How many people in the United States attend a house church (also called a simple church)? The number depends on how researchers ask respondents the question, according to a new report by The Barna Group that compiled results from 12 nationwide surveys conducted in the past five years.

When asking respondents if they had been part of a group that meets regularly in a home and is not associated in any way with a local, congregational type of church, between 3 percent and 6 percent said they had been involved in such a group during a typical month.

The percentages increased, however, when the question was reworded or broadened. For example, when people were asked if they attended a "religious service" in someone's home or in some other building that is independent of a local church, between 22 percent and 24 percent said they had done so. But when asked if they had "experienced God" or "expressed their faith in God" in a simple church meeting—whether or not it was affiliated with a congregational church—one-third of the respondents said they had done so in the previous month.

"With growing numbers of conventional churches attempting to incorporate both the house church concept and language into their ministries, it becomes increasingly difficult to get an accurate reading," explained George Barna in the new report. "But we are confident that the longer, more detailed question we use gives a realistic, perhaps even an undersized estimate, of the number of people who rely solely or partly on a house church experience."

So how does The Foursquare Church, as a movement, view the simple church phenomenon?

"In Foursquare, we embrace simple church," Rod Koop, missional facilitator for the national church, told Foursquare.org. "To us, that means a way of doing and being the church that is free from complexity and opens the door to full participation for everyone. By ‘simple church,' we see a kind of church that is described in the New Testament—not dependent on structure, but compelled by the desire to extend the kingdom of God in ways we've not seen before."

To read the full study by The Barna Group, log on to www.Barna.org.

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By: Bill Shepson, a Foursquare credentialed minister and freelance writer in Los Angeles