WE PRIMARILY MEET IN HOMES

By primarily meeting in homes and keeping our churches between 10-20 people, we’ve found it is much easier to start living out God’s biblical design for his church. We are able to have meals together, pray together, carry each other’s burdens and encourage one another on a regular basis. Everyone is able to contribute, be seen, and be heard. This also frees us up significantly when it comes to money: funds that would otherwise be spent on a building and overhead can now go directly to local and global missions instead.

We encourage churches to meet as best fits their schedules or on Sunday mornings as this time is typically already set aside, and due to our smaller numbers, people have the ability to meet over coffee in someone’s apartment or pancakes at the kitchen table. Following the “Read Scripture” app during the week is a helpful option and enables everyone to contribute to the discussion of God’s word and what He is teaching through His scriptures.

We also value larger meetings and meet as a body of churches at least once a month to celebrate what God is doing (see our Calendar page for more info)

EVERYONE EXERCISES THEIR GIFTS

According to 1 Corinthians 12, as believers we have spiritual gifts that are unique, diverse and given by the Holy Spirit to build up the body. Yet how many of us are operating in those giftings?

We have intentionally set up our churches so that there is freedom and space for all to participate. If someone comes with a hymn or a prayer or a word of knowledge, there is room for that. We don’t want our leaders teaching at lengths during these meetings, but rather they are encouraged to be great facilitators who ask good questions and are sensitive to the Spirit’s leading. If someone teaches, we want to limit it to 5-10 minutes so that everyone can participate.

There is of course a time and a place for longer sermons, but we ultimately desire to leave room during these smaller meetings for the church to operate and grow in their giftings.

REGULAR MULTIPLICATION OF SIMPLE CHURCHES

We believe in order to maintain close relationships between believers as well as foster an environment where everyone is able to participate and exercise their spiritual gifts, we must be dedicated to the concept of multiplication — valuing growth through replication of more small churches rather than by growing one large one. Once churches start getting much larger than 20 people, it becomes more difficult to live out God’s design for His church, and for this reason we set a goal for multiplying each house church around the one year mark.

House church leaders are constantly raising up new leaders within their group who can then go and plant another church. They are investing in them, doing life with them, and will eventually serve as a spiritual resource when the time comes.

Again, this desire for reproduction goes hand in hand with our desire to have simple churches. The modern-day setup of one or two people coming up on a stage and exercising their giftings with big production, costly budgets, and highly organized programs are not easily reproducible.

We believe the house church set up is as simple and reproducible as one can make it, and it enables all to have ownership in the growth of God’s church.

ZERO-COST BUDGET

One blessing of structuring the church this way is that there is almost zero cost to run it because we have no large programs to run, no buildings to fund, and no staff to pay. This enables us to focus nearly all given funds for local missions as well as being a blessing through meeting tangible needs.

We are not bound by finances on either end of the spectrum: our growth is not landlocked by a facility nor do we fear shrinking in numbers with a budget we no longer can afford.

Pastors of the churches are not paid staff. They work full-time jobs in the real world while shepherding the church God has called them to lead. This can practically be accomplished due to the simple model of discipleship and meeting.

As we grow, we multiply with ease due to the simple house church model and the zero-cost budget. This frees us up to be solely concerned with how God wants to move without limitations.