Simple church conference

We were involved in a sort-of-conference about 'Simple Church' at the weekend. About 20 of us gathered to learn from some Americans who are setting up such networks in Spain.
On Friday evening we experienced a Simple Church gathering, then on Saturday morning we talked about it, what it meant and what we had learned.
The encouraging thing is that we are already doing it. The thing to think about is how we strengthen networks with others doing similar things.
The key thing that defines simple church is the lack of hierarchy - no employees, no buildings, no overheads, shared leadership, just really simple. Gather and let everyone bring something according to who they are (according to their gifts would be a more conventional way of putting this).
Can such a lack of structure emerge from a traditional church? I doubt it, there is too much de-programming to go through first. The traditional evangelical reason for doing things is always for growth and evangelism. Simple church is not like that, it has to be an expression of those who are part of it. It's not a 'good idea', an evangelism tool, or even a new structure, it's simple, it's real, it's me and it's you trying to follow Jesus together as best we can.

Can't think how they missed this one....

A very rich man came to Jesus and asked "Lord, what should I do?". Jesus answered him "Verily I say unto you," (he said that so that people reading about it later would know it was him) "Put one foot in front of another, get down to the bank, take out all your money and give it to the poor."
So the man spent the rest of his life placing one foot precisely in front of another. When people asked why he was walking like this he said "It's what Jesus told me to do, and my secretary wrote it down, so now it's biblical!"
He didn't go to the bank, his fortune continued to grow and he avoided the poor at every opportunity.
But he did what he could, and that's all anyone can ever ask of you, isn't it?

Where the hell?

Either no-one's out there or no-one wants to express their view of hell. Actually I had one e-mail from a friend who sort of said 'Yes I believe in hell, but I don't know what it is'.
I want to suggest why no-one particularly wants to talk about it - I don't think anyone actually believes in hell.
I suspect some who might read this will protest. To those I would suggest that they consider their eternal destiny very carefully. Consider the biblical passages that deal with judgement - you will note that judgement is based not so much on what you believe but on your actions (sheep and goats is but one example). So you believe in the eternal torment of the unregenerate, and the God who instituted this punishment is going to judge you. Your task (and you chose to accept it) was to do everything in your power to help your friends, relatives, acquaintances, enemies, in fact everyone you come across, to avoid the eternal flames. How have you done? How have you spent your time? How many words have you wasted? How many times have you spent valuable seconds on your own pleasure? Can you afford to sleep more than a couple of hours?
So, how will you fare in the judgement? Will you score better than 50%? What will be your punishment? It will be meted out by a supreme being who decided on eternal torment for those who refuse to believe. What will be the punishment for those who did believe but didn't do enough about it? Can there be a worse punishment than eternal torment?
So, I don't really think you believe in hell. Maybe I'm just stirring the flames, maybe it's because I'm just recovering from a nasty virus, but I don't think you do, really.