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In the New Testament most of the people became followers of Jesus together with their whole household (Greek oikos). Cornelius, for example, was not the only one who became of follower of Jesus. He received Christ together with his whole family. Simple churches in Europe are using the same approach as Paul and Peter. They try to identify where oiki are and how they look like in a Western context. They plant churches among these oiki. This document gives an overview of the oikos words in the Bible.

Jesus and the apostles urged us to love one another, forgive one another, pray for one another and many more. These “one another” commands are of vital importance in starting and developing simple churches. This handout describes these one-another verses in the bible. You can use this tool to evaluate where you and your church are. Read it for yourself or with your simple church. Pray over it that God will help you to obey these commands.

In this article George Patterson and Galen Currah describe the alternatives of a monologue. When gathering new believers in groups it is essential to NOT use monologue as the main source for making disciples. A few weaknesses of a monologue are: people become only hearers and not doers, many who preach get full of pride, it is proven to be a weak form of communication, it usually bores the hearers and it is hard for new believers to do well on a monologue. There are alternatives: dialogue, gifts of the Spirit, demonstration of power, drama’s and role plays and questions and answers. Learn how to gather new disciples in groups that are interactive!

Where do you begin when you want to start a new church? First ask God to reveal who He wants you to reach out to and who are spiritually hungry. Then gather the people together in a place where they meet. Read the Word file for more tips! On the website www.everywherechurch.com you will find simple tools which will help you to start a simple church. Check out also Green Church and CoffeeHouseChurches.