Our church, described in a nutshell, from the top down: we aspire to really be about God and his gospel, in everything we do. We grow into Jesus, through his gospel, by means of community. Therefore we pursue simple church, not in service of simplicity, but in the service of keeping God and his gospel at the center.

Our simple church has three parts: Sunday Worship Celebration (including Life Training Classes); Community Groups (where we know and are known by others around us, across generational boundaries); and Discipleship Groups (where we attend to one another's souls). The minimum time this requires of you and me is about a week a month: 4 Sunday's, plus 1 Community Group gathering, plus 2 Discipleship Group gatherings.

Again, a week a month is what our church structure implicity requires of you. We think that this provides you the backbone, and the superstructure - the latticework - from which you can best do all the other things in life that God calls you to do. Really, that's one thing: to glorify God. God's glory is God's end goal. But he is not glorified necessarily by our deeds. All our deeds and all His glory grow out of our being happy about Him. Our being happy is not His end goal; He makes us happy about Him because that glorifies Him most. Our happiness about Him evidences itself as we become zealous for good deeds - that's why they glorify Him. This simple church structure both initiates Godward happiness and allows room for it to flourish into love and these good deeds.

Simple church means we are not heavily programmatic. That's not because we're against programs. Doing the things that grow out of this simple structure takes precious time. A week a month leaves us time to follow-up on the physical and spiritual needs of people in our Community Group; it leaves us the unpredictable amount of time it takes to befriend our unsaved neighbors, and to pray for them; it leaves us the time and effort it takes to do good to our city; it leaves us the time and energy to be a faithful employee, spouse, parent, etc.; and it leaves us the unhurried time and mental focus it takes to listen to another Christian in a Discipleship Group, and learn how it goes with them with the Lord, and how to encourage them, and pray with them. And it leaves us time and energy to do all these well, like Jesus (Mark 7:37).