Dr. Willie Joubert

I was born in Tanzania when it was the British colony called Tanganyika. My parents met in Kenya during WW2 when my dad was a gunner on an armored vehicle operating in Somalia and Ethiopia. After the war they moved back to a little farm he owned on Mount Meru in Tanganyika. After a few years another opportunity came and he sold the farm and cleared land farm - dealing with wildlife that were at times a major difficulty. I was born shortly after that and grew up there. It was an awesome childhood growing up amongst wildlife and no electricity, TV, Radios or even telephones. We lived mostly off the land - made our own soap, my mom sewed our clothes, we grew our own food and in time prospered. In 1959 my parents moved to South Africa where again we farmed on a little farm. We were bused to school and I met my future wife, Eda, when I started in the local public school in Grade 6. Years later after graduation we met again at University and we got married in 1972.

After two years studying Chemical Engineering I switched to Theology and in time completed a Masters degree in Semitic Languages and a Ph.D. in Theology. I lectured at the University of Pretoria in the Dept. of Semitics for 7 years before we moved with our three children to Canada. In Canada I served as minister in the Presbyterian Church for 17 years. During the latter part of this ministry I became more involved with Charismatic renewal and as a result moved to work with Charismatic churches in church planting followed by work with para-church ministry and with local business ventures. During this time having switched from a clergy role to sitting in the pews and that led me to rethink the structure of the church as most know it. I began to look at how the early church operated and functioned and the Biblical foundations of the church. I realized that much of what I grew up believing had little or no foundation in Scripture and we began exploring the simplicity of house churches. In time we saw how amazing this is and how simple to gather in a home and be the church.

As we began with a house church and connected with others, I wrote a little book to help others. In time I completed 5 books and when someone needed information, I shared the copies through a simple printout or by e-mail. Through the years the books were reworked and updated as we grew in experience. Recently I decided to publish these to allow more people to tap into the resources. I am also convinced that this is the future of the church. The first book laying the foundations is "Restoring the broken foundations." The second book dealing exploring the priesthood of the believer has just been released under the title "Ordinary People Extraordinary Royal Priests." At present the third book in the series "Being the church in the world" is being prepared for publication. This book is a challenge to everyone calling himself or herself a follower of Christ to live with "Radical Authenticity." It is my prayer that these books will be a blessing to many!

Willie Joubert