Simple Churches

Neil Cole, the author of Organic Church, says best what we are aiming for in our planting of simple churches:  "We want to raise the bar of what it means to be a disciple and lower the bar of how we do church."  So often in the U.S. we do exactly the opposite.  We lower the bar of what it means to be a disciple so we can see "growth" and be able to report more numbers of attendees.  On the flip side, we make our services and gathering times major productions on a professional level where only the most skilled, experienced, and uniquely talented people can be involved.  How is this reproducible?  

Simple churches are a response by the Body of Christ to get back to the basics of what the early church in Acts did and was about.  These simple churches meet wherever is most convenient and reasonable for that local body of believers---be that a home, a park, a garage, or a street corner.  We incorporate three elements in every gathering that define who we are and what we do.  This is called our DNA.  This DNA stands for Divine Truth, Nurturing Relationships, and Apostolic Mission.  
We believe in multiplying our simple churches as fast as we possibly can, but with the health and agreement of the believers in mind, and with a unity in vision for these multiplications.  

As a means of pioneering new areas with which to start these simple churches, the World Impact missionaries who are on the simple church planting teams engage in a variety of endeavors.  Some of these are taking local city college classes, prayer walking on those campuses, spending time in local laundromats, parks and coffee shops, running a basketball league and facilitating adult language learning classes.  Partnering with neighbors in our communities to lead these simple churches across the city is another invaluable aspect to our strategy of reaching the city.   

One of the other modes of ministry that has worked for us in the starting of new simple churches is called Fire & Maneuver. It is described below.

Fire & Maneuver is a military term used to describe an apostolic church-planting model based on Jesus' sending out of the disciples in Luke 10 and the Apostle Paul's missionary methodologies in Acts. It describes a two-person team that adopts an intentional, upfront sharing of the Gospel upon entering a community and the building of simple, house-based churches around a person of peace. As exemplified by the Apostle Paul's ministry, reproduction of these churches is specifically taught and expected, as is the imminent "maneuver" of church planters to new unreached areas. Lack of response to the gospel in a particular area is likewise met with "maneuver" to other more receptive groups of people.

With this highly mobile and apostolic approach, Fire & Maneuver teams seek to facilitate church planting movements among the unchurched in Los Angeles. To this end, the strategy is intentionally kept "lean and mean" and easily transferable to future generations of indigenous church planters. Fire & Maneuver church planters look to avoid traditional barriers to rapid church multiplication, especially the 3 B's - buildings, budgets, and big-shots. This is not done at the expense of orthodox theology, rigorous discipleship, or sound ecclesiology - all of which have been based on biblical and historical expressions of church planting.

The links below are an open set of resources with which you may learn, teach others, and use as you see fit.  The materials of The School of Church Multiplication are designed to be given away as freely and widely as possible to further facilitate the expansion of God's Church.  If you are interested in hosting a day at your site for us to come teach the School of Church Multiplication, or simply would like to dialogue with us about how this might manifest in your own neighborhood, please feel free to contact us at bcullison@worldimpact.org or 323.346.7603.

May the Lord direct you as you respond to His call to make disciples of all nations.