Our Team & History

Meet the Team

Our Senior Leadership Team works together to oversee and serve our network of house churches. These ministers help serve the overall network of house churches by promoting leadership development, spiritual vibrancy, financial health, seamless operations, and quality ministry to all ages and groups. Together they run our big gatherings, our school of ministry, our special events, our overall house church network, and more.

ART THOMAS

Leadership Director

art@rootsag.org

Art's role is to oversee our Senior Leadership Team and help you and others in our church step into your own God-given ministries in a healthy, relational, synergistic way.

Bio

Ron dykes

Executive Director

ron@rootsag.org

Ron's role is to serve you and your family by maintaining the financial and legal health of our entire organization while bringing years of wisdom and experience to our leadership team.

Bio

Jonmark Baker

Spiritual Life Director

jonmark@rootsag.org

JonMark's role is to encourage, train, and oversee the leadership of your local house church and others while promoting the growth, health, and spiritual vibrancy of our entire network.

Bio

Robin thomas

Kid's Ministry Director

robin@rootsag.org

Robin's role is to minister to our children and families by overseeing the children's ministry team, training parents and volunteers, and planning events to foster friendship and spiritual growth amongst our kids.

Bio

Gracie Perry

Connections Director

gracie@rootsag.org

Gracie's role is to resource house church pastors and steward the connections within our network.

She oversees our communications, creative projects, and network events.

Bio

joe loruss

Operations Director

joe@rootsag.org

Joe's role is to serve you and others in our church by helping organize large gatherings and events, overseeing our operations team, and maintaining the unity and health of various ministries throughout our church.

Bio

Our
hiStory

Roots Church began with a small group of young adults gathering in a living room in 2005, hungry for authentic community and spiritual growth. What started as one house church grew into a thriving network of gatherings marked by deep relationships, transformed lives, and a shared passion for multiplying disciples.

2005 - 2007

In 2005, Art Thomas was leading Sunday worship and weekly youth meetings at a young church he helped start in Fowlerville, Michigan. During that time he read about the relational value of experiencing church-life in small, interactive groups of believers. Together with his girlfriend (now wife), Robin, Art started a weekly meeting of young adults in Robin's parents' home.

People grew rapidly in their faith. The group led friends and coworkers to Jesus, baptized them in bathtubs, and deeply engaged in each other's lives. The little group quickly grew to around 40 people spread across a small network that included the main group, a men's group, a ladies' group, and several Bible studies that met in workplaces during break time.

2008 -2014

In 2008, Art and Robin were engaged, and Art left the church plant and young adult network to serve on staff at Robin's home church in Northville, MI. Around 2010, Art was given the responsibility of leading the church's young adults ministry, and he immediately focused it on small gatherings like his former network.

In 2011, Art began traveling and speaking internationally as an itinerant minister while continuing to lead the young adults group, though no longer serving as paid staff at the church. But within a few years, the group had grown to a point where only a fraction of the young adults considered themselves part of the church, and some were about to "age out" according to the ministry's target age group.

With the blessing of his pastor, Art handed off the church's official young adults ministry to a new leader in 2013 and continued with his weekly house church in Plymouth, Michigan.

2015 -2017

In 2015, a couple of young men in the group started another house church on a different night, reaching their own spheres of influence. The two groups continued to grow and interact, celebrating wins with each other and helping each other.

Later in 2015, Art and one of the house church leaders started discussing what it might look like to turn this idea into a recognized "church" without losing the deep relationships and rapid spiritual growth found in the small, intimate gatherings. Their dreaming led to developing the framework of what is today Roots Church.

They presented their idea to their pastor at the time, who recognized that God was stirring something but also wisely knew the time wasn't quite right to launch anything official. Their pastor guided Art to continue to build the house church network organically and wait to officially give it a name until things reached a critical mass and became sustainable.

The two groups continued to meet and grow. Miracles, salvations, and other life-transforming encounters with God continued to be "normal" as the two small groups of believers weekly met to discuss and practice the Scriptures together.

Early 2018

In early 2018, God started to do something big. A woman named Kim visited Art's Thursday night house church and said, "I love this! Is it okay if I invite a bunch of friends?"

Knowing his house could only hold a certain number of people (and not wanting to lose the intimacy and interaction of small numbers), Art recommended starting a new group on Tuesday nights that could meet in Kim's home. The group started with a small handful of Kim's friends and grew within only a few months to around 20 people.

During that time, the other young men's house church also multiplied, launching a new group led by a university student studying ministry.

Mid 2018

In August of that year, more key pieces fell into place. First, JonMark Baker, a Chi Alpha campus missionary in northern Michigan, called Art to say, "I feel like the Lord told me this is my last year leading Chi Alpha, and next year I'm supposed to move down to your area and help you plant a church." That same week, a newcomer in Art's Tuesday church, Ron Dykes, took Art out to lunch and asked, "Have you considered turning this group into something bigger? I was the head trustee at a church of 300 people that disbanded a few years ago, and I'd love to help you make something happen. I believe this thing could really take off."

With these two experienced leaders joining the mix, it became clear that the time was ripe to start planning an official launch. Within a month, JonMark and Art both independently thought of the name "Roots Church," indicating to them that this was something the Lord might be speaking- focusing on both the "roots" of Christianity (when people met house to house) and a "grassroots" movement that multiplies quickly as people are trained and empowered to launch house churches of their own.

Things immediately kicked into high gear. The entire network came together for an evening of worship in September 2018. There, forty-five people shared food, worshipped Jesus, prayed and prophesied over one another, and started to realize they were all part of something bigger than their house churches. They met again in November, and the same sense of unity was felt.

2019 -Now

Roots Church officially incorporated in the State of Michigan on August 2, 2019, and joined the General Council of the Assemblies of God on August 25, 2019. In the months that followed, the network experienced a profound outpouring of God's Spirit. Many were revived, renewed, and transformed as the Holy Spirit made Himself known among us through miracles, prophecies, healings, and other signs of His presence.

On New Year's Eve, counting down to 2020, one of the women in Art's house church prophesied that God would launch five new house churches out of that one group in the coming year. And despite the global pandemic that impacted so many, God fulfilled His word! The network more than doubled that year.

In 2025, our network has expanded to approximately 300 people across thirteen house churches throughout Metro Detroit. As one big, local family of believers, we believe we can together bring the light, life, and love of Jesus to this entire region. If that's the sort of mission you believe in, we'd love to have you join us!