Simple, Missional Organic Churches
Rob Bavington will lead this gathering and talk about his experiences in India and what this could mean for Sweden.
You are welcome to join us if you think you might be interested in our converstaion.
Den nye bedehusrevolusjonen?
disippelgjør nye mennesker og er multipliserende?
Sted: Oslo
The mission organization (denomination) Churches of God General Conference, that I work with has been serving in Haiti for over 40 years though a ministry called Project Help.
The Churches of God in Haiti includes 29 churches and mission stations with over 6,900 members. These congregations reported 412 conversions and 105 baptisms in 2008. Over 2,657 students are enrolled in 17 Christian primary schools supervised by the churches. A new discipleship training center is under construction at Borel to serve the growing needs of the Churches of God in Haiti.
You can help Project Help in Haiti so that (1) the medical personnel at the clinic and hospital will have supplies to respond to some of the thousands of residents of Port-au-Prince who are fleeing north from the city to find medical care; (2) to help purchase fuel for available vehicles to be able to respond to needs; and (3) to provide food for the refugees being treated. You can also go to the website www.cggc.org and make an online donation.
Update:
The special Haiti Relief website is up and running! Go to http://www.disasterrelief.cggc.org
Wednesday January 13th we had our first SMOC Network meeting. SMOC (Simple, Missional, Organic Church) Network is a network of missionaries, church planters on the west coast of Sweden who share the same fundamental values of the church. We are a live network which means you will not find us on facebook or twitter.
We were nine people from 4-5 different projects who met together to share experiences, ideas, difficulties, questions, to learn from each other and to pray. It was a very encouraging time together.
We will be meeting monthly and hope that others will join us in our passion to see SMOC communities take root up and down the west coast.
Four years ago we began a project here in Gothenburg that has become New Life Göteborg. In September of 2009 I stepped down from the leadership of New Life Göteborg to allow new leaders established by the mother church to take the lead and move the church forward in their vision and for us to move on to start a new church planting project in Gothenburg.
We believe that there is a new move of church planting happening around the world that is expanding the Kingdom of God as it did in the early days of the church. Some call it Simple Church others House Church, Organic Church, Missional Church. The movement is slowly coming to Sweden, nobody knows how many of these types of churches are here but there is an awareness that it is growing.
In the last three months I have talked with missionaries, church planters, church leaders and Christian friends many of whom are moving in this direction. They see the traditional form of church slowly dying. Most Swedes or non-believers will not attend a normal church. It is a thing of the past after 500+ years of oppression. However many Swedes are open to spirituality, they are looking for meaning and purpose. They want to see or experience something authentic. Talking with others in ministry they all seem to agree that creating simple, missional, organic churches or communities is the best way to reach the Swedish culture today. Creating church where the people are.
I have also been reading and studying books and blogs, researching what other mission organizations are doing and seeing that this is happening all over the world. Most mission organizations working in Europe are moving to this model of church planting.
SMOC Network (Simple, Missional, Organic Churches)
We are now working to put together a network of missionaries and church planters who think alike, where we can come together to encourage, support, and learn from each other. Share ideas, what works and doesn’t work, work together on missional projects, etc. We have at the moment a core group of experienced missionaries and church planters who are interested in this network.
We hope to develop a SMOC JESUS focused community that could be an example for training and planting more SMOC communities in and around Gothenburg. What does a SMOC community look like? How does it work? We hope to learn as we go, live missional and make disciples of Jesus.
I will shortly be posting more information here about the SMOC project and what it is all about.
If you live in the Gothenburg region or the west coast of Sweden and are interested in knowing more about the SMOC Network leave a comment to this post with your email address and I will get back to you. Your comments will not be posted here.
May you have peace in 2010!
Here is a really good webinar with Wolfgang Simpson on House Churches. If you really want to learn more about house churches I highly recommend that you listen to this all the way through. Good stuff!
Resourse: Evangelism Coach International
Students speak out on what simple church is.
more about "More on what is Simple Church ", posted with vodpod
“The church in Europe is going through a gradual paradigm shift from an institutional, maintenance orientated practice towards the rediscovery of church as a missional grassroots movement. A new generation of pioneers is actively pursuing simple/organic church planting movements that are more relational and have the highest potential for saturation.” DAWN MINISTRIES
What is organic church?
