We are a church of churches, or CityChurch. Our churches gather in homes on Sunday evenings for a family meal and time of learning and sharing together. The reason we meet in homes isn't because we are promoting a house-church movement, it's so that we can represent Jesus well in our neighborhoods. We don't maintain a rigid order of service, or include the typical trappings that accompany that sort of church experience. Everyone comes prepared to share what the Lord has been teaching and challenging us with throughout the week, ready to share the expressions of obedience that we are working on as families and implementing in our households. This meeting is the heart of our lives together. We think of one another as extended family members, living genuinely and transparently, becoming closer with each other than we are even with our own families (Luke 14:26). Being in each others' lives this way means life gets messy sometimes, but that's part of being a family. The payoff is an authentic, meaningful, and beyond ordinary way of life. Acts 2:42-47 describes the early church as being radically changed by the gospel. They built an entirely new set of habits shaping their home life and public life around their relationships with one another. They marshalled their resources to meet whatever needs arose, sacrificially sharing what they had and caring for the poor. Because of this they developed a reputation for their generous love. This is Jesus' plan, so that from neighborhood to neighborhood, city to city, and to the uttermost parts of the earth, Jesus would be known and followed because of the quality of the community life in these simple churches. We believe this is what it means to be Jesus' church.

We maintain a regular commitment to reading and studying the Scriptures and praying together so that we can be rooted, built up and firmly established in the faith. Per the Apostles' instructions (Col 2:6-8) we initially focus on mastering the basics, the first principles of Christ, gradually helping everyone become confident with handling the word of God, while developing a skillfulness at understanding the implications and shaping our lives and habits around them. We all share what we are learning as we gather each week in simple churches, but we also share our learning across the CityChurch network, so that everyone benefits from what God's Spirit is doing, and we have the opportunity to edify one another in that way. It is through this mind-renewing process that the Spirit transforms us into a one-minded, singularly-focused church, intent on participating with His Spirit in the progress of the gospel. (Rom 12:1-2) We take all of these ideas, our understanding of them and lay our hearts bare before the Lord, taking care to recognize where He is directing our hearts and lives. We engage in regular prayer in our homes, and in community, sharing with one another how the Lord it teaching and guiding us and praying those thoughts back to Him in gratitude for His instruction and blessing.

In 1 Corinthians 11-14, Paul clearly lays out the defining characteristic of how church gatherings should be ordered. The #1 rule is love for one another. By serving one another as we gather around a meal (the Lord's table), the true nature of the gospel is proclaimed in each gathering. Paul also paints a picture of the gathering in which everyone is contributing by using their spiritual gifts, sharing what they are learning and their expressions of obedience in artistic and practical ways. But these gifts have an order for how they are to be shared, (1 Cor 12:28-29) so that no one is left out, interrupted, or talked over and everyone has the opportunity to participate. Isn't that how we should be building Jesus' family today? Shouldn't we all be preparing something to present before Jesus each week? Something to build one another up?

Everyone needs to become mature in the faith. That doesn't mean going off to seminary or bible college, or bringing those institutions into the church, it means understanding the Apostles' Teaching in the context of our lives together and incorporating it into our household plans and our opportunities with friends and neighbors. This is how God's Spirit transforms us. First we work hard at reshaping our lives, and as we start that process, by faith, we become renewed together over time. This requires a level of rigor and ordered learning that we often reserve only for things like professional development or intense hobbies. But, shouldn't we take our faith just as seriously? We believe that Jesus has gifted certain individuals to be equippers of others (Eph. 4:11-12). Elder couples (Modality leaders) are given the responsibility to teach and shepherd individual churches, while expecting they will remain engaged in the larger network. Elders, deacons, and leading women are selected by sodality leaders after exhibiting consistent integrity, skilfullness at handling the Word, and success at managing their own households. Network leaders (Sodality leaders) have the responsibility to train elders and other leaders as part of their work of multiplying and expanding simple church gatherings, while remaining engaged in the life of local churches, sometimes taking leadership responsibility for new churches who may not have elders right away. We train everyone in our CityChurch network, including our leaders, within the context of the local church using BILD International's EQUIP cloud-based training system and the Antioch School of Church Planting and Leadership Development degree programs. Both of these training systems are intentionally meant to identify the cultural issues and biblical methodology for establishing churches and allow leaders to be trained "on the job" using a competency based approach. The current American system of credentialing a professionalized clergy is massively broken and does not address the needs of Jesus' church, or prepare leaders to solve real problems using Biblical thinking. We have intentionally made the choice to return to the Paul/Timothy model of leadership training.

