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One German's Journey into a Radical Reformation Like it or not, Wolfgang Simson is a prophet. There are a variety opinions on whether or not he has been sent by God, generally divided along lines of how personally threatening his message is. According to Wolfgang himself, he has heard directly from God, talked with angels, and been commanded to take an edgy message to the masses. While some doubt these claims, one thing is certain: Wolfgang has a bold and sometimes scathing critique of the church and Christianity which has been welcomed by many marginalized Jesus-followers and those longing for a braver and more faithful faith.
[This article is based on an audio interview of Simson by Tim Pynes: find it here ] Wolfgang Simson on the Web
|  Read. Wolfgang's 15 Theses on the Simple Church Network site or read them and interesting comments on his friend Andrew Jones' blog Tall Skinny Kiwi . Download a copy of his book Houses That Change the World in PDF or if you'd rather read it in printed buy a copy . |  Listen. Hear the interview by Tim Pynes upon which this artile was based at Stories from the Revolution. This article also includes an explanation of Apostolic Migration [see here also]. Check out four sessions (MPEG) of Simson's Teaching on "House Church" and "Revolution for God" at Bibeluken in Stokke in English with Norsk/Norwegian.
|  Watch. Simson and other Simple Church leaders in a ten-minute interview peice on YouTube. Get more in-depth teaching from Simson in three session on "Revolutionary Change" (1 | 2 | 3 ) on Google Video, again from Bibeluken in Stokke in English with Norsk/Norwegian. |
Simson, like most prophets, has been shaped by an incredible personal journey. While Simson warns that this should not make him a celebrity, it does, on the other hand, make him relatable. Take for example Simson's early exposure to ineffective and impotent religion. He says of his childhood, "I was one of those guys, absolutely disgusted sitting next to my mother on the organ bench, listening to the things some guy said in front of some Lutheran church, being bored to death." "I had never a connection there that made any sense in my life," says Simson who left the church as he grew up, became a taxi driver, and entered politics. Even though he rejected church and the Christian faith, he admits there was still a burning question about the reality of Jesus buried deep within. Things changed radically for Simson while he was driving his cab at midnight in Stuttgart, Germany. "I was found by God, I would say. I didn't find him, he found me," he says. According to Simson, an angel in disguise met him on the way and asked him if he knew Jesus personally. While stumbling over his response, the guy vanished into thin air. Wolfgang was so shocked he almost wrecked his cab.  That night, when Simson returned home, he knelt in front of his wardrobe and asked God what the next move was. He opened his Bible looking for an answer and if fell open to this passage: "And this is the way to have eternal life to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth" [John 17:3 NLT].
Taking this as an answer, Simson spent the next seven days and nights reading the Bible cover to cover. When he reached the book of Acts, he discovered the story of the early church that spread as a vibrant missionary movement across the known world. Excited, Wolfgang thought to himself that such a church must exist somewhere, and he dedicated himself to searching it out. This quest proved more difficult than expected. Church after church Simson was met by cold receptions, rejection, disappointment, and dysfunction. His experience in politics created the expectation that someone would mentor him - that he should be taken under the wing and shown the ropes. Time and again, he was presented with paper instead of flesh-and-blood. People would say to him, "read this" and "fill in the blanks on these worksheets". The message they were sending: Wolfgang was on his own. He says of this quest, "I was almost never able to get into church in the first place." Undeterred, Simson continued to grow in his faith. Inspired by his early impressions reading Acts, he came to the conclusion he should become a missionary, but he received the same cold shoulder from missions agencies that was common place in the church. By chance or providence, Simson met two other misfit missionary wannabes after a soccer game in Switzerland. The three made a secret vow - they would start their own church and sent themselves out as missionaries if no one else would. Within a few years Simson and his conspirators had done just that. They had developed a decentralized youth church meeting in homes and public spaces. As the church grew to several hundred people, the first missionary they sent out was Wolfgang. In preparation for the mission field, Wolfgang reluctantly began to study theology. He says, "I know that God has asked me to study theology, but really against my permission." It all seemed to close to the established church that had been so cold and lifeless to Simson. He had encountered leaders who used their knowledge of commentaries and biblical languages to create distance between people and God for their own benefit. But, surprisingly, theology gave Simson tools to deconstruct this in just system where people set themselves up as mediators for God. This proved a formative time for Simson. He would later write about such religious professionals: According to the New Testament (1 Tim. 2:5), 'there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.' God simply does not bless religious professionals to force themselves in-between people and God forever. The veil is torn, and God is allowing people to access Himself directly through Jesus Christ, the only Way. To enable the priesthood of all believers, the present system will have to change completely.