Here is a pdf booklet from www.HouseChurchResource.org.
Explains a little what it is about.
ORGANIC CHURCH Something new in case you might be interested
I believe this is happening all over Scandinavia. We hope to see this spread like a wild fire in Gothenburg!
More coming soon!
more about "Eddie Gibbs – churchmorph", posted with vodpod
This is by far the best book I read on creating organic community. I highy recommend this book.
Moving from master plan to organic order changes our thinking to a more NT form of Church and community.
Buy it, read it!
Every Wednesday morning I will be hanging out at Kafe’ Fröken Olssons, Östra Larmgatan 14 in Göteborg from 10:00 am to 11:45 am. Everyone and anyone is welcome to come, drink coffee, talk about life or just hang out.
Hope to be doing a After work soon too.
Tidal Wave gives an insider’s view of the worldwide phenomenon known as simple church. From living rooms to coffee shops, offices to parking lots, under trees in Africa and underground in China, these new expressions of the body of Christ are rapidly multiplying around the world.
more about "Simple Church – Tidal Wave", posted with vodpod
20 years through Europe
It was exactly 20 years ago that I bought a one way ticket to Europe to begin my missionary journey. So much has happened in those 20 years. The world has change dramatically but the gospel is the same; the good news that Jesus came to fix a broken world.
I came to Europe with the desire to plant churches that would change lives. I worked in Eastern Europe via Germany and over 14 years in Sweden working with and facilitating church planting initiatives.
4 years back in Sweden
After a short time in the States, we returned to Sweden as CGGC (Churches of God General Conference) missionaries in 2005 with a continued longing to plant churches that can reach an ever changing culture. We came by an invitation to partner with Interact, a Swedish denomination that has a desire to plant more churches in Sweden.
Four years ago we moved back to Gothenburg, Sweden where we initiated and began a process of planting a multi-cultural Church. We asked New Life Church, a multi-cultural Church in Stockholm if they would want to mentor a church plant in Gothenburg. New Life Stockholm became our mother church and committed a partnership with us.
A lot has happened in those four years.
We were permitted to use a building to use to start some ministries. Later the building was donated to New Life Stockholm for our church planting initiative.
Three of those years we had a successful children’s ministry called Faith Factory that reached many children between the ages of 9-14. We have seen these children grow in their faith and love for God. But because of many changes with the ministries, the renovation of our building and ages of the children, Faith Factory came to an end.
Much of the early years were about building relationships and creating a working team that would facilitate a church plant. It took a lot of time and many changes but in the beginning of 2008, a team was in place and growing with people excited about working with this new church.
One year ago renovation began on the building. We saw God do so many amazing things during this time in supplying for our needs and providing workers.
On October 19th 2008, we had our opening service and officially became a Church, New Life Göteborg. CCM Director Don Dennison was our guest speaker.
Since that time the Church has continued to grow. We literally have had new faces in our morning worship every Sunday since our opening. We have people from all over the world attending and getting involved in our Church including a Muslim from Bangladesh, a Buddhist from Japan and atheist from Sweden.
In the spring time we came together as a church with the 40 days of purpose studying the book, Purpose Driven Life. This was led by a couple in our Church who are here in Sweden from the USA as expatriates.
Today we are about 80 people who are in some way involved in this community of faith, and we average about 50-70 in our Sunday morning worship.
October 18th 2009, One year celebration
This month we are celebrating one year as a Church. We have a committed core group and a leadership team that has been established by our mother church in Stockholm.
We are also excited to have Jim and Kasie Brinson and their Children from Tulip Church of God in Indiana preparing to come and work with New Life Göteborg. They are expected to be here in January 2010.
New Church Planting Initiatives
As a missionary and a big heart for seeing more churches planted, we are considering starting another project. I have stepped down from a leadership role in New Life. Up through the end of this year, we will be researching where the needs are. We will be exploring how culture or sub-cultures has changed in the past few years and how we can best start new faith communities or missional churches that can reach these cultures. We will also be networking with others that are working in this area so that we can be most effective in these initiatives.
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. Søren Kierkegaard
