What is a Simple Church?
- Simple Church is a global network of house churches.
- Simple Church gathers in homes for fellowship, food, and relational Bible study.
- Simple Church is lay-led by common people trained as Simple Church planters.
- Simple Church is overseen and coached by other Simple Church planters who are on the front lines.
- Simple Church accepts God’s invitations to join Him in His missionary work.
- With Simple Church, everyday life is the mission trip! Our mission field is right here in our neighborhoods.
The Mission Behind Simple Church
This front-line missionary work focuses on reaching secular and/or unchurched people, introducing them to the Everlasting Gospel of Jesus (Rev. 14). This is done by fostering a casual, non-intimidating environment to welcome truth seekers and support them in their individual spiritual growth. While this type of “church” may feel different or new to those of us more familiar with traditional church, this model of fellowship and worship was responsible for the wildfire-like spread of the Gospel Message in the New Testament era. Simple Church exists to go back to the New Testament model of discipleship, nurture, and church planting.
There have been several other modern terms for this type of church, such as House Church, Home Church, Organic Church, Home Meeting, etc. For this particular Global Network of house churches, the name “Simple Church” was chosen. And SimpleChurchAtHome.com will link you directly to this network. Simple Church trains CORE4 missionaries to reach the mission fields where they live. Just as the Apostle Paul mentored others to become leaders and share the Gospel in their own spheres of influence, Simple Church strives to train leaders to continue this proven method of discipleship.
Simple Church Structure
Simple Church is intentional about keeping its infrastructure simple, though not simplistic. We ask questions like, “What are the bare essentials?” “How much is necessary to share the Everlasting Gospel?” “What hinders a grassroots, lay-led movement?” Simple Church is bottom-up in its leadership structure, as compared to institutional, top-down leadership. Mahatma Gandhi understood this principle when he said, “There goes my people. I must follow them, for I am their leader.”
The missionary leaders within the Simple Church Global Network are equipped through the CORE4 missionary training. They are held accountable through peer-coaching. For a new Simple Church plant or an existing house church to become a Simple Church, its leaders must complete two phases of CORE4 training and be linked with a CORE4 peer coach. In traditional church structure, leadership often scurries to keep up with what God is doing on the front lines. Simple Church’s bottom-up method provides a way for church leaders and Simple Church planters to work alongside each other toward a shared mission without time-consuming red tape that inevitably comes with a top-down structure. In other words, since Simple Church home-grows its coaching leaders, it does not “departmentalize” leadership. Coaches who are actively on the front lines of their missionary work operate on a high level of integrity that also yields a high level of authenticity where privilege and responsibility go hand in hand.
How it Began
Mission-minded lay people started Simple Church as a grassroots movement to uphold the New Testament (NT) church model, support the priesthood of all believers, and share the Everlasting Gospel (Rev 14). According to the latest church attendance statistics and trends, this NT model happens best in a house church setting, which allows lay people to do all the work of disciple-making (Matt. 28:18-20). While this idea may feel “new” to those of us who grew up in a traditional church, house churches were the norm in early Christianity as believers shared the Gospel of Christ within secular cultures around the world. Simple Church decided it was time to come full circle.
How do I get started with the online training? Go to SimpleChurchAtHome.com
