In our modern American vernacular the term “church” often refers to a building where people meet on Sunday mornings for worship. However, the biblical definition of church is really those called out of the world to follow Christ Jesus. So my headline for this post is a reference to those who follow Jesus without being in regular involvement with an institutional church where people gather on Sunday morning for worship. I meet these people everyday … Continue reading →
For nearly 12-years CrossHope Chapel was an informal, simpler expression of church, where one could encounter the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, engage others in authentic New Testament fellowship, and be encouraged through the verse-by-verse study of the Bible. It was the open study of the Bible that was probably the mark of CrossHope Chapel as a church fellowship. Opening to a selected book of the Bible and reading chapter by chapter then discussing … Continue reading →
Organic things go bad. Fruit grows old, vegetables go rotten, and meat will decay. When it comes to organic church groups, the principle is the same. Organic church can go bad, too. I’ve been mauling over this for sometime now and because my blog gets a good deal of traffic on my Simpler Church category posts, I thought the time has arrived for me to make mention of this. I don’t expect every organic church … Continue reading →
In 2006 I was working at a local hospital as a chaplain and taken back by a high number of patients who could express and articulate their personal belief in Jesus Christ and convictions in biblical doctrines, yet who also had no involvement and fellowship in any church congregation. Many of these same individuals also shared stories with me of their experiences with area churches that told of similar accounts of not being able to … Continue reading →
Don’t start a house church because you want to be in charge. That’s not a good reason. Worse yet, you can not sustain a house church if you just want to be the boss. My personal opinion is that it is perhaps the one really bad reason to want to start a house church. I happen to think that starting a house church because you disagree with your current church or minister are not actually … Continue reading →
In a previous post I gave a definition for what I think when I use the term “Organic Pastor” and you can find that post here. In this post I would like to help you understand just what I mean when I use the term “Simple Church Communities.” My definition of the term “Simple Church Communities” is any gathering of people for the expressed purpose of worship, Bible teaching, and pastoral care that is regular and serves … Continue reading →
I consider myself an advocate of house churches, but I have long been perplexed by books, blog posts, and statements that claim an identifying mark of a house church is having “no pastor” or no leader. Usually the flip side of that coin is often explained as “the priesthood of all believers” and everyone in the house church is involved. This is puzzling to me because according to the Bible in Ephesians 4:11-12 it was … Continue reading →
A house church is not a one-size-fits-all or a cookie-cutter singular approach, but rather a zero-budget mission that is developed organically according to God’s leading and your calling. First, start with a call upon your heart. God uses pastors in His ministry and house churches that are led by pastoral care leaders are certainly following the biblical example that best feeds God’s flock. Second, I suggest starting by forming the foundations of beliefs, mission, and … Continue reading →
The word church comes from the Greek word ekklesia which is defined as “an assembly” or “called-out ones” so according to the Bible, the church is the body of Christ—all those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. Our society has benefited from the traditional brick and mortar church building as a beacon of light in its presence and mission. However, we know that today’s lostness is in need of a cooperative partnership of biblical minded … Continue reading →
I am an advocate of doing church simply and a believer in the God ordained pastoral calling. However, I realize that there are voices in organic, simple, house church movements who reject the roles or at least the position of a “pastor” as belonging to institutional church. (I spoke to my concern of pastoral clergy criticism in my blog post “Critics of Doing Church.”) Here, I simply want to layout some biblical considerations when it comes to … Continue reading →
Several years ago I left traditional institutional denominational church pastoral ministry and received a lot of criticism from my colleagues on planting a house/organic church fellowship. Criticism from my fellow traditional ministers didn’t surprise me as much as the criticism I received from other organic church advocates, including random unexpected emails and even letters chastising me and trying to correct me, for not doing church according their understanding of how house/organic church should be done. … Continue reading →
Somewhere along the line of my journey with CrossHope Chapel, it occurred to me that my calling in this mission was one of an “organic pastor” in philosophy, approach, and ministry. I want to give you a definition for the term “organic pastor” which is a term that I like to use when talking about those called of God to pastoral ministry through an organic development of church planting. Partly, I am sharing this definition because … Continue reading →