Church as a Way of Life: 10 Years in, 10 Years ahead.

What Is Church—for the Next Ten Years?

When people talk about church, they usually mean a place you attend. They talk about how many people attend, how good the preaching and music are, or how much numerical growth has happened in recent years. Those categories are familiar—but they don’t actually answer the deeper question.

What is church?

And just as importantly:

What should church look like as we move into the next decade?

For us at Neighborhood Church, that question has never been theoretical. It has been shaped by the Jackson Neighborhood, by our neighbors, and by ten years of lived obedience.

A Church Rooted in Responsibility

Neighborhood Church was planted in the Jackson neighborhood of Fresno—8 blocks by 12 blocks, 923 homes. From the beginning, we sensed God calling us to something specific and demanding: to see our neighborhood as a geographical area of spiritual responsibility.

That language mattered.

We weren’t asking how much we could accomplish across Fresno.

We were asking how deeply we could commit.

Instead of imagining church as something people travel to, we began to imagine church as something embedded—present, accountable, and shared with the people who live here. If there were economic challenges, they were our challenges. If there were relational fractures, they were ours to carry. If there were systemic injustices or spiritual wounds, we did not treat them as someone else’s problem.

We believed God was inviting us to live incarnationally—to take seriously the idea that the body of Christ is meant to dwell among people, not hover above them.

So we asked a question that continues to guide us:

What would it look like if God got His way in Jackson?

Not everywhere.

Not someday.

But here and now.

Rediscovering the Church We See in Acts

As we lived into that question, we found ourselves returning again and again to the New Testament—especially the book of Acts. Not as a blueprint to replicate mechanically, but as a vision to be formed by.

What we saw in scripture was not a church organized around events, but a family organized around loving each other.

They gathered in homes.

They devoted themselves to prayer and Scripture.

They broke bread regularly.

They confessed sin.

They shared resources.

They made disciples.

Over time, we realized that church, at its core, is not a weekly event—it is a way of life practiced together in a family.

That conviction reshaped everything.

Church as a Practiced Way of Life

Our gatherings are intentionally simple because simplicity allows us to focus on what actually forms us.

Every week, we practice confession and repentance—not because we are obsessed with failure, but because we believe freedom comes through truth.

Every week, we take communion—not as a ritual to check off, but as a repeated act of gratitude and dependence on Christ’s mercy.

Every week, we worship Jesus—not just with songs, but with attention, obedience, and surrender.

These practices are not supporting elements. They are the center.

We don’t gather to consume spiritual content.

We gather to practice the way of Jesus together.

Church That Feels Like Family

As these practices took root, something else became clear: church is meant to function more like a family than an organization.

Jesus did not describe His followers as an audience. He called them brothers and sisters. He said the world would recognize His disciples by their love for one another. And He prayed that His people would be one.

We’ve taken those words seriously.

That’s why our gatherings are intentionally small—typically 10 to 50 people in a home. We’ve learned that beyond a certain size, it becomes difficult to truly know one another, carry real burdens, and grow in shared responsibility.

This also shapes how we think about children. Kids are not a distraction from church; they are part of the body. Sometimes they participate fully. Sometimes they’re cared for intentionally. Often, discipleship happens throughout the week as families and neighbors share life together.

It’s not efficient.

But it’s faithful.

Every Disciple a Participant in the Mission

In this kind of church, there is no sharp divide between leaders and everyone else.

We believe every follower of Jesus has been given gifts by the Holy Spirit for the sake of the community. Discipleship, therefore, is not passive. Everyone is being formed—and everyone is learning to help form others.

This is why we pray regularly for the stirring of spiritual gifts. It’s why we emphasize participation over performance. And it’s why we see ourselves as a missionary people.

Some of us are donor-supported missionaries. Others work full-time jobs. But all of us are sent.

The primary way we live out that calling is simple and demanding:

We love our neighbors.

Not abstractly.

Not occasionally.

But as a way of life.

A Church That Multiplies by Being Faithful

As we look toward the next ten years, our aim is not to grow one gathering bigger—it’s to grow many smaller gatherings through multiplication.

We want to see more simple, gospel-centered communities take shape in homes. More gatherings in living rooms and around tables. More shared life. More people discovering they don’t need permission to host the body of Christ.

Again and again, we’ve seen that new gatherings begin with hospitality and a heart for worship. Someone opens their home. People show up. The Holy Spirit is present as Jesus meets them there.

That’s how our church grows—not by centralizing, but by reproducing faithful presence.

Formation Through Spiritual Direction

As our community has matured, we’ve also recognized the need for deeper formation. Weekly teaching alone is not enough. People need help paying attention to where God is already at work in their lives.

That’s why spiritual direction has become a central commitment for us moving forward.

Spiritual direction is about listening—together—for God’s voice through Scripture, prayer, and lived experience. We want every person in our community to be under spiritual direction and, over time, to be equipped to offer that same attentive presence to others.

This is how we learn to discern—not just what to do, but how God is forming us.

Strengthening Marriages, Strengthening the Church

We’re also naming something clearly: broken families have deeply shaped both our culture and our neighborhood.

Rather than responding with judgment or idealism, we’re committing ourselves to formation—especially among married couples. In the years ahead, we want to invest deeply in helping marriages become places of healing, faithfulness, and sacrificial love.

Not perfect families.

Faithful ones.

Because when marriages are strengthened, families and communities are strengthened.

Offering What We’ve Been Given

After ten years, we’ve come to see that our experience is not just for us.

We are increasingly invited to help other pastors, leaders, and planters rethink church—what it is, how it’s practiced, and how it’s rooted in place. We want to respond to those invitations with humility and hospitality, offering training, immersion experiences, and shared learning for those who want to walk this path.

Not to replicate us.

But to reimagine church faithfully.

Where This Journey Is Taking Us

We are not trying to be impressive.

We are trying to be faithful.

A church rooted in a real place.

A church shaped by shared practices.

A church that forms people over time.

8 blocks by 12 blocks was where this journey began. And as we move into the next decade, the question that continues to guide us is this:

What would it look like if God got His way among us?

 I think we have part of that answer: We are a family of simple churches pursuing a Jesus + People + Place vision of the Church as we gather in homes and continue to multiply.