Wolfgang Simson - The House Church Book: Rediscover the Dynamic, Organic, Relational, Viral Community Jesus Started

It is exciting to meet someone who is both a solid thinker and a fearless follower of Christ. Wolfgang Simson is such a person. And the book you are holding in your hands is further evidence of both of those qualities.

Its not often that you get a book whose cost can be justified by the content in the pages before you even get to the introduction! The House Church Book is one of those unusual resources. I found the 15 Theses toward a Re-Incarnation of Church to be such a section. I suppose you could consider the bulk of the book a bonus. No matter how you look at it, Wolfgang has provided us with an outstanding resource that, like his earlier book (Houses That Change the World), pushes us to rethink some of our foundational assumptions about who we are in Christ and what it means to be part of the body of Christ.

This is a book that will either excite you or disturb you or maybe both. Wolfgang is a provocateur with a heart dedicated to Jesus. As such, he does not settle for simplistic blather. Consequently, he has written a book that implores us to think about the church in terms of faith rather than formulas, people rather than programs and professionals, biblical principles rather than cultural pragmatism, humility rather than hubris, and simplicity rather than superficiality. Even if you cheer everything he describes and prescribes, you should also find yourself uncomfortable given the state of the church today. It is my prayer that such an emotion is a holy discomfort in which Gods Spirit is nudging you to new realizations that enable you to be a healthy contributor to His ever-developing church.

Wolfgangs work is hopeful and honest. It is also aggressive in its pursuit of biblical authenticity. Toward that end, this new work describes various components of the house church movement its scriptural basis, advantages, dangers, challenges, and opportunities. If you read the book with an open mind, I think you will find it to be a volume that is biblically sound, culturally relevant, and individually challenging.

Why do I encourage you to retain an open mind while reading The House Church Book? Because so many people these days seem to be closed minded about the revolution of faith and form that we are experiencing around us. Wolfgang helps us to understand the history of the church, its practices and structure, and its implications for individuals, families, and communities. He calls us back to the biblical commands for the family to be a center of faith development and practice, the deployment of our God-given gifts, and the experience of growth through genuine spiritual community.

Who wouldnt want to participate in and benefit from these things? But how many of us are able to hear a message that invites us to reexamine our current practices and assumptions in order to experience the best that God has for us and His Kingdom?

I am grateful to Wolfgang for his single-minded pursuit of God and truth, and for the fruit of that journey that appears on these pages. May you find this book to be every bit as stimulating, upsetting, uplifting, insightful, and freeing as I have.

George Barna

Ventura, California

April 2009