Our Why
The Other Half
Studies are telling us that there is about a 40–50% segment of the population who are completely closed to going to a church building of any kind.
This can be due to all kinds of reasons–from church hurt to both false and true perceptions of Christians. What we are seeing is that these people will accept an invitation to share a meal, serve a neighbor/co-worker, come to a movie night, or just become our friends. For these people, walking across the street or meeting in a coffee shop is a far easier step than driving to and entering a church. It is in these places we learn their story and they learn ours.
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We are almost certain that The Other Half (see above) can be found in your neighborhood, workplace, school and coffee shop. We believe Jesus’ words when He says, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” We are asking “the Lord of the harvest…to send out workers into his harvest field.” This means that the people in your life are more ready to receive the Good News of the Kingdom than they appear. We would love the opportunity to encourage, equip and support you in the fields where you live, work, and play.
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Most of our current church models rely heavily on the professionals–clergy, pastors, and preachers who have degrees in Bible and Ministry. We equip everyday people to do the critical work of ministry.
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Jesus said, “Go and make disciples…” After working 40+ hours, serving at church, and raising a healthy family…most people have little margin for discipling their neighbors. In our model, discipling neighbors isn’t done in the margin, it’s our focus.
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As we read the Gospel narratives, we see that Jesus spent a lot of time eating and drinking with the types of people the religious culture of the day considered to be far from God. Their complaint was that “he ate and drank with sinners” and accused him of being a “glutton and a drunkard.” The early church saw the table as an extension of Jesus’ ministry, a place to dine with Jesus and encounter His presence, sometimes keeping a chair open for Him just in case He showed up in His physical body! The table also served as a place where the outcast and those living in isolation could find a permanent family to belong to.
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Our model doesn’t require nearly as much money being spent on rent/mortgages, staffing, utilities, etc–allowing peoples’ generosity to be invested into their neighborhood.
Disclaimer
We don’t claim that the microchurch model is the only or best way to do church in a manner that obeys Jesus’ command to “Go and make disciples.” However, it is our hope to create communities for people whom traditional churches are finding it difficult to reach. We understand that our model is not for everyone, but for people who feel a calling to the Other Half and sense this might be a more effective way of doing it. If you sense that you’re one of those, we invite the conversation–over good coffee of course.