What We Do

Simple Churches

At Carmel Presbyterian Church Simple Church is just a re-definition of church as a Christ-centered community established primarily on relationship both to God and to the other members of the group.

We meet on Sunday Evenings at 6 p.m. at homes on the Monterey Peninsula for a non-traditional evening of worship and sharing.

The term "simple" is used to denote the movement of many traditional church characteristics to the category of non-essential, or even unhelpful, in this model of church. A simple church may meet anywhere, with or without religiously trained persons or "clergy", may not have any formal liturgy, and little if any programmatic or institutional structures. To facilitate relationship, discipleship (spiritual formation), multiplication, mobility, and member ownership, a simple church is usually a small group of no more than 20-25 persons.

Church "programs" are virtually nonexistent and small group participation is essential. Member movement from worship to small group to mission work is a primary focus. The term simple church is often used interchangeably with other terms like organic church, essential church, primitive church, bodylife, relational church, and micro-church. Some groups use other names for their groups, although they would consider themselves part of or related to the simple church phenomenon.

A good example of this is Emerging Church Network's "authentic faith communities" or "emerging indigenous faith communities". Perhaps the most common synonym is house church, which has much more popular usage and predates the term simple church significantly. The name simple church is favored over house church by some because the house church movement has often been associated with embittered reactions against more traditional forms of church.