But critiquing the theological atmosphere of Europe would not hold on to Simson's interest for long. He says, "Out of shear boredom from my theological studies, I was hungry for what God is doing. I was hungry for I didn't know what." This led him to America and Fuller Theological Seminary where he discovered the growing discipline of Church Growth. There he found people concerned with growing the church through conversion and mission, and at first he saw it as exciting and devoured all the information he could. But after some time, Wolfgang began to realize that Church Growth had little to do with theology - it was many a study in all the strategies and technologies that people could use to increase church membership.  This led Wolfgang into a period of internal disorientation he likens to the Israelites wanderings in the desert. There was a secret growing inside him that he dreaded to let out for fear of what others might think. Simson says, "A picture of the church and what's its supposed to do came together through my observations and my dreams that was so unlike church that I knew, the '4 P church' - always a pastor, always a program, always a parking lot, and always problems. I saw a church that was entirely different, but no body had talked about it, no body had written about it, had explained it. I didn't see this in seminary, I didn't see this in my colleagues, and I thought 'If I start talking about this, people will think I'm crazy.'"
Simson's desert experience ended as he did mission work in India. He found the church of his imagination in a mission movement he and his friend started. Between 1995 and 1996 a house church movement began to develop that spread far and dug deep. It began with 60 people in a chicken hut with tears, laughter, and ample amounts of Bible talking and Bible living. This experience brought Simson to the brink of Jordan, as he puts it. He had come to the conviction that, "church as I knew it prevented church as God wants it." God was asking him to cross the line and take spiritual responsibility for himself, his wife, his kids, the people that are him. In tears, Wolfgang confessed his doubt. Still wrestling, Simson read a book by cell-church leader Larry Kreider. Kreider recounted the same vision of standing on the edge of the Jordan. Jesus was asking him whether he would stay in the comfortable, known dessert exile, or cross the river to enter the Promised Land. Finally, Simson had the confirmation he was looking for: "Then God let me see what is happening as we move into this apostolic framework, this missional mind, of him using his people to retake the land. It's totally different from church as I knew it."  Wolfgang broke his silence in 1998 when, in the example of another famous German, he published his 15 Theses . This seminal document laid out what Wolfgang thought was wrong with the church and traditional Christianity and plotted out a manifesto for moving forward. That same year, Wolfgang wrote the book Houses That Change the World [PDF | Buy in Print $9.74 ] which has become perhaps the most popular book among the house church movement exploding worldwide. This book launched Wolfgang into a globe-trotting speaking circuit where he is one of the most in-demand voices.
But Wolfgang has no interest in hero worship. He refuses accolades and titles, refusing even to be known as a Christian. He says celebrity is part of the old system where people needed a go-between to get to God. Wolfgang confesses he just a voice God is using, nothing more. If you think this false-modesty, listen to what Wolfgang has to say. At every venue he remains the prophet, telling rich Western believers, even in the house church movement to repent of their greed and make their wealth available to God. He predicts disaster on the horizon for a opulent and resistant America. And still, he offers jagged pills for those who still have ties to more traditional modes for of the faith. But who would expect different from a prophet?
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