We believe that the early church was intentionally established by the apostles as an expanding network, which rapidly multiplied simple gatherings throughout the first three centuries. In an effort to follow that model we have organized ourselves as a CityChurch or assembly of simple churches. Each gathering has qualified leaders, with the ability to design their own ministry plans to suit their particular situation. These leaders also engage in training and shepherding conversations with one another, creating a stable, single-minded focus across our immediate network of simple gatherings, the CityChurch concept. Each family is encouraged to develop their own mission strategy for their sphere of relationships, and share those with their simple churches so that they can assist one another in loving their neighbors. It is out of these sort of genuine, caring relationships that new churches are born. Our CityChurch is also a part of a network in New Jersey (Metro Equipping Coalition), North America (BILD International), and extending globally through our partnership with the Center for Global Church-Based Theological Education (a network of networks). While other churches in our broader network may come from different backgrounds or various traditions, we all share the same set of values and practices, which allow us to maintain a unity of purpose, and a deep fellowship, while still addressing our unique ministry contexts.

Jesus' plan all along was to see simple churches form in homes and neighborhoods who would naturally and spontaneously multiply through deep, caring relationships. To accomodate and accelerate that growth, while retaining a one-minded focus, He appointed Apostles to set those spontaneous gatherings in order and to move among the simple churches and clusters of churches, linking them with one-another. Paul, particularly, was given this role, which included identifying and training a number of other leaders and co-workers who could assist in this process. As the networks of churches grew and expanded across the Roman Empire, more leaders were necessary. This apostolic role (with a lower case 'a') is still Jesus' plan for establishing His church. These teams of sodality leaders or apostolic leaders work within and across local church situations to strengthen them, and beyond those situations to intentionally plant churches in new areas. These teams of leaders are what we consider to be the biblical idea of missionary teams. All of us are to be participating in Jesus' mission, in our homes, neighborhoods and simple churches, as well as supporting and engaging with these missionary teams that move among us and beyond us, going out and making disciples by baptizing, establishing churches, teaching them and appointing leaders to shepherd them. At Grace CityChurch we have sodality leaders that are engaged with us right here. We are also affiliated with one of these teams who is focusing on church planting and leadership development throughout the New Jersey / NYC area (Metro Equipping Coalition). Additionally we support and network with missionary teams across North America and globally, both at a partnership level with BILD International and the Center for Global Church-Based Theological Education, as well as personally through supporting a specific team that is training leaders throughout Europe, with active training situations in Albania, Kosovo, France, Ukraine, Poland, Belgium and Holland.

We believe that it is important for us to be aware of our surroundings, to understand the times we live in, and recognize the ideologies and worldviews we all bump up against constantly. These worldviews or paradigms can seem to offer practical solutions, but are often driven by human efforts, sometimes undergirded by spiritual forces with evil intentions. Our plan to address this is to master an understanding of the story of the Bible. We view the Bible as God’s grand story of creation to new creation, which provides us with a context for understanding both the world around us and Jesus’ plan to redeem it through His sacrificial initiation of a new people that belong to Him. This is our story together by faith, since we are now a part of that new family. It is our desire to live in a way that is consistent with Jesus' story, genuinely faithful to Him. This should drive our response in our local regions, meeting the needs of those around us in ways that are appropriate to the people and cultures we live among; as well as our global perspective, which will ultimately point us beyond the brokenness and evil in this world to the hope we share, the hope in the renewal of all things.

We honor the history of those who have gone before us, beginning with our church's founder, James Morris, who started a simple gathering in his Passaic home in 1889. Throughout our history we have consistently emphasized participation in Christ's mission and have spent the last 30 years working hard at understanding Jesus' grand strategy (Eph 3:8-12; Acts), and what that looks like here in North Jersey. We recognize the Spirit's work throughout our history to provide us with key leaders, maintain a faithful remnant, and use sovereign circumstances to prepare us for such a time as this. We strive to honor their legacy by fully engaging in Jesus' calling on us to become a strategic church in Northern New Jersey for the purpose of making His love evident. (Eph 3:8-12)