Tonight we held an informational meeting with a group of 14 people. The paradigm shift brought the most questions as people wrapped their minds around how the Simplicity model works. We decided that our first Simplicity Church service will be at 10AM on Sunday November 2nd.
If we launch with the group attending tonight, we will be starting with 2 or 3 Organic Groups.
Today we finished putting our donor letters and pledge cards together. We also finished our constitution and bylaws, along with the supporting documentation for our 501(c)(3) affiliation ruling. Before we went to the post office, we prayed over the letters and asked for God release all of our needed provisions.
God is still revealing new facets of the ministry to me by the day. We will use the Simplicity Church locations as church plant incubators open to any starting ministry that is pursuing Great Commission ministry. I am already dreaming of seeing 5, 6, 7 or more congregations birthing in one location on a continual basis. Since our model is based on the incarnational ministry (being the church in your day to day world) of the Organic Groups, the facility is truly only used for a weekly coming together of the groups for mutual edification. This great stewardship, and again something birthed in my spirit in prayer many months ago.
I think the most difficult part of this for those coming out of the institutional design of church will be the paradigm shift. It has been so ingrained to have the building as the hub of activity, to have the family split out by ages, to have programs for your leanings and to have designated leaders. In the Organic Group the Holy Spirit is the leader. We know from Scripture that He is the one who joins the body together for effective service. He is the one who will equip the teacher, servant, administrator, evangelist, etc…
Last night my wife and I had dinner with a couple with whom the Lord has given us a special relationship. They have been seeking the Lord’s direction for their lives and saying “Yes Lord” as He asks them for greater steps of faith. After much prayer and searching they sense God calling them to join us in this journey to Simplicity.
This man’s heart was the prototype the Lord impressed upon me when He unfurled the structure of Simplicity. What a thrill it is for me to see God call this specific individual to fill that gap. The Lord impressed upon me the new beginning last night as we stood in the parking lot of a local restaurant discussing the excitement of the journey the Lord has put before us. I will always be able to look back to last night and say…”It officially began over dinner in a restaurant….” We truly are mustard seeds in the hand of Almighty God.
On the boring side of life, I have also been putting together constitution and bylaw documents for the Simplicity Network. I was very blessed today to find governing documents from another catalytic church planting ministry, so I am now in the process of adapting them to our particular ministry calling. We did get the donor letters completed and ready to mail, so those will go out tomorrow.
Ok, so I get my Secretary of State paperwork back for the non-profit corporation and we’re good to go, right??? Nope! I used my mailing address (P.O. Box) on the application, because I did not see a prohibition against it; however, the Lone Star State requires a physical address.
On a brighter note I did get the bank account opened for Simplicity yesterday. I also had a friend challenge me on the need for a building. The location I am considering was impressed upon me as Simplicity was unveiled in my spirit, but my friend felt like I should focus more on the home/office/coffee shop organic expression and utilize free space if we need to do a public meeting. Simplicity is able to operate in both the organic and attractional modes, but I want to make sure I don’t jump ahead of the Lord, so I will be praying this through a little more.
On that note, anyone reading this blog is always welcome to challenge my thinking and push back on my direction.
Tonight I will be meeting with a couple who I believe God has set apart to play a key role in the life of Simplicity. It will be exciting to hear what God has been saying to them.
Yesterday we went to look at the building that I want to use for our first Simplicity church. This building was formerly used by a church planter I had begun to develop a relationship with, who was unable to remain in ministry for personal reasons.
The building is a store front with 1,000 square feet, a bathroom and a platform. The carpet is fairly new and the walls have been painted in the not so distant past. The lease is $600 per month with a $600 deposit. Carol and I both felt this was the place (and I’m a firm believer in “beauty from ashes”).
Elishba, our Indian ministry intern who is living with us commented: “It fits, it is very simple.”
The landlord is supposed to fax the lease to me this week and I am trusting the Lord to provide for the deposit and first month’s rent. Currently all of the expenses are coming out of the Willis household budget, so hopefully we’ll have some donations coming in soon.
Today, I went to look at a meeting space for our weekly community worship services. The facility was being leased by a planter I sponsored who had to close down his church. They had renovated the space with a platform, new carpet and new paint. The price is $600/month for 1,000 square feet that includes the worship center and an office.
I was not able to do a walk through today, but hopefully will have that opportunity tomorrow.
I also secured my EIN# today and sent off my affiliation application for 501c3 status under a group ruling with FGOCI.
So far all of the expenditures for Simplicity have come out of my pocket, I hope to begin receiving some pledge cards here shortly. My last day at my current pastorate will be a week from Thursday and I will be on vacation until the end of the month. At that point there will be no more paychecks. Walking by faith is exciting, but not always fun.
Here’s my first workup
Simplicity logo
As I’ve stated before, God has been birthing this thing in me for some time now. During my pastorate in Pennsylvania, I spent large amounts of time working with planters and new churches. Many of those around me would toss out the idea of church planting, but I always responded along these lines…”nah, I’m a turnaround guy. I like to fix broken things.”
My final traditional pastorate was one of the most grueling tasks I have ever tried to undertake. Even though we were beginning to see the fruit of new families and people crossing the line of faith, we were always hindered by our infrastructure. To simply maintain our campus facilities and staff (with no ministry expenditure) was nearly $40,000 per month. Towards the end of my tenure, the church had exhausted its reserves and we were having to make difficult choices for our future.
