In a world where the church is being ignored, it is time to bring the church to the people, and not the people to the church, says researcher and church strategy consultant Wolfgang Simson. His book Houses that Change the World (originally published in the UK) is widely recognized as a classic of the house church movement. Now revised as The House Church Book, this definitive work offers a comprehensive understanding of the past, present, and future of the house church movement—and the vital role of “ordinary” people in saturating the world with God’s truth.
Wolfgang Simson was born in Germany and has German, Jewish, and Hungarian roots. In the midst of beginning a political career, a number of supernatural experiences brought him to a confrontation with the reality of Christ.
After working as a social worker and taxi driver in Stuttgart, Germany, he graduated with a ThM from Free Evangelical Theological Academy (Basel, Switzerland), where he later taught courses on church growth and mission strategy and became the assistant of the Dean, late Prof. Samuel Külling. While pursuing a PhD at various academic institutions in Belgium and the US, doing postgraduate studies in missions and cultural anthropology, he found out that academia did not have the answers to the questions he was after--but God did. In yet another direct experience with God he was shown the purpose, direction, and path of his life, and he has been pursuing this ever since.
Since 1983 Wolfgang has been involved in the planting of several churches and in church-based leadership positions, while at the same time beginning a life of extensive global research on growing churches, church planting movements, and revival and mission breakthroughs.
Wolfgang worked for two decades as a church growth, evangelism, and strategy consultant, researcher, and journalist within various Christian networks and regional and global strategy think tanks in close to sixty nations. One of the founders of Dawn Europa, he has been a board member of both the British and the German Church Growth Associations, a member of the Lausanne Movement in Germany, editor of the well-known e-zines Fridayfax, Fridayfax2 (now merged into StarFish Fax) and The Mammon-Fax. He is the author of twelve books that have been translated into twenty languages. Wolfgang is married to Mercy, and they have three kids. After living in the United Kingdom and India, they now live in the south of Germany.
