Wolfgang Simson is known for being a pioneer of the house church movement. His “The House Church Book” is a brief summary of his philosophy. I mostly agree with him, but because I believe in the principle of the irreducible ecclesiological minimum, I think the Bible prefers some flexibility in the form of the church according to the context (though I think the NT is quite clear on the leadership structure). Simson argues that the church must be formed around the oikos. In any case, I think his proposal is correct for pioneer settings, and especially helpful for new MBBs who, for some reason or another, think they need to do church the way CBBs do church.
To that end, here are Simson’s Fifteen Theses towards a Re-Incarnation of Church (read the whole thing, below are just the main points):
- Church is a Way of Life, not a series of religious meetings
- Time to change the system
- The Third Reformation
- From Church-Houses to house-churches
- The church has to become small in order to grow big
- No church is led by a Pastor alone
- The right pieces – fitted together in the wrong way
- God does not leave the Church in the hands of bureaucratic clergy
- Return from organized to organic forms of Christianity
- From worshipping our worship to worshipping God
- Stop bringing people to church, and start bringing the church to the people
- Rediscovering the “Lord's Supper” to be a real supper with real food
- From Denominations to city-wide celebrations
- Developing a persecution-proof spirit
- The Church comes home
And here is a pdf of the 15 Theses in Arabic. (HT: Jens Barnett)
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