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Jesus said: “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant.” (Mat 20:26b). Out of service we will become a leader. Floyd describes in this articles the “Ten Commandments” of servant leader.

What are the stages in the journey from traditional church to simple church? Roger describes seven: 1) Letting go of old paradigms of church life, 2) Exploring the NT gatherings, 3) Re-boot to Jesus, 4) A new missional heart and longing, 5) Fresh discovery of our own passions, spiritual gifts and calling, 6) Integration of an organic lifestyle with gatherings that support it, 7) Our Kingdom influence spreads and becomes even reproductive. In which stage are you?

Why do most children of ministers abandon Christ or do have lukewarm faith? The main reason is that most ministers give ministry a higher priority than God and their family. In winning our children and our generation for Christ it is of vital importantance to first spend time with God (for Him and not for ministry) and then with our family and friends. Ministry comes after that. Read on and be inspired by this wonderful message.

In the New Testament church, the local leadership was made up of elders and deacons. Charles describes in this article the role of elders in the church. What do they do? What are the character qualifications for becoming an elder? What is their role compared to apostles, prophets and evangelists?

In this article David Watson describes four ways to kill a church plant:
1) Establish a “Come To” environment, instead of a “Go To” environment.
2) Make converts, instead of disciples.
3) Grow churches, instead of establishing new churches.
4) Teach stuff, instead of obedience to all the commands of Christ.

In this book Malcolm Gladwell describes three points that can converge to bring about dramatic change in society and start a movement. The first one is the context (the situational environment), the second one the idea, and the third one the people involved. Very small changes in any or several of the context, the quality of the idea (which he calls ‘stickiness’) and whether the idea reaches a very small group of key people can trigger a dramatic epidemic of change in society. Three kind op people are important to catalyze a movement: Connectors (they know everybody and bring people together), Mavens (people who know everything about a subject and spread this knowledge) and Salesmen (people who share, inspire and persuade people). We, as simple church people, can learn from Malcolm how to fuel a movement for Christ.

Roland Allen describes what the nature is of spontaneous expansion of the church: the Holy Spirit urges people to share from their hearts the gospel out of which He expands it beyond our control. He talks about the common fears and blockages for expansion and describes how the churches in the New Testament could multiply soo rapidly.

What can we learn from people who have seen Church Planting Movement happen in the East? Jeff Sundell shares about his experiences in fueling church planting movements (CPM) in Nepal. In the first interview Jeff talks about the keys to a CPM in Nepal. One of them is a strategy coordinator: someone who strategically thinks, prays and plans about reaching a whole segment of society or people group. Another key point is the houses of peace concept (that does work in a Western context!). In the second interview Jeff talks about how to apply these principles in the West. He found that people in the West needed a paradigm shift. Their minds needed to be renewed on questions like: what is church? How to make disicples? Besides this they needed obedience oriented training. Jeffs tells great stories how they applied the house of peace concept in a Western context. Listen and be inspired!

In this practical training guide you will learn to start simple churches based on seven practices from Matthew 10: Pray, People/place, Preach, Power, Person of Peace, Plant, Persecution. Peter trains simple church planters in the UK by giving them teaching on these seven practices over the course of four weeks. During the week the trainees put these into practice and evaluate the next week. Learn how to plow the ground and start new churches!

What similarities are there between a starfish, a spider and simple church? Simple church networks normally function as a starfish. A starfish is a decentralized network: no head, organs are multiplied throughout the arms and when cut in half you will get another starfish. A spider on the other hand is centralized: it has a central body with legs and when you cut of the head it dies. Ori and Rod take us on a journey to discover the power of leaderless, decentralized organisations. They share their common characteristics, give good reallife examples (as Skype, Wikipedia, eMule) and help us to understand how to build a decentralized organisation. The unlocking power to a succesfull decentralized network is the catalyst. No big boss, but someone who connects, inspires, has passion, has a desire to help and invest in others, does not control and works in the background.