It was during this time that a pastor I have been working with over in India sent me a simple request. Could we assist him with the rental of his church facility $50 per month. When I saw that request I was devastated. I was going to have to tell him that I could not help him with this kingdom request, because I had to come up with a solution to pay $40,000 in utility bills, salaries and expenses! The Lord impressed upon me this question: “Do you really want to stand before Me someday and tell Me that you didn’t further My kingdom, because you were maintaining an institution?” That question hit deep and lingering desire I had for business as usual had just been shattered.
Last night I found myself awake until about 3AM. The Lord began to convict me of something. I have set out on this journey to be a bi-vocational planner, but the Lord impressed upon me that I needed to take a greater step of faith. I need to be supported by love offerings that are separate from the giving of Simplicity. My wife was awake when I came back to bed…she had the same message for me. We agreed that I should only consider opportunities the Lord brings my way, not those that are produced from my own pavement pounding efforts.
My support will ultimately come from the people I minister to or from monthly partners who believe in my work, but none the less it will be a “give us this day, our daily bread” type scenario. So today I am thinking through the legal/financial structural issues. Do I even need to incorporate or obtain a 501c3?
The journey to simplicity, began with me.
I had been at a regular time I have with some local pastors. During our conversation, the senior statesman of the group told us a story from his life. Warren is 85 years old and still touching lives with the hands of Jesus. In the late 70’s he was attending a conference with several key church leaders from around the United States. Warren had achieved “success” as a pastor, leading one of the largest churches in his denomination. During the conference, Warren felt the Lord pressing in on him with this question: “Am I the Lord over every kingdom of your heart?” Warren, immediately responded by acknowledging the Lordship of Christ over every kingdom of his heart. Warren, said his answer was not sufficient and the Holy Spirit continued to press in on him with the question. Warren said from that day forward, he never looked at scripture the same again, he was no longer bound by his training and experience, but walked each day a new with the Lord.
As I left our meeting, the Lord turned the question on me. As much as I wanted to tell the Lord that He was the Lord of every kingdom of my heart, I also knew He wouldn’t be asking if that were true. As I drove along, I asked the Lord to truly become the Lord of every kingdom of my heart.
For the first 3 months, the Holy Spirit would point to situations in my daily life and ask…”Can I have that?” He also showed me that I was keeping a protective barrier around my heart. As I allowed Him to remove the barrier and surrendered kingdoms, I found myself entering into a new level of intimacy with the Lord. This new level of intimacy was most noticeable in profound visions and revelations of truth in things I was seeing. I also began hearing the Lord’s voice at a much deeper level than I ever had.
Around March of this year, I was praying when the Lord first gave me an overview of Simplicity. I was preparing to make a return trip to India at the time. The Lord began to point out some things to me in my observations of the Indian church. It was through these observations that I realized that the power of Christ was so visible in these churches, because of the simplicity of the structure. There are no youth trips, choir specials, etc… The Indian church service is made up of prayer, proclamation of the word and worship that is led from the heart not from a songbook. This thought was profound and was reinforced during my return trip to India this spring.
It was also during this time that the Lord began to move me to the next level of His refining process. The Lord impressed upon me that I had surrendered all to Him, that I would surrender of my own volition. Unfortunately, there were still kingdoms in my heart that I did not even know existed and others, that I would not willingly surrender. So the Lord posed this question to me: “Will you let me lay down the unconquered kingdoms of your heart in my strength and power.”
During this time, others spoke word of a calling on my life at a new level. This prophetic word was spoken over me on 7 different occasions by 7 different individuals on 2 continents. As the Lord conquered kingdoms in my heart, He also began to ask me if I would surrender to this new calling. One morning as I was praying at our church, the Lord came to me with this question: “This is the last time I am going to ask you, will you accept my call or are you going to forfeit it?” I was horrified by the question, but afraid of a call I didn’t completely understand and couldn’t verify in my experiences. I didn’t want to forfeit, so I said “yes, Lord.” Immediately the Lord led me into an extended period of spiritual warfare under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Within a few days, my partner pastor from India sent me a report of testimonies from his church that more than validated God’s call on my life.
Upon my return from India, the Lord moved me out of a teaching “mode” into a role similar to an Old Testament prophet. For nearly 6 weeks, the Lord was having me call the people of our church to brokenness and repentance. I watched week after week as only about half of those before me would respond, other would watch and others simply walked out the back door. At the same time, the Lord took me another level deeper in my journey with Him. The Lord showed me that there were no other Kingdoms in my heart requiring His Lordship, but there were things in my life that needed to crucified and destroyed. The Lord asked me this question: “Do I have permission to put to death those things in your life which are not of the Spirit?” I said yes. The last part of May was miserable, I ached and didn’t know why. I told the Lord that I regretted taking this journey, because it hurt so bad. Fortunately for me, God was there every step of the way. Through a co-worker He made this statement to me on May 27th (my actual birthday): “You gave me permission to perform a heart transplant on you. When I was cutting your fingernails you didn’t mind, but now I have your chest spread apart and I am removing your heart of flesh and replacing it with the fullness of my Spirit.” As I heard these words, I knew I could make it. Two days later the Lord gave me a message letting me know that the heart transplant was complete. He affirmed this message by allowing me to be His vessel in 12 different instances of divine healing over 6 week period. The result of these healing miracles was a doorway to discuss the power and presence of Christ with friends and family who had been unwilling to acknowledge to Him in their lives.
The power of simplicity was now a daily reality for me. It wouldn’t be long, before God shook up my context.
…to be continued