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One of the great metaphors for church is Household/Family of God.  Paul writes in 1 Tim 3:14-15 (NIV),“Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.”  In 1 Peter 4:17 (NIV) Christians are referred to as the “family of God.”  This metaphor has tremendous implications for a Community of Believers.

One of the areas in my own life I have been struggling with for the past year is the concept of community and what it means to be a community and live in community.  I have for several years realized that church, as practiced in most places around the world, does not meet the definition of community as revealed in the Bible.  In my next few blog posts I want to explore with you what a Biblical Community of Believers would look like, and how we can lead Believers to live in Biblical Community.

1.3 billion People use the Internet globally.  What you may not know is the distribution of this use.  530 million live in Asia; 383 million in Europe; 246 million in North America; 137 million in Latin America/Caribbean; 51 million in Africa; 42 million in the Middle East; and 19 million in Oceana/Australia.  (Internet World Stats)  There are 6.7 billion people on our planet.  (World PopClock)  This means that about 20% of the global population has access to the Internet, of which, about half of these people live in limited or restricted access nations where it is difficult for us to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ openly and/or effectively.  How will we reach this Online Generation? 

Following is a reply to a posted comment. (Click here to view comment.)  I think this is another subject that is important enough to promote to the front page.
 
I never set out to start a house church movement.  Even today, when I am working with new people in new locations, the objective is not to start a house church movement.  The objective is to meet and address lostness in every segment of society through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I have thirty-five years of church planting experience in the USA and Asia, including South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia.  Since 1997 I have been training church planters and assisting with strategy development all over the world.  The teams I have led, and the men and women I have trained have been used by God to start more than 50,000 churches and baptize more than 3 million people.  I think I have probably made every mistake that can be made in church planting and leading church planting teams.  I try to learn from my mistakes and share what I have learned with others.  I will be most pleased if this blog helps you to make fewer mistakes than I. 

There are two kinds of accountability – organizational and personal.  Organizational accountability deals with what we do in order to fulfill the expectations of those who hire us and pay us, or what we do to fulfill our obligations to teams to whom we voluntarily relate.  Personal accountability deals with relationships we choose to enter in order to be better in six areas of our lives.  In either case, accountability is a forward looking system that promotes improvement in the organization or individual.

I just received a graduation announcement from a friend’s daughter who is valedictorian of her class.  This tells me the results of her education, but not how she got the results.  Making the highest marks in school does not measure how one made the highest marks.  I find most statistics related to church planting measure results, not what caused the results.

A friend of mine, John King, compiled the following from my training sessions, blog posts, and other writings from my team.  I thought it might be of interest to you.
 
Blessings!
 
David Watson
Irving, TX
 

“Goodbye” does not mean relationships are over.  It means they have changed.  When one says “goodbye” to a kindergarten child on the very first day of their school career, the parenting relationship changes, but does not end.  When one says “goodbye” to a son or daughter who is off to college for the first time, the relationship changes.  When one says “goodbye” to a son or daughter at the altar of marriage, the relationship changes.  If the parent does not say “goodbye” then severe damage occurs, not only for the relationship, but for the development of the child into a responsible adult.

The church planter has coached the Person of Peace and/or spiritual leaders of the group every week for months on how to lead a Guided Discovery Bible Study focused on Knowing God. This series of Bible studies was tailor-made to address the group’s worldview and cultural gateways and barriers; and lead them to discover a holy and loving God, face their own sin, find God’s provision for their sin through Jesus Christ, come into a grace/faith relationship with Jesus, and commit to a life of faith that obeys the commands of Jesus regardless of consequences.  At some point in this process the group comes to Christ, often all at one time or over a short period of time.  They become baptized as they are guided to discover and obey the Biblical teachings on belief in Christ and baptism, and begin the process of moving from being a Bible study group to being a church.