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Our Only Incorporation is the Body of Christ. Free Christians and Churches.

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Stephen Simons Get Access to the Exponential Conference 2010 Sessions

As an awesome service to every ministry, the Exponential Network has made the audio from this year's Exponential Conference 2010 in Orlando, FL available online for FREE!

Download these great training sessions online now at

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Added by Stephen Simons on May 27, 2010 at 1:03pm — No Comments

Stephen Simons To 501(c)(3) or Not To 501(c)(3)

Are churches 501(c)(3) non-profits? Should they be? Do they have to be? Is there any other way that they can be recognized by the state? What is a "church" anyway? What legal entity, if any, is the best form for a church to take? Does it violate the church as the living body of Christ, to be embodied/incorporated under the state?

I am not yet ready to propose an answer to any of these questions. But I have begun collecting research on what various people have dis
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Added by Stephen Simons on May 11, 2010 at 12:14pm — 5 Comments

Donald Brandis When is Intelligence Artificial?

Another Ishmael/Isaac story is Speilberg's film "Artificial Intelligence" (2001). The conflict here is between natural humans and 'artificial' humans or robots, a classic human vs machine story. Though distorted by Speilberg's Peter Pan fixation, the story like many says more than it knows. The little boy robot David, lovingly created by the human robot maker played by Wm Hurt - like the doll-maker in Pinochio, which this story is an acknowledged reworking of - is shown to be more human than

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Added by Donald Brandis on March 23, 2010 at 10:59pm — No Comments

Tom Andrews Plants as a correspondence for spiritual growth

Ethan preached this morning about plants (it's the first day of spring, of course) and how their stages of growth correspond to regeneration. I found myself thinking about my challenges as a plant grower. (Anything to avoid thinking about my own spritual growth !!) Do all the pests that I contend with in trying to get my fruit trees to grow correspond to temptations of various sorts? If so, what sorts? What do the Writings have to say about this, if anything? Ethan noted the passages dealing wit… Continue

Added by Tom Andrews on March 21, 2010 at 5:30pm — 1 Comment

Donald Brandis Ishmael and Isaac, Illustrated

We watched a movie last weekend called Stranger Than Fiction (2007), about an IRS agent living a very ordinary, competent but boring and unfulfilling life, when he begins to hear to voice-over narrator we in the audience are hearing, describing and assessing his life. When the voice announces he is about to die, he decides to do something about it. A psychiatrist he consults tells him he is schizophrenic, but he insists on a second opinion and she recommends he see someone who knows literatur

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Added by Donald Brandis on March 14, 2010 at 4:58pm — 2 Comments

Stephen Simons Free Churches - Free as in speech? or Free as in beer?

Free Churches are free in the fact that they are autonomous, non-incorporated, local, and independent -- at liberty to organize as they choose, worship as they choose, hire/fire as they choose, teach as they choose, believe as they choose....

...you get the idea.

However, Free Churches are not free in the sense that they require funding to operate. Successful churches provide spaces to worship, spaces to study, spaces to celebrate, spaces to meet,
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Added by Stephen Simons on March 11, 2010 at 9:35pm — No Comments

Donald Brandis Ishmael and Isaac

What do we need an inner sense of the Word for? Isn't the literal sense good enough?

This would be a frequently asked question if it were widenly know that there is a inner sense of the Word, and has been since the time of the American Revolution. That it isn't widely known shows why it became necessary. The Word is the link between heaven and our world, allowing people of faith formed by it to live heavenly lives, charitable lives now in the world. This is true of the literal

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Added by Donald Brandis on March 6, 2010 at 12:13am — No Comments

Heidi Schnarr Simplify, simplify, simplify!

Well, I guess I just got on here to see what is going on. Reading just some of it, my head is spinning, and all I can think is, KEEP IT SIMPLE! I'm really not interested in intellectual debates any more. God isn't going to change because of any of it :). But I am interested in hearing about people's spiritual lives--their walk with God--and how they have grown closer to him. God bless, all!
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Added by Heidi Schnarr on March 3, 2010 at 5:49pm — 4 Comments

Eli Echols If only I had a nickel . . .

If only I had a nickel for all the big dreams I once said I was going to pursue to completion. Once I even told Steve I was going to write a book! Well, that could always still happen. One thing that really had me fired up once was a community website for what I called the Second Coming Community. I wanted to make an umbrella online for everyone who believed the Second Coming had already occurred and at accepted at least a basic amount of the teachings in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. I li… Continue

Added by Eli Echols on November 29, 2009 at 9:39pm — 1 Comment

Stephen Simons Followers of Christ - Disciples or Subordinates?

