• Living out a relationship with the risen Christ in the ordinary, daily rhythms of life.
• Being Christ’s hands, eyes, ears, heart and voice in the places where people live, play and work.
• Not being dependent upon facilities or elaborate control structures in order to be fruitful.
• Trusting the real and living presence of Christ to guide and provide.
• Living out our faith in close relationships that place a high value on encouragement, accountability, and the sharing and receiving of one another’s giftedness.
• Maintaining a missional focus as the centerpiece of everything that we do.

“I don’t care for organized religion.”
“I can’t stand the politics of church.”
“All they ever talk about at church is money.”
“When I go to church, I feel like a spectator seated for a production.”
“Church seems to be all about control and agendas.”

Chances are, if you have a pulse, you have heard one or more of these phrases uttered from time to time. Perhaps you have said them yourself. While these phrases used to be mostly relegated to those who were outside of the church – these indictments have more recently been found to fall from the lips of those within the church. Notwithstanding the mixed motives of some in making these indictments, it might be helpful to sort out whether or not there is any truth to the criticism. You see, the organized, institutional church doesn’t have the best track record of listening very reflectively to its critics. And, that has been true all the way back to the Book of Revelations – where the critic happened to be the founder – Jesus Himself. Basically, Jesus was saying to many of the churches in the Book of Revelations, “Hey, if you don’t get your act together and begin to do church and to be the church in the way that I intended, I am outta here.”

What were some of the problems that Jesus noticed in these churches? Well, at Ephesus, it seemed as if there were men running around trying to be big-shots – trying to control other people with the title of Apostle. There was also the problem of having lost sight of foundational principles – like being in love with Jesus. In Pergamum & Thyatira, the churches so wanted to be relevant and popular, that they adopted the customs and rituals of the surrounding religions. The church at Sardis was living off of its past reputation of greatness without the hint of a current & intimate relationship with the living Christ. The church at Laodicea was guilty of equating financial prosperity with spiritual vitality. In doing so, they had become spiritually lethargic and impotent.

And so it goes. Most of the epistles in the New Testament were written towards churches that drifted from the elemental teachings of the faith. It was one of the Apostle Paul’s greatest anxieties when he said, “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from the simple and pure devotion to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:3... (Read the whole article....)

LTGs: Our structure is very simple. We encourage everyone who is a part of Patrick Crossing to be involved in a small group of no more than three people that is gender specific, where we read 25 chapters of Scripture per week. We call these Life Transformation Groups (LTGs) . We then meet to discuss what we have read and the implications it has for our lives. We also ask one another some tough, Proverb-like accountability questions that challenge our internal world – the place where Jesus said that most of our problems come from. You know, things like suppressed anger, bitterness, lust, coveting and such. And, it is in these small groups that we think and pray about relationships we have with people who we would like to help discover a personal relationship with Christ.

Simple Church is the next level of structure. It is here where we meet with a slightly larger group of people in homes, restaurants, places of business, etc. for worship, prayer and the study of God’s word. Most of these groups are regionally based.

The Gathering is the final level of structure. In The Gathering, we bring together all of the LTGs and the organic churches for a time of worship, teaching, sharing in the Lord’s Table (Eucharist), and allow for a time of healing prayer and the free expression of spiritual gifts. The Gathering can happen in a rented facility, in a field or on a mountaintop.