About

Christ House is shaped by two ideas: discipleship and family. That’s where we take our name from:

- “Christ” is the object of biblical discipleship. Christian worship, teaching and maturation are meant to be Christ exalting, Christ centered and Christ conforming. He is the central identity of our lives and a healthy church should be growing more and more into His likeness.

- “House” is not meant to imply that we are a “house church” in the sense of making meeting in homes a distinctive. Rather we believe that the family is the biblical paradigm for human flourishing and that the church is called to be a restored family in Christ.

 The framework by which Christ House seeks to accomplish these goals is based around two basic vehicles for church life: the Sunday Gathering and our weekly Discipleship Groups.

Sunday Gathering - this is an informal take on historic, Biblical worship. The result is a blend of liturgical forms, doctrinally selected contemporary and traditional music, expository preaching, small group discussion during the service, weekly communion, catechism and a fellowship meal. In short: if you took historic Anglican worship, allowed people to dress like they are at home and added discussion to the service, you’ll get Christ House.

Discipleship Groups - our entire church is arranged into groups (we sometimes call them “houses”) so that our discipleship can happen in a more personal manner. The group leaders, in turn, form their own group that meets weekly with the pastor. The groups meet during our Sunday service, right after the sermon, to discuss ways to apply God's Word in our lives. Groups meet again during the week to follow-up on those plans and to pray and encourage each other. A typical, weekly group meeting includes intentional time for prayer, discussion of that week's catechism question and planning of activities to do together as an aspect of our discipleship. Groups are not arranged around interests or ages lines, but voluntarily and inter-generational so as to form a Christian family structure. Our church, in this sense, is a family of families in Christ where your biological family can join in and be discipled into taking that same dynamic from church into the home.

Doctrinally, Christ House strives to be Evangelical in the historic and confessional sense, while maintaining unity across internal divides. This is the ethos and reality within our denominational family, despite what an outsider might assume from our historical origins being Wesleyan and Holiness. While we do have many happy Wesleyans among us, our local family embraces a diversity of Calvinists and Arminians who are both well-read and gracious in their dialogue. Our church catechism is the New City Catechism put out by the Gospel Coalition and Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York. While we do offer and embrace household baptism (including infant family members) as a covenantal sign (not a saving act), we have families who are convicted of a more Baptist view of sacraments and thus wait for an adult profession of faith before being baptized. We embrace the breadth of these positions in our practice because we believe the church and pastor should partner with families and defer to the parents in the discipleship of their home, where possible. For us, that means taking strong stances on the inspiration and authority of scripture and salvation by grace through faith in Christ while being willing to walk together graciously on others issues that we think Christ-loving, Bible-believing Christians can reasonably differ in their convictions. In our preaching we generally identify where the different sides come out on these issues and try to take an humble, honest tone when stating where our pastor and denomination stand.

We'd love for you to bring your family and join us some time. Hope to see you soon!

-tim king, pastor

Christ House

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