jesus say where 2 or 3 are gathered you have church? If that be the case much of what we do today has made a simple idea very complex and actually promotes division.

If you have any questions for us just go back to the homepage and look at the bottom, there's a link to e-mail us. There are quite a few links on the links page dealing with House/Simple Church if you want to explore this concept for yourselves and see what is happening on the local and worldwide scale.

We've heard so many tell us, "We love God but we are just getting tired of Church".

Don't just complain about it  but do something about it.
Drop us a line any time.

I'm going to do the next article in this category "Simple Church" on "The Purpose of the Church".
Check it out if you get a chance.

Yours for Him, Pastor Danny