Commonplace exists to reach the lost. It isn’t about age or post-modern mind-sets, or demographic studies. It is about the lost… those who do not yet have Jesus Christ in their life. Commonplace is not a traditional church model. It is a network of simple churches.
What is simple church?
A simple church is a Christ-centered community established primarily on relationships with God and with other members of the group. The term “simple” is used to describe how the church functions. It gets back to the basics of what church really is. It doesn’t need big budgets, big buildings, sound systems, etc to function. Simple church lowers the bar on how church is carried out and raises the bar on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
A simple church can meet anywhere, with or without ordained leadership, and little, if any programmatic or institutional structures.
A simple church is usually a small group of no more than 20 or so people. This size of church is designed to facilitate relationships, discipleship, multiplication, mobility, and member ownership of the church.
Simple church is based on the very first biblical church model, the 1st century Christian church as described in the book of Acts.
Simple church gatherings will look different for every church, depending on many variables: time of day, day of week, age of adults, age of children (if any), needs of that community, etc. BUT each church adheres to the biblical teachings of what church is and how it should function.
What is a simple church network?
This drawing is a visual model of how the network functions. Each circle is a simple church and has it’s own identity, gathering style, biblical study, etc. The lines between the churches are the bonds that exist from church to church, throughout the network. All church leaders/members are on the same level, and are all expected to participate and contribute to the church. This decentralized church model offers more empowerment and ownership to its’ members. The glue that holds the network of churches together is the ideology of the bible.
The leader/leaders of each church are required to belong to an LTG (life transformation group) with 1 to 2 other gender specific leaders in the network. The following takes place in a weekly LTG meeting: 20 to 30 chapters of scripture are assigned, read and discussed; radical accountability takes place (where sin is confessed and HARD questions are posed); missional prayer is lifted for each other and for the lost souls that we are trying to bring to Christ.
A quarterly corporate gathering takes place for all members of the commonplace church network. This gathering is a celebration of sorts, where things like the sharing of a meal, baptism, communion, prayer, testimonies, etc, take place. It very much looks like a fun family reunion.
Reasons to belong to the commonplace network:
Accountability for the leadership; Resource pool of talents and giftedness is larger to draw from; Leveraging a larger group can accomplish larger tasks (when needed); Don’t have to develop all of your own resources.
This looks great! Jeff, thanks for all of your work!