Theological Musings

everal have prodded me to write about my positive experiences with simple church, rather than focus on criticisms of conventional church models. This is entirely fair, and I hope to do some of that here.

To begin with, I must offer a bit of a disclaimer. We have not fully experienced simple church in any kind of long-term, lasting situation yet. We are still very much “in process” and on the journey. Much of what I write about is still in its infancy, and some is even still very much in the outworking of theory.

Having said that, I will share a basic chronology of the journey, and augment with observations and personal testimony along the way.

Some of the seeds of simple church were planted many years ago when I was first involved in various implementations of small groups within a larger structure. Many times, I hear people say that some of the deepest experiences of spiritual growth and fellowship have taken place in small groups. My experience concurs.

Those small group experiences were very varied. Some were extremely structured, and others were much more informal. Perhaps one of the most memorable situations was when I was in college. The group of college kids in my home church began to get a bit frustrated with the Sunday School class that was provided for us. It just seemed like the teacher wasn’t really teaching much of anything that was prompting any kind of spiritual growth to take place.

We decided to start meeting in an unofficial capacity outside of the church structure for additional fellowship and study. We carefully chose a meeting time that would not conflict in any way with the church’s schedule, and we all continued to faithfully attend the Sunday School class on Sunday mornings (as well as the regular church services).

Each Saturday evening (I believe that was when we met), we invited different people to come speak with our group — at the start, it was usually one of the elders of the church. Over time, we invited other speakers from outside the church, and eventually began to spend time in the Word without a “leader”. It was fascinating! We would spend hours together as a group, fellowshipping, worshiping, praying, and studying. It felt like some of the most deep growth I had ever experienced in my life up until that point.

I don’t remember how long that group survived, but eventually, it ended up being viewed as an “unsanctioned” meeting, and we were told by the elders that we could no longer meet without continual elder oversight. Hmmm, maybe that was a foreshadowing of where things would end up going in my experience! We allowed one of the elders to “restructure” the group, and although there were still some times of growth, for the most part, things changed dramatically, and the group disintegrated over time.

At any rate, I never forgot that experience, nor others that were similar (I’m talking about the growth aspect). I spent many more years (probably about 15) involved in various levels of church leadership and laity. I taught, I preached, I “led worship”, I sat and listened, I gave financially, I received financially, I played, I sang…

Fast forward to the year 2003. I’ve written previously some of the details of what led me to reconsider my overall thinking on church organization, so I won’t repeat all of the details here. But suffice it to say that by the summer of 2003, I was seeking something different.

At this point, I had no clue that anybody else had ever had the same thoughts I was having. I tentatively shared them with Christy (to whom I was engaged to be married), fearing that it might scare her off. Instead, I found her to be quite open to what I was talking about, and together we began to search for answers.

I officially resigned my last church position in December, 2003 in preparation for my move to Boone, NC, and to pursue this new concept (new to me). As Christy and I found, however, many before us had already discovered the concept of what we termed at the time “house church”. We had not yet heard the term “simple church”, but what we read and studied both in terms of Scripture and resources from those already “doing it” matched our thoughts.

In February, 2004, we got together with several other families who also seemed to be seeking this type of fellowship, and began our first attempt at a “house church”. For the next eighteen months, we experienced quite a bit of what we imagined it could be like.

Not everything during that time was perfect. In fact, there was actually quite a bit of stuff that wasn’t even close to perfect! But once again, we experienced some of the same things that I had experienced earlier in life.

There were times when our gatherings would last over five hours! And even then, leaving would be reluctant. It was so thrilling to see so many people contribute to the gathering. Whether it was simple musical worship, or Spirit-led times of prayer, or challenging discussions about various texts of scripture, it was so refreshing.

During that time, I became even more convinced that nothing could replace the type of gathering where all are free to contribute. Not based on a schedule or agenda, nor on anyone’s “position” within the group, but simply as the Spirit led.

Eventually, for a variety of reasons, one family after another left. With the exception of us, everyone was still heavily involved in other churches (which was fine with us — we never asked anyone to leave their church), and eventually that pulled them away. Finally, it was back to just us.

In the months following, we made every effort to rest in Jesus and not try to force anything to happen. At times, it seemed lonely. Very lonely. But over time, God brought people into our lives who shared the same passion.

Currently, we are still seeking together what that means. Our gatherings together are not nearly as frequent as we would like. (By “we”, I mean all of us who are seeking this together.) But when we do get together, I still feel that same excitement and delight at watching the body work together in fellowship and growth. And I come away feeling refreshed and eager to get back together again!

It’s kind of funny because we don’t meet all together weekly, and yet when we do meet, it’s usually for four or five hours. It’s like getting together with family — in fact, that’s what it is. And while we don’t have all the answers (or even very many of them) as to what it should look like, or what it will look like in the future, I do feel like we’re on the right path.

In these gatherings, I continually find myself challenged and encouraged. I find that my awareness of the indwelling of Christ is heightened beyond anything I have ever experienced. And my love for Him and for His body deepens.

In addition to the gatherings as a group, there are the personal relationships. Two of my regular readers and commenters here (Raborn and David [ded]) are part of this family. And while I don’t get to spend as much time with David as I would like (not even close!), I do get the blessing of meeting with Raborn on a weekly basis for either breakfast or lunch. Those times are deeply challenging, refreshing, and encouraging to me. And two to three hours can fly by in a heartbeat!

All in all, with the exception of wishing that we could figure out a way to meet more frequently as a gathering of believers, I can’t say that I would necessarily trade any of this for anything else. And I’m learning to see simple church as a lifestyle of relationships, not just a certain type or frequency of meeting. In some ways, because of my interaction with David and Raborn here, this blog is a part of our simple church. And it allows us to connect with other believers in unique ways, too. My times with Raborn are part of simple church. Times when we fellowship together even when only one other couple can make it are part of simple church.

Simple church is a “way of life” for us, and we are constantly seeking more ways to make that a reality. I don’t know where this journey will lead, but I’m loving it!

Until next time,

steve