PHILLIP

I began house church in 2007. I started following the Lord at a young age, started preaching in my teens, doing outreach ministry in my 20's, went to seminary, and became an inner-city missionary to youth and their families. I did this for about fifteen years and ended up as a surrogate father to some youth. Additionally, I served the Lord in local churches in various capacities, but became disillusioned by the organizational power structures that I did not see in the New Testament. Likewise, I realized that people sitting in pews were like babes being bottle fed that were never allowed to grow into their adult roles. I saw a different model in the scriptures and I saw that the Lord is our Head, our High Priest, and we are all His Body and His Priesthood. That changed the whole perspective and I see all believers as members of Christ's body who are called and set apart for God's work. Discipleship is simply teaching others how to follow God, like a parent teaches a child life skills so they can go and be successfully without the parent. The family model is the model for how God's people are to grow, mature, and be released to be productive in God's Kingdom. Our meetings are participatory, because God's Spirit resides in all His people (1 Cor. 12-14). We fellowship and eat together (1 Cor. 11), we sing, and pray together, and we help and serve one another.