When the Church Was Led Only By Laymen

      Earl Eugene "Gene" Edwards is an American house church planter, a Christian author, and a former Southern Baptist pastor and evangelist. A graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, he was instrumental in pioneering the house church concept in the United States.

      Edwards’ books and tapes laid the ground work for the house church movement that began in the United States in the 1970s. Groups and churches that he planted pattern their gatherings around primitive Christian practices such as meeting in homes, writing their own songs, and meeting in an open, participatory style. These groups aim for a distributed ministry model in which no one in the group possesses greater authority than any other so that all will be encouraged to function and speak in the meeting.

      Gene is an author of some thirty books.