For years, I have wanted to be a part of a house church as I believe it is the closest way to disciple people, patterning off of how Jesus discipled His 12 followers.

Here’s a wonderful video that highlights the benefits of house church / home church / simple church. Enjoy!

 

 

We’re shifting from the day of the ordained to the day of the ordinary, where God indeed ordains the ordinary, to do His work, and He gets more glory for it. Neil Cole – Greenhouse

God is on the edge of breaking us free of a lot of traditions. Neil Gamble, Father’s Hand Ministries

He says, “Come back to Me. Come back to the Book. Come back to the Promised Land. Come back to original Christianity. Come back, and you will change the world.” Wolfgang Simson – Author: Houses that Change the World

In the West, we’ve attempted with good intentions to glorify, and what we’ve done is we’ve elevated how we do church, to such a status, that it takes a professional, and even in most cases, a professional team to pull it off. Neil Gamble, Father’s Hand Ministries

People were basically spectators. They were just sitting in the pews, Sunday afer Sunday… Wednesday night after Wednesday night… Lynn Reddick, Covenant Bible Institute

So much in legacy Christianity is a holy meeting, on a holy day, in a holy building at the holy hour, with holy people dressed in holy clothes, listening to holy priests. Wolfgang Simson – Author: Houses that Change the World

People have been spectators in the life of the church for so many years, they don’t even know they have a ministry. Linda Reddick, Covenant Bible Institute

More and more people in American culture are disinterested in big room events that are related to church events. Kent Smith, Abilene Christian University

I think that what the world is rejecting in what they see in the church is facades. Craig Hill, Family Foundations International

Because most people, when they think of the word church, they think of a building with a steeple on it, and that’s not what church is. Church is God’s people involved in doing God’s business. David Watson – City Team Ministries

There are a number of believers that are essentially leaving the traditional church. They still have an intimate relationship with Christ, but they are finding another place to be nurtured and fellowshipped. Patrick Robertson – City Team Ministries

Reggie MacNeal said that people are leaving the traditional church in order to preserve their faith. John White – Dawn Ministries –    dawnministries.org

People who are open to Jesus, but not open to church… Jonathan Campbell, Marketplace Ministry

If we are going to really affect the nations of the world, and multiply at the pace God wants us to multiply, it has to be done much simpler. Tony Fitzgerald, Church of the Nations

Where rather than the plans and purposes of men going forward, it’s about the plans and purposes of God going forward. Mike Steele, Dawn Ministries

I believe that God can really do this in “the” body, not “a body”. Dana Gamble, Father’s Hand Ministries

If we are going to see many of the pockets of people in North America, who are truly unreached people, people without church in their background, come to know Christ, it was going to happen through very different kinds of understandings of what it means to follow Jesus, in terms of the relationships and organization…

God says, “Give Me back My Church so that I can give it back to the world.” Wolfgang Simson – Author: Houses that Change the World

We want to lower the bar of how we do church and raise the bar of what it means to be a disciple.

Church is moving from being the greatest indoor spectator sport in the world, to being a great participation, where every person finds a real home and a path.

Move out of organized religion, back to “The God who loves you out of your socks.” Move out of your church buildings, and be again there where you’re supposed to be, which is where the pain is, where the hurt is, where the people are. Wolfgang Simson – Author: Houses that Change the World

They don’t just do the ministry somewhere back at some church they go to on the weekend, but they’re doing the ministry, 24 /7 during the week, with the people amongst themselves, and they’re being the church that can do the church there. Jeremy Story, Campus Renewal Ministries

Jesus is trying to get His church back. It’s been under man’s control. 500 years ago, God gave the Bible into the hands of the ordinary people, and someone recently said, 500 years later, in the second reformation, in a sense, God’s giving the church back to the ordinary people.

How does the unchurched North American, come to not only entrust their life to Christ, but really move on to maturity in Christ. What it takes to get from “there” to “there”, involves a level of intimacy and relationship that isn’t going to happen just in a “big room”.

