Category Archives: House Church

So You Wanna Start a House Church …

April 19, 2025 By in Discipleship, House Church, Organic Church, Simple Church Leave a comment

So you wanna start a house church?

Don’t!

In Matthew 16, Jesus said that He would build His church …

Not us.

Instead, in Matthew 28, He said we are to go and make disciples.

Yet we keep trying to do it backwards, and wonder why neither works.

The simple fact of the matter is that the New Testament never commands us to go and make churches – whether in a living room or in a dedicated building adorned with a cross.

Lately, I’ve been coming to understand the importance of that distinction between making disciples and making churches.

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Simple Organic Church and the Existential Fringe

January 1, 2016 By in Existentialism, Felicity Dale, Frank Viola, House Church, Organic Church, Simple Church 7 Comments

Haven’t the repeated failures by the existential fringe of the “organic” church movement – with authors like Felicity Dale, Frank Viola, Milt Rodriguez, Jon Zens, Keith Giles and their buddies – made it abundantly clear?

Without the plenary authority of Scripture, simple participatory churches don’t succeed.

Snake Oil SalesmenThese fringe authors dismiss the plenary authority and discipline of Scripture – and in some cases even deny that the Bible is His written word – to peddle a Jesus of their own perception.

Their false Christ – who is little more than a projection of their own “deeper life” angst, post-modern sensibilities and trans-Biblical agendas – inevitably leads to dysfunctional, insular and anemic “communities”.

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House2House: RIP

December 29, 2014 By in Abuse, Cult, Felicity Dale, House Church, Organic Church, Simple Church 1 Comment

snake-oil-salesmanIt looks like House2House Ministries and Magazine have closed shop once again.

What an unfortunate, checkered history of organic/simple church failure after failure.

How many times will it take before Felicity Dale and gang finally figure out that you can’t start and sustain healthy local churches – simple, organic or otherwise – by promoting phony self-appointed “apostles”:

– Who ain’t livin’ what their sellin’, with private lives that don’t match up with their finely-honed public persona;

– Who have no consistent history of successfully forming, maintaining or being part of sustainable local churches that look anything like what they promote in their books, blogs and conferences;

– Who deny that the Great Commission has general relevance today;

– Who proclaim that scripture is not the written word of God and that those who affirm scripture are committing “treason against Christ”;

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Organic and Simple Church Snares

November 24, 2014 By in Discernment, Fakes, House Church, Institutional Church, Organic Church, Simple Church Leave a comment

More and more people are legitimately desiring to move towards organic/simple church and away from the institutional church.

A Snare for the Unwary

A Snare for the Unwary

Unfortunately, there are major snares for those on that journey. Too often, they fall prey to books and blogs on organic/simple church by those who either reject the plenary authority of scripture or outright deny that the Bible is the written word of God.

Although such authors talk a good talk, they typically have no consistent history of actually finding, creating or sustaining in their own lives the kind of local “organic” or “simple” church they are selling to others.

Increasingly, it seems that those who live it seldom sell it, while those who sell it seldom live it.

This makes it very hard to move forward, because there’s a lot of crazy being peddled to the unwary out there in organic land.

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House2House Ministries and “Apostolic” Networks?

October 24, 2014 By in Church Planting, Fakes, House Church, Organic Church, Simple Church Tags: 7 Comments

House2House Ministries: Because there's always room for one more book, blog or conference telling us how to, by those who don't do.

It’s time for the organic and simple church community to move beyond unbiblical mutual promotion networks by self-appointed “apostolic workers” and “church planters” who write enticing books and blogs, but generally have no consistent history of being in any functional local fellowship themselves or actually creating sustainable, healthy fellowships among others. Rather than buying into their books, blogs and conferences at House2House Ministries, maybe we need to learn some things instead from Paul’s own life and ministry: http://www.crossroadjunction.com/2012/03/17/modern-day-pauls/

Year in Review

December 12, 2013 By in Abuse, Discernment, House Church, Organic Church, Simple Church Leave a comment

Here’s a montage of my twenty most significant posts on Facebook in 2013.

When Facebook created it, it brought many smiles and a few cringes:

My 2013 Year in Review

Feel free to take a look.

As this montage shows, it has been a wonderful, yet “interesting”, year.

I think my biggest struggle was seeing the power games, leadership abuses, lies and cover ups in the organic/simple church community at the national level – which far exceed anything I’ve ever witnessed in the traditional, “institutional” church – while still holding firm, despite their hypocrisy, to some related core principles.

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Organic Cults and So-Called “Apostolic Workers”

November 23, 2013 By in Apostle, Frank Viola, House Church, Organic Church, Simple Church 7 Comments

T.A.C.O.s Anyone? By Roger E. Olson

This article provides a sober warning by Dr. Olson that increasingly applies, unfortunately, to certain segments of the so-called “organic” or “simple” church community here in the West – which have come under the influence of so-called “apostolic workers” and their books, blogs and magazines.

house2house

Self-Proclaimed “Apostles”

Often, when you find an evangelical cult, you don’t have scratch very deep to find some self-professed “apostle” just below the surface.

Unfortunately, the “apostolic workers” now peddling their influence, books and conferences in the organic/simple church community – like we’ve seen with other so-called and often dead-end “new apostolic reformation” movements – are self-appointed, self-proclaimed and unaccountable (except to other “apostolic workers” who are part of their own mutual promotion network).

They also have been aggressively seeking to silence – through threats and slander – all who dare mention the history of sexual predation, abuse and coverup among them.

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Sex Abuse and Christian Mafias

October 9, 2013 By in Frank Viola, House Church, Organic Church, Sex Abuse, Simple Church 3 Comments

Is Janet Mefferd Being Intimidated by the “Gospel” Mafia to Shut Up About SGM? ~ The Wartburg Watch

Finally, the truth is coming out!

For several years, Marianne and I have been deeply involved behind the scenes in helping victims of the Sovereign Grace Ministries sex abuse scandal. We’ve seen its impact on close friends, while also counseling survivors and their families through Nathan’s Voice.

I also know Boz Tchividjian, who is publicly confronting SGM about its history of sexual abuse and is mentioned in this article.

Although we can’t directly talk about all the underlying facts regarding SGM due to confidentiality, we believe that this exposé by The Wartburg Watch is spot on.

What’s happening in that case is very similar to what’s also happening in the ongoing scandal involving author Frank Viola and his team of self-appointed apostolic “workers” and his additional “accountability team” of other organic church “leaders”.

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Organic Church Hypocrisy, Organic Church Reform

September 13, 2013 By in House Church, Organic Church, Predatory Leaders, Sex Abuse 1 Comment

hypocrisy_meterFrank Viola, Milt Rodriguez, Jon Zens and Felicity Dale?

Until they stop excusing a history of sexual predation within their ranks, their blogs and books on sexual equality as self-professed leaders in the organic/simple church community ring hollow.

And until they accept local church accountability and warnings about that abuse, their blogs and books on how to be the church likewise ring hollow.

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The Church in the New Testament: Its Form, Function and Purpose

October 31, 2010 By in Church, Community, Elder, Faith, Fellowship, Gifts, Great Commission, House Church, Institutional Church, Kingdom of God, Leadership, Ministry, Organic Church, Pastor 2 Comments

Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride! In this PowerPoint presentation, all that you think of as “church” is about to be challenged so God can woo us back to being, once more, the multi-faceted, wonderful, exciting Body of Christ.

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