Frequently Asked Questions

1) What is a Simple House Church?

Simple Church is a spiritual family.

Simple Church sends trained believers throughout the week who literally go search for and find people whose hearts are still open to God among those who are far from God. This is covered in PhaseONE training.

Simple Church is a gathering of trained believers who are in the pursuit of God. PhaseTWO training covers this.

Simple church pursues:

1. 1. 1. Character refinement as we prepare for Jesus’s coming.
      2. Accountability from one another.
      3. Competency in sharing God’s end-time prophetic story & invitation.
      4. Obedience to the commands of Jesus.

2) How many people make up a Simple church?

A simple Church begins with a minimum of 2 adult believers plus their children and grows to a maximum of 12 adult believers plus their children.

3) What happens when our Simple Church is full?

Once your Simple Church has 12 adult believers, you continue to literally go out into your local community and search for and find people whose hearts are still open to God.

When you lead someone to the Lord (or encounter an already-believer who wants to get involved with the work), encourage them and train them to start another Simple Church from their List of 100 and/or from total strangers.

You will learn how to log into your Simple Church account and send them a custom link so that you can continue coaching them once they launch.

4) What is the List of 100?

The List of 100 is a list you will comprise in PhaseONE training

The hoped-for pattern is that you start your own house church (spiritual family) from your List of 100, hopefully from among the closest relationships or at least the closest people who are geographically co-located.

5) What if I just moved here or do not know anybody locally?

There are always situations where either a person does not have local people on their List of 100 or no one on their List of 100 is responsive to the gospel or interested in being part of the person’s spiritual family.  Then, that person needs to go beyond their List of 100 to find a spiritual family. 

In PhaseONE training, you will also learn how to talk with total strangers and quickly discover if their hearts are open to God.

6) What is a CORE Team?

A CORE Team is often composed of one family who is convicted and committed to planting a reproducing house church.

But a CORE Team can also be configured of 2 husband/wife couples, 4 singles, or any combination of husband/wife and singles that make a CORE team — for a total of 4 adult believers.

But note: Everyone in your group will be training and literally visiting their list of 100 total strangers.

7) What does the CORE Team do?

1. 1. 1. Host the weekly house church gathering.
      2. Facilitate what happens during the weekly house church gathering.
      3. Complete the weekly online summary report (which is read by your coach).
      4. Train & coach all believers who join your location or start new Simple Church gatherings.
      5. Facilitate mid-week (often on Sunday) CORE Team meetings where the CORE Teams from other new house churches come together for continued support, training, problem-solving, and city-wide planning.

8) Can our CORE4 team start a simple church and continue to attend a conventional church?

It will hurt your Simple Church missionary work and complicate (not simplify) your life. But it is more important to understand why.

The Simple Church prioritizes relationships with secular or unchurched people. And these relationships take time—lots and lots of time.

Foundational to missionary work is that missionaries literally “go,” leaving their comfort zones to reach unreached people.

It used to be that missionaries would “go” overseas, learn a new language, eat new food, wear different clothes, and immerse themselves in a new culture. Everything around them constantly reminded them, “I am a missionary.” It was physically impossible for the missionary to keep one foot involved in a conventional church back home and put the other foot in the mission field. They had to choose between the two. This was a blessing in disguise.

For Simple Church missionaries, it can be tempting to try to stay involved with one’s existing church and “add” simple church missionary work. However, this complicates life and ignores the priority of becoming a front-line missionary and spending more time with unreached people.

This training intentionally takes you from training to trenches.

This is why Simple Church is intentional about simplifying the “religious rat race” so that you have more time (not less) to go, search for, and find people whose hearts are still open to God.

Simple Church planting is your mission trip.

9) How do I handle opposition?

Simply say, “I am new to Simple Church. Please call Milton and ask him your questions.”

Or, “That is a good question. Please call Milton and ask him.”