Rethinking Church

When most people think of “Church,” they think of a building with pews or chairs and some sort of church service that you come to and attend and then leave.

If you read the New Testament in the bible, you get a different picture. When you read about the church, you’ll notice that the church is not a building or even a meeting, but the people who have committed to being disciples of Jesus and are working together to spread the message of salvation found in Jesus to their spheres of influence (where they work, live, and play). The Christians are committed to a lifestyle of worship, where everything about their lives conforms to what Jesus wants. When these people do get together they act more like a family than spectators at a sporting event or a concert. This spiritual family does life together, they eat, pray, sing, serve the marginalized, learn from the scriptures, use their gifts to build each other up, share what God is doing in their lives, and show love to each other and those around them. It is less about a building and a once a week meeting, but more about a community on mission spreading the message of Jesus and learning to follow His ways.

Some refer to this style of church as simple church, missional community, microchurch, house church, or a dinner church. We typically use the term microchurch, which exists in its simplest form where there is worship, community and mission.

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microChurch Distinctives

Each of our microchurches will have the following characteristics

  • Microchurch: Spiritual family (size 15-70 people) on misssion, each church is intentionally this size to facilitate discipleship and mission

  • simple gatherings: our meetings are not big productions to come and consume, but times where we eat, laugh, pray, worship, study God’s word, and build each other up

  • God’s Word: each church is committed to God’s Word revealed in the Bible and our churches typically study the same section of Scripture

  • everyone contributes and uses their gifts: the Holy Spirit has given each follower a special gift to build up the church and show love to the world

  • everyone disciples: we believe every believer should be a disciple-maker, each of our churches have discipleship groups called DNA Groups that are gender specific and focus on making disciples that make disciples

  • blessing: our churches spend a lot of time being a blessing to those they are around, this has happened in a number of ways through bbqs, cookies for teachers and neighbors, clean up days, furnishing homes for refugees, handing out water bottles and kits for the homeless, neighborhood meals, and a bunch of other ways

  • parties: we love to get together, have fun, and invite others in to join us

  • multiplying: our hope is for our churches to multiply and plant churches in other neighborhoods as soon as they are able

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