simplechurches.ca

Practically speaking, how are we going to live our vision and values out? What does it all look like? What is our structure? Read on for some insight... but don’t settle down! As we seek to flex with the Spirit this is the very “stuff” we need to hold loosely to.

A Network of Small

For the first 300 years of the church’s life it gathered primarily in small pockets for worship, nourishment and encouragement for mission. In various regions, these pockets of people were linked together sharing itinerant ministers, scriptural letters, and even monetary resources. These simple gatherings were the locus of discipleship and mission. Simple in structure, people would gather, eat together, pray, listen to the scripture, share their resources, bless one another and hear God’s heart for their world. The gatherings would be guided by elders – mature believers who desired to mother and father a family of people – and they would be further encouraged by apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral and teaching leaders that would be a part of and move between these little fellowships.

We want to be a movement that reclaims this simple model, believing that in the simple and small the church has the greatest chance of really being the church and living out what God has called us to live out. In the simple and small, we have a chance of seeing participation become a reality, and creative flexibility becomes much more achievable – steering 20 people is much easier than 200. In the small, mission becomes something that the whole people can hear God on, develop and actuate. In the small, generosity, among many other things, has a built in mechanism of accountability – it’s hard to hide how you live in that kind of a setting. And in the small, a gathering of people really can dream about living out an alternative society, right there in the heart of their neighbourhood. But more than anything else, in the small, a group of people that know each other in relationship can encourage, pray for and challenge one another on toward the vision. The dynamic potential of a small group of people gathering around Jesus, following his every lead, really is astounding. It is, after all, where the church began.

We want to be a movement that sees simple gatherings of Christ followers established in every region and neighbourhood of Vancouver. Periodically, these gatherings will join together for corporate encouragement and worship but the real “life” of the church will be found in these simple, creative, outward focused, gatherings.

Simple

So much energy and so many resources have been expended in how we “do” church services. But many are beginning to ask: “to what avail?” Are the desired outcomes of this really being achieved? Or, have we turned church into little more than religious events to attend? And, further, have those who are part of the church been slowly deceived into seeing church as a religious show to consume rather then a family to participate in and serve through? Are disciples really being made or are we creating a generation of people with a warped sense of what church is, people who just receive and receive, ready to move from show to show?

Church planter and author Neil Cole once commented, “We need to lower the bar of what it means to do church and raise the bar of what it means to be a disciple.” We want to be a movement that takes this sentiment seriously. Our goal is not to look or sound impressive, it’s not to have flashy presentations or star-powered leaders. Rather, our goal is just to be simple, committed disciples. We want to invest our energy in the right direction - calling one another and the world around us into a relentless movement toward Jesus. We want to be simple in what we do, that the key to our “success” is built not in how we do church, but in the power of the Spirit at work in humble people who have counted the cost and turned all over to him.

Relationship Driven

Relationship with Christ and one another sits at the very heart of who we are called to be. We want to be a movement that incorporates this reality into our call to make disciples. We want to be a movement that understands that disciples are won and made when real people lovingly interact with, mentor and tend to the people that are around them. This certainly is the model Jesus and the early apostles employed. Their goal was never to plan events or build curriculums for people to be taught. Rather, their goal was to live life with people, and in this to engage with people, love people, and demonstrate personally for people the way life is to be lived. This is our motus operandi – real people engaging with real people showing each other the way toward Jesus.

Spontaneous Multiplication

Two words here that are crucial. “Multiplication”-because our prayer is that we will be a movement that multiplies. Jesus made it clear that his kingdom is a kingdom that grows and this growth is to have a multiplying effect. The key here though is that he is the one that causes it to grow and our role is simply to invite people to his Fathers kingdom feast. We want to join him in this work, and our prayer is that in this more and more disciples will be made and more and more churches will be planted. “Spontaneous”-because we want to be a movement that does our best to hold loosely to control, ready at any point to creatively and flexibly expand as the Spirit leads.