Members of a house church attend a church gathering in Davie, Florida, on June 2. This house church is a small congregation of Christians who gather weekly for prayer, worship and biblical discussion. Photo by Nicollette Harty
In 2012, Francis Chan, a pastor and author, found himself concerned about whether or not the body of Christ shows love to one another the way Jesus taught us to in Scripture. Chan longed to be part of a church that mimicked the early church in Acts 2.
He wanted something far from today’s traditional church structure and the once-a-week Sunday service. Therefore Chan started a group of house churches called We Are Church in San Francisco, California.
In Acts 2:42-47, the early Church listened to the teaching of the apostles, joined in fellowship through meals and practiced communion and prayer together.
They also gathered in one place and shared everything they had with one another, sold their property and possessions to financially help those in need and worshiped God every day in the temple.
Chan saw the way the early church operated in Scripture and said he wrestled with the fact that the churches he was used to attending and the early church of the Bible were completely different.
“Like, are we looking around and seeing these groups of people that really adore one another?” Chan said in an interview for the We Are Church documentary. “I mean ‘love’ to the point that Jesus wanted, where the world would look on and go, ‘I’ve never seen love like this.’”
While there was no perfect way of having church, Chan said it was clear to him the church in the Bible was the way God originally intended for church to be.
Members of a house church celebrate a birthday together in Davie, Florida, on June 2. The pastor JC and his wife Maria trained to run a church at Church Intensive. Photo by Nicollette Harty
Sean Brakey, an elder of We Are Church and director of Church Intensive, said in an interview that rather than focusing primarily on Sunday services, the main focus of We Are Church is smaller groups that meet every Sunday.
Brakey said these groups are house churches whose leaders are either pastors or elders. Each house church is a group of 8-20 adults that gathers in a home.
In these more intimate settings, members discuss what they have been reading in the Word that week, take communion, pray, sing and have a meal together. These gatherings are more relational because they are able to connect and edify one another on a deeper level, Brakey said.
Once a month, all of the churches come together at a park and have a more traditional church service with one of the elders preaching and another member leading praise and worship, Brakey said. Everyone also brings food, creating a potluck style meal.
The main reason why We Are Church’s congregation gathers in these house churches and in monthly gatherings is for the church to be one body, Brakey said.
In the same way a human body has multiple parts reliant upon each other, the body of Christ is also one body made up of many parts, according to 1 Corinthians 12:12-13. Therefore, believers cannot function productively without one another.
This desire for unity is also the main reason We Are Church prefers to share meals together and practice humility in the ways they handle collective matters, such as finances, as a church, Brakey said.
Money Matters
Brakey said We Are Church staff do not get paid. The way they choose to handle money is just like what the early church did in Acts 2:44-47. They are not against pastors being paid, but not receiving a paycheck for doing the Lord’s work helps maintain a humble, servant-like posture.
To these pastors, ministry is not a job. They are serving out of obedience to the Bible’s command for Christ-centered relationships. They trust God will take care of them financially in other ways because what they do is powered by the Holy Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul says, while Christians have the same right to be paid for their work as anyone else he would rather not get paid for preaching the Good News, because all he genuinely cares about is preaching the Good News, expecting nothing in return.
Brakey said they have seen other churches struggle during the pandemic when they began to run low on money, because they were so dependent on it.
They wanted to see if it were possible for a church to thrive without people getting paid, and have succeeded — spreading globally with various locations in California, Mexico, Hong Kong, Tennessee and Hawaii, according to We Are Church.
Juan and Amarissa Rios fellowship at a house church in Davie, Florida, on June 2. They shared a testimony about their journey with pregnancy. Photo by Nicollette Harty
Chan also has two other ministries called Crazy Love and Church Intensive, Brakey said.
The ministry Crazy Love is the first ministry based on the book “Crazy Love” Chan wrote back when he started We Are Church, and it has become a global ministry that pours outward into others through Chan’s books, videos, resources and more, Brakey said.
Church Intensive is a ministry within Crazy Love that trains pastors and elders to go out and start their own churches, Brakey said. Pastors engage in a four-day experience, where they wrestle with what Scripture teaches believers about running a church.
The goal is not to teach people to do things exactly the way We Are Church does, Brakey said, because there is no specific way that church has to be done. The focus is more about listening to what the Bible says about the body of Christ and having that be the foundation for how pastors run their congregations.
We Are Church is an example for the body of Christ to be more intentional in edifying one another. The main focus of these house churches is to cultivate relationships with our brothers and sisters in a way that is humble and loving.
For more information, check out their website, watch their documentary.
Nicollette is a follower of Christ who grew up in South Florida. She has an AA in General Education and is working on her BS in Communication and Mass Media. Her goal is to edify the body of Christ through her writing.
