Many people have asked me why I would leave an established church to start a home church. As much as I would like to make it complicated and theologically deep, it isn’t. It’s pretty simple.

When the New Testament church started, it began as a movement. Over time as the apostles began to fade from the scene and other leaders of this new movement also began to pass away or be martyred, the early believers began to meet at these great leader’s grave sites to worship. (Not the greatest of ways to worship but that is what happened). As time went on, people began to push for establishing buildings on these very sites and that is when things, in my opinion, began to shift. Now instead of a movement, it became a location.

As time continued those buildings began to dictate many things within the church. A hierarchy began to really take root, with this, so did a consolidation of power in the form of church leadership and clergy.

As time continued those power structures and buildings began to replace what was originally meant to be a movement with more elaborate structure, rituals, power, and dictates. The heart of the movement began to lose its meaning.

Sooner or later some movements tried to counter some of these issues with the established church but once again it seems that one thing was replaced with another just under a different name.

So what had begun as a movement had morphed into an institution with power structures, buildings, and a clear separation between clergy and laity – a term which I believe God doesn’t like very much.

So fast forward to today. A couple of years ago God began to impress upon me the fact that what He had intended to be a movement had devolved into a static location and institution. Big buildings were built which had to be maintained and heated. The focus shifted from going to the people to the people coming to the building. Complex rituals began to crop up with elaborate trappings to go along with them.

All that at the expense of the simplistic message of salvation, God’s love for people, His deep desire to communicate that love, and to connect with those people whom He had died for.

So as I looked at what this movement had become and where we were today, including where my roots stem from with Calvary Chapel, I felt a strong call of God to get back to the basics of where it had all started in the book of Acts.

Several verses have played heavily into my focus for North Pines Christian Fellowship. The first is found in Acts 1:8 where Jesus said, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

That verse reflects a movement, not a static location. It speaks to me of the fact that we are to be going to where the people are, rather than expecting them to come to some building or location. Jesus always went to where the people were. He never asked them to come to a building or synagogue. He was always on the move going to where the people were.

The second verse is also found in Acts. If we look at Acts 2:42 it says, “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

That is our focus. To come together as the early church did – in homes, to study God’s Word verse by verse, worshiping together in song, celebrating communion, and fellowshipping with one another. We are free to go and share the gospel, minister to the homeless, and meet the needs of families, all without the burden of having to support a building or the politics that goes along with all of the structures that inhibit people from being available in the moment for God to use.

Please know that I see the value in many different things that have happened in the church over the years and how they have impacted the world around them. This is simply what I have felt God was speaking to me about and where I was to step out.

At this point, God has richly blessed us with a full house of people who are excited about worshiping, studying together, and reaching out to the communities that surround us. We will continue to move forward in His strength and power as long as He gives us the opportunity and ability to do so.

May God richly bless you as you seek after His perfect will for your lives moving forward.

Pastor Dan