I keep meaning to post this introduction to a manuscript I’m reading about doing "church" in a postmodern context.  The manuscript (Houses that Change the World) is now a book I believe, but the copy I’m reading was printed from the internet before it was published.  It’s by a German Christian by the name of Wolfgang Simson:

I dreamed – together with many friends and colleagues – of a church, that is as simple as One-Two-Three, yet is dynamic; an explosive thing, able to turn the world and a neighborhood upside down.  The church as a supernatural invention; endowed with God’s gift of immortality; a means to disciple each other, and to make the life of Jesus rub off on each other.  An experience of grace and grapes, love and laughter, joy and jellybeans, forgiveness and fun, power and – yes, why not, paper.

A church, which does not need huge amounts of money or rhetoric, control and manipulation, which can do without powerful and charismatic heroes, which is non-religious at heart, which can thrill people to the core, make them loose their tongues out of sheer joy and astonishment, and simply teach us The Way to live.  A church which not only has a message, but is the message.  Something which spreads like an unstoppable virus, infects whatever it touches, and ultimately covers the Earth with the glory and knowledge of God.  A church whose power stems from its inventor, who has equipped it with the most ingenius spiritual genetic code – a sort of heavenly DNA, which allows it to transfer Kingdom values from Heaven to Earth and to reproduce them here.  In the process it transforms not only water into wine, but atheists into apostles, policewoman into prophetesses, terrorists into teachers, plumbers into pastors, and dignified village elders into beaming evangelists.

The church I dreamed of is like a spiritual extended family – organic, not organized, relational, not formal.  It has a persecution-proof structure.  It matures under tears, multiplies under pressure, breathes under water, grows under the carpet, flourishes in the desert, sees in the dark, and thrives in the midst of chaos.  A church that can multiply like five loaves and two fish in the Hands of Jesus, where the fathers turn their hearts to the sons and the sons their hearts to the fathers, where its people are its resources, and which has only one name to boast about: the Lamb of God.

Nice.  I can’t go into a lot of detail about how Herr Simson envisions this church becoming a reality, but his main premise is that we should return to the model presented in the New Testament of small groups living in community in order to disciple and reproduce new small groups within a community.  He claims that the congregational church model that is prevalent today is basically tied to the Orthodox / Catholic tradition which behaves like a christianized version of the Old Testament synagogue.  If that doesn’t make sense, you should read Simson for yourself.  He explains it much more eloquently and he asks some tough questions.

For example, here’s one of the questions he posed that I have been thinking about:

Is your small church already too big? 

Church growth is an interesting topic and most people feel that bigger is better when it comes to a group of believers.  Simson would disagree to the point that he feels that if your church is over 20 people it may be too big to maintain community and true Christian growth. If the church breaks through the 21-person barrier, Simson suggests that perhaps a new cell group should be formed to grow "sidewards" instead of upwards.  It’s growth by mitosis instead of multiplication.

Hmmmm…interesting.  I’m going to see if I can find his book / manuscript online so you can check it out if you’re interested.

A-ha!  Here’s the free draft copy (in PDF) still available online.