There are two types of followers: disciples and subordinates. The Freedom Church model is dependent on leaders who empower their followers as disciples, not those who would command and control their followers as subordinates. Jesus said, "...don't you be called 'Rabbi,' for one is your teacher, the Christ, and all of you are brothers. Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven. Neither be called masters, for one is your master, the Christ." (… Continue

Added by Stephen Simons on November 25, 2009 at 1:14am — 4 Comments

Stephen Simons Pastors - Employees or Business Owners?

In the traditional model of denominational Christianity, following in the footsteps of the universal Catholic church that preceded it, the leaders/teachers/pastors in the body of Christ are supported in their work by receiving compensation as employees of their organizations. This is based on the pattern of Jesus sending out the seventy disciples to share the good news:
Now after these things, the Lord also appointed seventy others, and sent them two by two ahead of him into every c
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Added by Stephen Simons on November 2, 2009 at 8:32am — No Comments

Stephen Simons Denominational "Free" Churches?

I have become a regular follower of Mac Frazier's blog. He is working in a denominational setting, but check out this reflection from his most recent post, Reflections on Charter Day 2009, looking at what the founders of his denomination did and meant to do and whether those same characteristics are still present in the… Continue

Added by Stephen Simons on October 12, 2009 at 1:00pm — 1 Comment

Stephen Simons The Free Church Business Model

Check out a new blog by Freedom Church Network member, Mac Frazier, "Stewardship", exploring his work in a denominational setting to reset the thinking of his church about how money is spent or saved. Free churches are cash economies, not investment vehicles. Jesus explicitly warned us not to build extra storehouses for… Continue

Added by Stephen Simons on September 15, 2009 at 7:30am — No Comments

Kurt Simons Freedom vs. Hierarchy

What I really like about the freedom church concept is that it avoids the long and miserable experience of all the top-down, hierarchical, papal, etc. church organization models, with their endless temptations to battle for power and position in the hierarchy. As religious history has shown many times, this temptation to is no respecter of persons. It can happen within the clergy, between clergy and laity, and within the laity, typically with regard to who controls doctrinal interpretation and t… Continue

Added by Kurt Simons on August 28, 2009 at 3:20pm — No Comments

Stephen Simons Free Churches and Social Class Structure

Marketers and real estate planners will tell you that for real growth potential your church needs to be placed on a social demographic boundary. By locating between the upper end of the median household income in your target demographic and the lower end, the argument goes, you can place your church in an area that will feel secure, comfortable, and welcoming to everyone who attends. You won't scare off your wealthier members by going too far down class. And you won't be too pretentious for your… Continue

Added by Stephen Simons on August 15, 2009 at 12:13pm — No Comments

Stephen Simons Free Your Church of Property

Another way to put this is to say, "Don't build buildings, build the kingdom". There is a growing movement of churches that are realizing that churches shouldn't own property, and are actually taking the radical step of selling their buildings to further their core mission. This is a truly freeing act of faith. As a free church, it is closer to Jesus' vision of the church to… Continue

Added by Stephen Simons on August 10, 2009 at 4:46pm — 1 Comment

Stephen Simons Free Churches and the Rule of Law

Jesus emphasized an aspect of His ministry and mission that has perhaps been lost on some of His followers,
Jesus answered, "My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight, that I wouldn't be delivered to the Jews. But now my Kingdom is not from here." Pilate therefore said to him, "Are you a king then?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this reason I have been born, and for this reason I have come into the worl
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Added by Stephen Simons on August 6, 2009 at 1:06pm — No Comments

Stephen Simons MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

In the book of Revelation, John warns believers of a coming threat to Christianity, which He describes as "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." - Revelation 17:5 He describes her as "The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth." But what exactly is he warning us of? Rather than looking into church histo… Continue

Added by Stephen Simons on July 29, 2009 at 1:18pm — 2 Comments

Stephen Simons The Most Common Case For Church Incorporation

Baron de Montesquieu (1748)Money. The theology and theory of incorporating churches, raising revenue, and organizing institutions to give structure to the body of Christ is strongly influenced and sometimes determined by the laws, culture, and practices of… Continue

Added by Stephen Simons on July 17, 2009 at 11:30am — No Comments

Stephen Simons Let My People Go

One of my favorite Christian bloggers, Ed Bahler, recently observed,
Today 71% of adults develop their own set of religious beliefs rather than accept the teachings of a particular church. That is also the response of 82% (yes 82%) of those under age 25 and 61% of born-again adults.
With this discovery of our spiritual independence from the interference of denominations, dogmas, and traditio… Continue

Added by Stephen Simons on July 12, 2009 at 8:45pm — 2 Comments

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