My visit to another "Simple Church"

House churches are labeled in several ways. Organic church, house church, and simple church are labels that are many time use interchangeably to describe a church that doesn't meet in "traditional" setting.

I'm not a big fan of labels, I think they are too easily mis-applied and therefore easily misunderstood. For instance yesterday I had the opportunity to visit what I would call a simple church. It didn't meet in home or a coffee shop or some other non traditional setting. They meet in a very traditional white clapboard church situated fight in the middle of their neighborhood.

Why would I describe them as a simple church? Because that is exactly what they are, a simple church! They were simple in their setting, they were simple in their worship, they were simple in their preaching. Please don't misunderstand I'm not saying this is a bad thing, in fact I think it is great. I've had some prior contact with the Pastor of the church who is a wonderful man, and he and the entire church (there were 33 of us there) made me feel so welcome. I found my self admiring their ability to appreciate and enjoy who they were. They sang with gusto, they weren't afraid to say amen, they weren't afraid to be simple. To be honest it was a very refreshing experience. Maybe they and Lynyrd Skynyrd have some in common which would be shocking to them, they like the simple life, they way it used to be!

Maybe more churches instead of longing to be the next Purpose Driven Church, should go back to the way it used to be, just be a simple church.