While I don’t want to see house church reduced to a “program”, I do believe that there are certain values that are present in healthy churches.  These values are often conveyed best in pictures and stories.  Here's one of those stories...

What does a simple church look like?

Here's an email from a church planter in Uganda who is becoming a part of the “revolution”:

Hi john,

I am indeed greatful for your consideration to me as part of this great ministry of dawn. Concerning church planting missions in uganda and the areas i do opperate my missions we are begining without delay.  we want to raise a healthy and a church of quality not quantity!  Please John i have a quastion,when starting a house church do you need to build a struture or fellowships are done in believers houses?  Is there a differance between a cell group fellowships and the house church fellowships?  How large should a house fellowship be?God bless you indeed and my the lord of hervest bring many labourers to His field.   

These are great questions and I suspect that there are many others who are just starting on this journey who have similar questions.  While I don’t want to see house church reduced to a “program”, I do believe that there are certain values that are present in healthy churches.  These values are often conveyed best in pictures and stories.   

In this email I want to share with you the picture of a house church in Portland, Oregon led by Rich and Kimberly Hagler  (See below.)  Here are some of the important values that I see portrayed in what they call “the Isaiah 61 House Church”… 

1.  A clear goal.  See the comments on Isaiah 61.  The goal is not the meeting.  The meeting is a means to the end of life transformation.  That is, “being shaped” to look more like Jesus. 

2.  A clear process.  “Hearing and following the leading of the Spirit”.  This is the alternative to implementing programs and it results in intimacy with the Lord and each other. 

3.  Not just a meeting.  They do meet together (almost all day!) but the church is not limited to the meeting.  Or, perhaps we could say that the “meeting” goes on all week. 

4.  Unbelievers reached.  Not from an “evangelism program” but as a natural result of being “drawn to the Father’s glory”. 

5.  Church planting.  The Hagler’s church was planted by the Mayhew’s church.  Now, the Hagler’s church is planting other churches “in Portland and beyond”.  At least three generations of churches are represented in this story in a little over one year.  This kind of church planting comes from “sensing the Father’s call” and feels natural and spontaneous. 

6.  Part of a network.  The Hagler’s church is part of a larger community or network of house churches called the Columbia-Williamette Simple Church Co-op.  For those of you concerned that house churches may become isolated and ingrown, see the attachment for the excellent newsletter of this Co-op which is produced by Dan Mayhew.  These three simple church networks partner in all kinds of equipping and missional activities.   One of the wonderful things about the house church movement is the glorious diversity and creativity that is emerging.  The Hagler House Church is not the way to do it but simply the way that the Lord has led them.  Learn from them but don’t copy them.

Allow the Holy Spirit to create something wonderfully unique in your home. 

John White
Lk10 Community Facilitator

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, 

Because He has anointed Me                                  

To preach the Gospel to the poor.                                 

He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,                                  

And recovery of sight to the blind,                                 

To set free those who are downtrodden,                                 

To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19). 

The church gathers at Rich & Kimberly’s home every Sunday morning starting at 11 AM, to live out these Kingdom values over the course of the day (and by extension, throughout the rest of the week). Based on 1 Corinthians 14:26, the Body-life begins with an extended time of Spirit-led, spontaneous praise, worship, Scripture reading, prophetic words, and prayer to the Father, which then transitions into sharing and ministering to one another over what the Lord has been saying and doing in our lives as He disciples us. The gathering continues with a meal around the table and informal fellowship lasting into the late afternoon (and sometimes the evening). 

Since we first started meeting together, we have been humbled and blessed by the growing sense of the Father’s intimate presence, out of which the Spirit has been actively ministering in many areas of our lives and relationships. That ministry has been both good and challenging as the Father has been shaping and sanctifying each of us to look more like His Son.  

As a result of these intimate interchanges, the group has been growing in love for one another and bonding as a community, often meeting together informally in smaller groups for prayer, fun, and fellowship throughout the week. The church includes both singles and married couples in all walks and stages of life, spanning the ages of the mid-20’s to the early-70’s.  

Finally, the Father has been pleased to give us 2 huge additional blessings. First, the Lord has been adding a number of newcomers to our Body, both unbelievers who are being drawn to the Father’s glory and are now in various stages of the process of being saved, as well as believers who have been previously either disconnected from or dissatisfied with their church experience and “are looking for more.” 

Second, our church is experiencing the joy of becoming “parents”, seeing a number of our excited members and friends who have been blessed in Is 61, now planting their own HC’s in Portland and beyond. It’s been a wonderful and wild ride following “the Wild Goose” so far (which is how the Celtic Christians referred to the Holy Spirit), and we are looking forward to so much more!