In 1 Timothy 2 Paul describes a difficult passage about women. Are women allowed not to teach and or to speak? Felicity shares insight on this difficult passage from David Hamilton. Read on how God wants women to teach and bring the Kingdom of God.
Women are not always allowed to develop their full potential in the church. Felicity describes how it was in the days of Jesus where women did have a prominent place. Jesus, despite the culture of that day, shared his hear with e.g. Mary and the woman at the well (John 4). The simple church movement in Europe is challenged to allow more and more space for women, so that the body of Christ can operate in full power and strength.
Most of the money in the bible went to support and send out missionaries and to the poor and widows (e.g. Luke 10, 1 Cor 9, 1 Tim 5). Steve Lyzenga investigated how much of time (workers) and money (wealth) was used by simple church people to fulfill the Great Commission. He found that due to the low operational and building costs the majority of the simple church people gave more of their time and their money to fulfill the Great Commission than in a traditional church setting. This means they have more impact on fulfulling the great commission than the traditional churches.
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.