what is a
house church?
"They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Acts 2:46b-47
A Roots house church is an intimate gathering of five to twenty Christians who meet in homes.
Here we worship God, study the Bible, pray, and minister to one another.
Unlike many churches where small groups are supplementary to the main church experience in a large building, each of our "small groups" is a complete expression of "church" in its own right. Each house church has a pastor. They conduct baptisms and take communion together. They have fun as a community, care for each other, and evangelize together.
Our meetings are highly interactive.
We encourage each other, challenge each other, and share our lives with each other. We study the Bible together, eat together, pray together, and sing together. We teach, preach, prophesy, and discern. Everyone has a voice, and everyone has something the Holy Spirit wants to do through them to bless the rest of the church.
Our house churches are a place to encounter God and grow in your faith with a small family of believers who love and care for each other. We would love to have you join us!
Why house church?
We've found that the house church model fosters deep discipleship, loving community, and powerful encounters with the Lord. It's a church model poised to reach those no one else is reaching with the love and power of Jesus.
House churches are the context in which the New Testament was written. It’s how the church began, first meeting all together in one house (Acts 2:1–2) and then in many houses (Acts 2:46). Church buildings as we might think of them didn’t become common until a few centuries later. That doesn’t make such buildings “wrong,” but it also doesn’t mean house churches are outdated or ineffective.
We base our meetings primarily on three Scripture passages:
Hebrews 10:24-25 NIV– And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Acts 2:42 NIV – They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
1 Corinthians 14:26 NIV – What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.
LEarn more:
In this video message, Art Thomas shares some of the history and experiences that led him to plan Roots Church as a network of house churches.
Discover how and why our church is so unique (even though we love other churches), and allow the Lord to recalibrate your attention on the mission He has given all of us.
our ministry philosophy
learn more:
Our experience has been that the fastest and healthiest spiritual growth happens in the lives of people who have close, purposeful, engaging relationships with multiple other Christians. Accordingly, we believe the best thing we can emphasize is active participation in small gatherings of local believers who have determined to love, care for, encourage, and challenge each other in the name of Jesus. After years of trial and error, study, observation, and practice, we have developed a model for small group fellowship that encourages such relationships and spiritual growth. Additionally, we emphasize the small gathering above the large gathering. The large gathering is valuable and has a purpose, but the small gathering is where the truest experience of “church-life” takes place. We are far less interested in growing the attendance of our large meeting and far more interested in helping you and your family grow in your walks with the Lord within a small gathering of believers who can minister on a personal level to one another. We also believe firmly in training, equipping, empowering, and supporting every believer in his or her own unique ministries. Every believer has a unique mix of talents, gifts, personality, experience, and calling, and we want to help you discover how to express all these things in the context of love, teamwork, and healthy relationships. While the purpose of our small gatherings is to engage in relational church life, the purpose of our large gatherings is to train and equip everyone together to become the most effective expression of Jesus’s love and nature we can be. Everything we do as a church is to help facilitate one or all of these three components.