Trends

Felicity Dale shares in a recent post here some of the different trends that seem to be occurring of relevance within the Kingdom that affect simple churches. Commenting on the points she makes below would require a separate post for each. Suffice it to say, we find that 5 of her 6 points VERY TRUE here in Ecuador.

There is an increase in the number of healings. We are hearing stories of regular "no-name" people praying, and remarkable healings occurring. These stories include healing from things like cancer, major abdominal problems etc. Those praying are not those with a healing ministry, but just a group of ordinary Christians praying for someone with a physical or emotional problem. Sometimes they are occurring out in the marketplace.

There is an increased hunger to hear about simple church. Many people are asking questions, searching for answers. Many leaders within various denominations have become open to these concepts.

Churches are being planted cross-culturally, both within different nationalities such as Afghan, Cuban etc and across cultural boundaries such as with the homeless.

Simple churches are becoming more missional. We are hearing stories of simple churches that started with people who left legacy churches now turning outwards and reaching out into their communities. It's as though some have needed a period of time so they can experience some personal healing, but now that has been accomplished, they have become very Kingdom minded and outreach focused.

More women are engaged in church planting. We heard of one example of a group being formed for women who are planting churches.

Please feel free to add any other trends you have observed from your own context. To read all six of Felicity's observed trends, check out the link above, as well as my comment as to why I don't see her 6th trend applying much with us here locally.