"We don't want to have a church building which functions as a hub for services."
That usually gets met by "How will people find you."
"We want to plant a network of locally led house churches throughout the area."
"So who is THE pastor?"
I won't go through the entire project and vision but here are a few highlights-
We crave for a SIMPLE church. One that doesn't have hoops to jump through, a vocabulary which is heavy and irrelevant. A church that doesn't suck the life out of people but gives life.
We crave for a CULTURAL church. Of course the beauty of the church is that it is multicultural (see Acts... the whole book). What I mean by that is a church which speaks to the people around it and that each person in and around it can identify.
We crave a church of PROXIMITY. I had to figure out how to formulate that in english, but what I mean is that the church should meet close to its people. In the neighborhood, with neighbors. Even though the national vision is a church within 30 minutes by car of each person, we believe it needs to be closer than that. Closer than that because each person needs to live out their faith amongst their neighbors, coworkers and friends.
This has a few consequences -
a mission trip to visit us might look like cooking dinner for friends. it might look like helping fix a house. it probably won't look like coming to work with the youth group, play music on sunday mornings. That's not to say that there won't be a youth group, but it just might be different.
the teaching of the church follows this concept. Discipleship is necessary. Small accountability groups are necessary. None of this needs to be perfect, it just needs to be part of a system which works together.
the church is a team. Maybe the central team is small, but the who church is a team where each person is vital to that.
the church has to be full of grace. Grace for its "members", grace for young christians, grace for non-Christians who have never heard of this Bible stuff but are interested.
The project still needs you, and wants you. So feel free to ask questions!