Had lunch with Beresford Job and his lovely family today whilst it snowed outside. Beresford started down the road of ‘Biblical Church’ over 35 years ago!

When Beresford came to Christ and read his bible he saw that the church met in homes as an extended family, so that’s what he did!

The church meets in their home (Chigwell Christian Fellowship) on Sundays and they eat the Lords Supper together. (the church here was born 25 years ago!)

Job connects with brothers and sisters in housechurches across the UK.

Beresford Job is a seasoned bible teacher and regularly travels to the USA for teaching ministry trips. He also helps ground new groups of Christians gathering in the word. They have also hosted 3 ‘House Church’ teaching weekends

‘We’ve made every mistake in the book! But we have been going a long time and have had lots of practical experience of basic church life!’

With 32 Boroughs+London City and diverse ethnic groups and people groups, London is a great region to hope for a church planting movement!

Is there anyone who is thinking, researching, planning and praying through the 33 areas of London and intentionally partnering with and coaching pioneers to plant simple/organic/house churches?

Staying with Rob+Miriam. They were involved in simple church life in the early days when Tony+Felicity Dale started the ‘Mile End Christian Fellowship’ which later became ‘Tower Hamlets Community Church’

Over the past 5 years, Rob+Mim have returned to the basics of simple church life and meet with people in their home, another group meets in the nearby estate and they build fruitful relationships in the workplace!

Their vision is to see and encourage more groups springing up in Tower Hamlets and North East London

Met Alan Bright and his family in Beckton, Newham. As a family they have been home-schooling and recently discovered ‘Mega Shift’ by Jim Rutz and books by Frank Viola on simple church life and practice

Alan is interested in meeting with others who would like to journey together being church in a relational way.

He has a passion to see men encouraged and strengthened to fulfill their God-given role and potential. Alan meets a group of men in his local pub.

Danny Bright (one of Alan’s sons) has travelled to Northern Ireland and elsewhere to connect with groups practicing simple church principles

Staying with Carlo at London School of Theology. Carlo is called to be a teacher in the Body of Christ.

He has recently read ‘Pagan Christianity’ by Frank Viola and is currently reading ‘Reimaging Church’

He and a few friends will begin intentionally meeting as a simple church from Jan 2010!

Met up with Kumar and Laura in Guildford, Surrey. Ate some wonderful chicken curry and listened to some of their wonderful stories!

They have started 9 groups in their home over a period of about 20 years. Each simple church has lasted for about 2 years and then the brothers and sisters have moved on to become missionaries elsewhere or disciples in other congregations.

Kumar and Laura have a ministry that reminds me of Aquila and Priscilla in the New Testament!

To find out more about Kumar and Laura and other simple churches in the UK click HERE!

Matt and Katharine moved into Micklefield estate (High Wycombe) in 2000.

They have a real pastoral heart and soon got stuck into their new local community bringing practical help and care any way they could.

Over time they have become part of the local area and built great relationships.

Soon, a number of people became interested in exploring the christian faith and they began meeting in homes to eat, read bible, pray and worship together

From 2008 ‘Open House’ began holding weekly meetings at the Polish Club on the estate whilst developing new ventures such as: Messy Church and Furniture Delivery Projects

I met them this afternoon/evening and had a great chat with them over soup and tea!

Find out more of their story here!

Met Rory (one of the members of the house church in Wycombe). Was really inspired by the artistic vision of the comics he and others in the group are involved in producing. To see more click on this link!

Staying with Ted and Ann Piker. Ted is an evangelist who has a heart to see simple churches start. Ted is really into healing and is involved with ‘healing on the streets’

When Dick Scoggins met Ted in the 1990’s, Ted had moved to High Wycombe to reach out to young people. Many of those young people became the first house church in the area (which still meets today)!

I had the priviledge of greeting the church that met in Justin and Lyns house. It was a crowded house of about 11 adults and 4 or more kids.

We met on the Saturday evening and the Sunday morning. The meetings involved lots of chat, hanging out, eating together, prayer and then I was given an opportunity as a travelling worker to blather on about multiplication, missional movements and Matt 10/Luke 10 principles.

Watch this space as this group multiplies over the next couple of years!

It’s so exciting (and the first time I’ve met a group older than 10 years!)

Arrived in High Wycombe Sat 1:30pm and met Dick Scoggins.

Dick Scoggins began experimenting with house church in the 1980’s on the foreign mission field where, in countries closed to public worship, it was the ONLY real option

He moved to England in the mid-90’s and felt that house church/simple church could be a ‘right fit’ for the emerging postmodern culture.

Like many other mission thinkers at this current time, he believes that the next 10 years (2010-2020) are a CRITICAL TIME for Europe! We have to find a solution, a way of winning people to Christ and forming discipleship groups/churches that fit the culture before it’s too late! He estimates that church attendance has dropped to between 3.5-4.5% now in the UK!

Dick has helped to kick start 3 apostolic teams/networks in the South East area of England and is also in contact with simple church networks in Holland and Switzerland.

The 3 teams/networks that Dick is involved relationally with in the UK are High Wycombe House Churches (Ted Piker), The Valley Church (Bernard Sanders) and  the Kingdom work Ian Rowlands and others are doing in Luton (Kingdom Values penetrating the arts and education sectors)

He met Ted Piker in High Wycombe over 10 years ago, and that’s another story