We can’t be a “come to us” type church, we have to be a “go to”. It has to be contextualized in every area so that we can see… Jeremy Story, Campus Renewal Ministries

People are hungry for what simple church as to offer.

Americans in general, are asking spiritual questions, meaning questions, and I think if we come to them, on their turf, in their world, and speak their language, many, many of them will join us in the kingdom.

For most of us, we’ve learned to grow things, but we haven’t learned to reproduce, and reproduce at every level,… leaders, small groups, churches. Carol Davis- Global Spectrum

If you really sincerely have a core value of multiplication, the only way you’re very really going to see a multiplication movement is with simple churches.

It’s very, very difficult to take a church with a thousand, or 5,000 and have it double in size in a year. But if you have a group of 12 people in a home, you can do that. – Jim Rutz – Author: Megashift

And it’s actually the people in the church, as a collective body, that are responsible for starting churches. David Watson – City Team Ministries

We can step out of our comfort zone and become the body of Christ that we were designed to be. They’ve got some hurdles to get over. One is years and years of indoctrination to sit down and “be quiet”.

The unique contribution of this simple church movement, has to do with how many different groups of people have come together, and in many cases are really setting aside their own personal to see the Kingdom advance.

It is absolutely essential that lay people start churches. David Watson – City Team Ministries

The church has been preparing them for ministry in the church, but not ministry in their world.

1 Cor. 14:26 How is it brethren that when you come together, every one of you have something to share. Whether a song, a hymn, a scripture, a revelation, a tongue, interpretation. Let everything be done for building up the body of Christ.

The reality of simple church is the idea of living out the life of Christ in the midst of the people on a regular basis.

It becomes much more of a family. And if the needs are such that family isn’t the theme for this week, you shift into being a hospital or if someone’s really got a severe problem of some sort, you just shut everything down, and take care of the immediate problem. Sometimes you cycle into being a school because there’s teaching that needs to happen and sometime, hopefully, you cycle into being an army.

The typical house church of 10-15 people would do 4 things.

1. They would, would have a “meating” – m-e-a-t-i-n-g. They would eat. The eating business was absolutely crucial to their ministry of Jesus. He was almost a specialist in eating in other people’s homes.
2. They were sharing life, not an hour.
3. They don’t just listen to someone exposing the Bible in 3 points and 31 minutes and then go home and forget 95% on the way, they are partaking and participating in almost eating the Bible together.
4. They were praying and prophesying. Praying is where we talk to God, Prophesying is where God talks to us.
Wolfgang Simson – Author: Houses that Change the World

– It’s designed where there’s community. Where we turn our chairs to face each other and we’re not looking at the back of each other’s heads, and there’s not rows of noses but we’re doing things in community, we’re learning in community, we’re sharing with one another, and there’s accountability.

You’re free to just follow the Lord and do what He says to.

It’s about the spontaneity, it’s about following the Holy Spirit. Our meetings together are a little bit like having a conductor of an orchestra. Felicity Dale – Author: An Army of Ordinary People

In the last year (2006) it’s broken up from under ground. It’s become a more recognizable movement . There are many books that have come out that are alerting the rest of the world that there’s something happening.

Seeing networks of houseworks sprouting up sovereignly, independent of one another.

It’s been brewing under the surface for a long time, and it’s now to a point where you can’t go back.

This is the new, coming church. It’s what you will probably be in in the future.

Networks of house churches will become mainline in America and will be a type of church that actually assembles around tables in homes, where you eat and celebrate, cry and laugh. Wolfgang Simson – Author: Houses that Change the World

Where every member of the body of Christ knows that they are living in their destiny, and that not one person will go to their grave with their music still in them but they’ll sing their song and reach the purpose God’s got for them. Not just go along to places on Sunday, throw a little money in the plate so that someone else can reach their destiny, but they will reach their destiny.