WORSHIP. COMMUNITY. MISSION.
We are a network of missional and multiplying Microchurches
In Glasgow, Scotland UK.
A Network of Microchurches.
Microchurches are extended spiritual families, led by everyday believers who own the mission of Jesus in a network of relationships.
Under the Lordship of Jesus we embrace the the small and simple, potent and powerful, and every-day obedience to the guidance and leading of God’s Holy Spirit as we live for Him.
-
For us, this all began with an idea, a spiritual hunger to see God move, and the willingness to take a risk and try something new in the name of Jesus.
The Gathering was formed around the idea that church is not defined by the tools it employs (be it a building or space) or its activities (like Sunday services), but it is defined by the people who are brought together into union and belonging by the saving grace and love of God through Jesus Christ.
In order to be empowered to reach the people in the places we already existed in, we felt that the way we defined, understood and applied the principles of ‘church’ needed to be re-addressed. Using The Bible as our reference point, and taking a deep dive into the New Testament together, we allowed God to deconstruct and rebuild our philosophy of church by simply copying what we see the early church do.
We believe the church is at its most potent when it’s small, stripped-back, decentralised and released to exist in the places the people of the church are called to live, work, and be the hands and feet of Jesus together. In essence, each of our Microchurches is truly a spiritual family - called to give away the very Love of Jesus that they themselves have been saved and transformed by.
Our Microchurches are fully church in its simplest yet (we believe) most powerful form. Each Microchurch embraces Worship, Community and Mission which we see exemplified by the rhythms of the early Church, throughout the New Testament - these make up our ecclesial minimum for each of our MIcrochurches.
Out Network provides the wider connection, support, community, administration and strategically employed Network Hub Team to serve and equip the Microchurches and help to maintain our shared values.
Our Values.
Relentlessly Pursuing God
Our relationship with God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), both individually and as a spiritual family, is the foundation of lives lived following Jesus. It is an ongoing and never-ending pursuit of relationship with Him. We are a community that values intimate worship, sacrificial night-and-day prayer, being “soaked” in the scriptures and practicing the presence of God. We do all these things corporately and encourage our people to live them out individually too. We are hungry for the transforming presence of God in our lives.
Mission as a Lifestyle, not an Occasion
We are convinced that living outward focussed lives, and incarnating the holistic gospel in Word, Deed, and Power is at the core of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. His last commandment to us, His disciples (in Matthew 28), was to go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything He has taught us. We recognise that it is Jesus’ job to build the church; ours is to make disciples who make disciples.
Empowered to Live Supernaturally
Jesus’ response to every situation he came across was a supernatural one. We are convinced that ours should be also! Jesus commanded his followers to preach the good news, heal the sick and proclaim that the Kingdom of God is near. We also believe that missional living and normalising the supernatural go hand-in-hand. We want to show the powerful love of Jesus to those that do not know Him yet; in healing, prophetic words of knowledge, signs and wonders that reveal the nature of our real, loving, and powerful God.
Networked Church.
We have a core of Microchurch leaders who are responsible for the spiritual oversight of our network in Glasgow.
We then have a team of vocational self-fundraised missionaries, who live and work to empower our people to live all-out for Jesus.
The team exists to support, resource and equip our Microchurch Leaders; to help identify, develop & release new leaders; to collaborate with other like-minded churches, individuals and organisations; to start new missional initiatives; and to align the network to be a ‘landing-strip’ for the Lord to start a gospel movement in Glasgow, in Scotland, and beyond.
We are also connecting and collaborating with other interested believers translocally, to help start more new kingdom teams.
They start out as small spiritual families, but as they grow and multiply our dream is that they too will eventually form networks of connected Microchurches in their own areas.
The Principles of a Gospel Movement.
The core pillars of how we function, both as Microchurches and as a Network, are founded in movement principles commonly referred to as the 5 Components of a Gospel Movement; Activating Prayer, Engaging Culture, Making Disciples, Developing Leaders, Forming Churches - the first 3 components in-particular.
We believe that if we can posture ourselves towards the dynamics found in a gospel movements, applying the wisdom that can be found from the movements of times gone by (both biblical and historical), then we can be a landing strip for the extraordinary, multiplicative work of God.