Isaac's Keep | Reformed Canton Church in Downtown Canton, GA

written by Paula Nix

I’ll be honest. When the discussion of Isaac’s Keep becoming a house church originated, my first thought was something along the lines of “Does that mean I would have to mop every week?” I know. Not overly spiritual. But not far after that came the thought, “That might actually be kind of nice.”

Then, several months later God once again ordained that Isaac’s Keep should find a new place to worship. Moving isn’t really anything new for IK, in my estimation we have met in 6 places in our 2 1/2 year existence. This time, like in others, the transition didn’t exactly go as we had planned. And so, on Tuesday when my husband informed me that the following Sunday’s worship would be held in our living room, my first thought was, “Does that mean I have to mop this week??”

I am happy to say that our first week in the Nix living room was absolutely wonderful, even without my mopping : ) In fact, I think that our last four weeks of worshipping together as a house church have been some of my favorite worship services so far. After that first Sunday, we had a time of discussion about the positives and the challenges of becoming a house church. It was wonderfully encouraging, so I thought I’d share some of it here.

First, we all shared things that came into our minds as the positives of meeting in our home each week- such things as the intimacy of meeting in a home, the opportunities to leisurely talk over coffee and hang out after the service is over, the fact that our finances are now free to support ministries and passions of those within the church as well as those in need both locally and globally, and the fact that, for the foreseeable future, we have a permanent home. My favorite positive mentioned was that being a house church just seems to fit who IK is-relational, missional, intimate. As one elder put it, “Part of me wonders why we haven’t been doing this all along.”

Then, of course, we talked about some of the challenges of being a house church in our culture and context. Let’s face it, in the south (and in much of the U.S.) “church” is synonymous with “building”. When we ask folks “Where do you go to church?”, we are usually looking for a location as much as a name and denomination. And replying, “In my house,” sounds a little, well, weird.

But I’m pretty sure that the first time churches started meeting in separate buildings instead of homes there were people who said, “That’s weird! Why would they want to do that?” Throughout church history, and history in general really, there have been a lot of things that seemed weird at the start just because they weren’t the norm. And that’s okay.

I think what we are learning is that meeting in home or meeting in a building or meeting in a park isn’t what really matters. You can do any or all of those and it isn’t what defines you as a church. What defines a church is the people- their passion for spreading the glory of God, their love for others, and the way they live out the words of Scripture in their everyday lives. My prayer is that IK would be defined by all of those things. And if you’re looking for a family like that, our home is always open.

#4 Help Christians renew their cultures by the gospel through community.
#5 Help cultivate within churches, organizations, and individual lives those practices that are aligned with the enduring design of the world, who grieve over the agony of evil, pain and failure in the world, and who bring hope and healing through the gospel in their spheres of responsibility.

As I review the call this year I believe it is time to combine #4 and #5, as #5 simply helps define #4.

When I review this calling I tend to focus on one of four clauses in #5: help Christians, renew culture, the gospel, or through community. Probably because picking one is easier and I can usually convince myself that I’m doing all right in one or two, but therein lays the problem with fulfilling this calling. I believe that God has called me to all, holistically, and that in fact each clause is dependent upon the other. “Helping Christians” is relatively easy, teach a Bible study and you can help them. “Renewing culture” isn’t so easy but to focus only on this one can result in an arbitrary renewal, so what are we bringing that’s new or different? “By the gospel” is worthy but can often be a crutch for not honestly engaging people to understand the truth claims of the gospel. “Through community” can be difficult, building community is no small task. However, a community without direction and vision is just a group of likeminded people. So the challenge of this call is to combine all these elements and my personal responsibility in leadership. Perhaps I should rewrite these two as I become more aware of the challenges. To help Christians build up a community driven by the gospel to reach others with this gospel and bring them into community until the culture is changed and renewed for the glory of God. That is probably more correct in the way that God has gifted me personally, even though it is a bit wordier, it does helps me evaluate better.

In terms of evaluation, God continues to bless me with a preaching ministry and the responsibilities of an elder. This gives me weekly opportunity to proclaim His Word and that is what will ultimately help Christians the most and build them into a gospel driven community that desires to reach others with this same gospel until others are brought into fold and cultures begin to be changed for the glory of God. God also continues to bless me with the responsibility of directing a gospel driven ministry that focuses on connecting believers to those in need of the gospel and redemption. This is also a community unto itself that is simply focused on the kingdom of God and building it up and sharing His grace that is so abundant. God has given me leadership responsibility in these two vocational ministries to carry forward this calling and while I am praying and hopeful for greater things yet to come, I am so thankful for the fruit already given. I’m often discouraged at what appears on the surface to be very few people who are really interested in worshiping God and serving others instead of being served themselves, but I realize that this is part of culture that is in desperate need of renewal, and if I never see the fruit of change through this ministry, at least I can farm by cultivating the soil, planting seeds, watering the ground and fertilizing with the Word and then praying that God give the increase in His own perfect time. I have to constantly fight against my own pride, ego, need for validation, and sin, and find satisfaction with being insignificant in the eyes of others but accepted by Him. To measure worthiness not by the temptations of a culture that needs renewing but by the kingdom that is to come.

By God’s abundant grace, Isaac’s Keep officially turned two. Two years since we took the step of corporately worshiping together as a core group, and wow what an incredible journey this has been so far. Here’s a little taste of what has occurred since the start.

We started by pretty much throwing out the textbooks and asking one simple question, “Is God really enough?” God moved in a small group of families studying His Word for over three years, and He moved us to consider the truth that He is the goal, plain and simple. We all said, “Yes!” with our lips, but I think we were all challenged to see if we really meant it. I mean, we live in comfortable suburban Atlanta, needs meet, luxuries at every corner, including within the church. We were part of a good church, under a wonderful pastor, with all the ministries one could really hope for. But I believe that question, “Is God enough?” haunted us. I know it did me.

So the experiment began, what if we planted a church in this comfortable community with churches on every corner? Mega-churches, country churches, hip churches, etc. What if we stripped away everything but the Word of God? What if we started with the Word alone, the revelation of God? Yes, idealistic. But would God be enough or is that just naive? No children’s ministry, no staged music ministry, no youth ministry, no old timers ministry, nothing but the Word. Without a projector, a sound system, a cool brand, or a hip pastor, much less staff. What if we didn’t allow buildings and salaries to dictate the direction of the church? What if we not only believed the gospel and the doctrines of grace, but applied them to the church, and didn’t hide behind them as if ashamed? What if we didn’t find any denomination or association or conference or convention to support us? That sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn’t it? Now, we never believed any of those things were inherently evil or necessarily bad things, in fact most of those things are great blessings, but what if we didn’t have those common luxuries, what if those blessings were actually what we were worshiping instead of God. Our heads and hearts said we wanted God alone, that He is enough, so I guess we wanted to see if that was really true?

Well here we are, two years later, small but growing. No, not that kind of numerical growth. Seriously, did you read that last paragraph? You think that fits Christianity in southern suburbia? Let me answer that rhetorical question for you, NO! Numerical growth has been comical and downright sad, but we threw that out as a measurement of success long ago. Why? Because numbers can be a false idol and sometimes can say more about the community and church-style than about God and His work. Remember, we wanted to see if God is enough. We were willing to sacrifice the false hopes of numerical growth for the sure hope of biblical faithfulness. I don’t believe God is going to ask us how many were at church, He’s going to ask what we did with those He gave us and with the instructions He gave us. We think that’s far more important than trying to create a circus and calling it church just so a lot of people will show up, be manipulated by a show with a little Jesus thrown in, only to leave feeling better about themselves but not redeemed.

So we have only added one member family each year, failure by many standards, but we have grown immeasurably in terms of our progressive sanctification, being redeemed, becoming more like Christ. And not in some falsely pious parted-hair way that speaks holy talk. But in our desire to make much of God by our affections; knowing Him, loving Him, and living for Him. How do you measure that? Look at the lives of the people who make up the church. What are they pursuing? Is Jesus added into their lives or is He their lives? IK has someone from nearly every member family who is currently considering or is moving forward in the calling of ministry that goes beyond attending church or work. Many at IK are considering taking even more drastic steps toward laying down their life for the glory of God. As the preaching elder, this has been my greatest blessing, an answer to prayer. I would love for Isaac’s Keep to be a church that is truly a keep, a place to be faithful, a place to maintain our established covenant position in Christ, to continue without interruptions our covenantal lives, to maintain the biblical practices of the church, to be alert and watchful of our context but not driven by it, and to support the spread of covenant grace, salvation, and worship to others. May God bless Isaac’s Keep as a refuge that strengthens believers in the truth of the Word, so that they are prepared for a life of spreading the glory of His grace. That we would see and know that missional living isn’t just a buzz word for being cool, relevant, or hyper-contextual, but is a radical calling to discipleship to lay down our life daily, to take up the cross and follow, to die to self in order to live for Christ in the context of the life that God has given us.

I’m still not exactly sure what God has for us into the future, perhaps we are nothing more than a house church, perhaps we are still laying a foundation for greater things that are yet to come, perhaps this is exactly what God desires of Isaac’s Keep and we shouldn’t concern ourselves so much with future plans but simply rely, place our faith upon His future grace, it’s as sure as salvation, and then pursue Him with every ounce of our being. I’m convinced now after two years that we have at least realized that we can be a church without the peripherals. That God can be worshiped and known corporately even if we only show up, read His Word aloud, pray, and hear the Word preached exegetically and expositionally. That we can be a church if we simply but profoundly covenant our lives together for the gospel.

We have come this far by faith and I believe that the words we said with our hearts two years ago, “Yes God, You are enough!” have been shown true with our lives. For that I praise God for His faithfulness. And now I believe it is time that we might begin enjoying more of His blessings, now that we have tasted and seen just how good God is alone, I think we can properly enjoy and appreciate some more of His blessings without making them idols. But let us always be reminded that where we have started, with God alone, is always where we should end.

by Paula Nix

I love cross cultural ministry.  One of the things I love about it is how relational other cultures around the world are.  Relationships really seem to matter.  Time isn’t important, schedules aren’t important, people and relationships seem to trump all.  I long for that, but many times the cultural context in which we live makes it difficult.  Ours is a society where schedules and time clocks rule the roost.  But, isn’t missional supposed to be all about relationships?  So, how do we become missional in THIS cultural context?  How do we start to make the relationships we have and the people we love the most important thing? Read more…