The church that meets at Rivanna River

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Please let me encourage you to visit House Church Resource (http://www.housechurchresource.org/).  On their pages, you will find "some of the best house church/organic church resources available."  Did you know over 112 million Christians worldwide do not attend a traditional church?  Did you know one million Christians leave the institutional church in the United States every year?   Did you know the number of adult Christians meeting in house church/organic churches in the USA today is five million, and growing by the day?

Nestled along the Rivanna River, we seek God in the midst of His church—an organic church.  Just what is an organic church?  Borrowing the words of Frank Viola, an organic church is "a non-traditional church that is born out of spiritual life instead of constructed by human institutions and held together by religious programs.  Organic church life is a grass roots experience that is marked by face-to-face community, every-member functioning, open-participatory meetings (opposed to pastor-to-pew services), non-hierarchical leadership, and the centrality and supremacy of Jesus Christ as the functional Leader and Head of the gathering. ... organic church is a lifestyle—a spontaneous journey with the Lord Jesus and His disciples in close-knit community."

Like Frank, we believe the church that meets at Rivanna River is striving to be organic, and very much like the church we find in the New Testament—an assembly of God's people drawn together on the basis of the life of God.

Deep within God's Word lies a wondrous story like no other.  A drama that originated before time began.  An epic saga that resonates with the heartbeat of God.  A story that reveals nothing less than the meaning of life and God's great mission in the earth.  From Eternity to Here presents three remarkable stories spanning from Genesis to Revelation.  Each story traces a divine theme that is woven throughout scripture.  Seen together, they offer an extraordinary glimpse into God's highest passion and grand mission.  What you discover will forever change your view of life, the church, and our magnificent God.

 Today denominationalism and the existence of institutional churches (buildings) abound across the fruited plain.  Did you ever wonder where it all came from?  In the church that Christ founded, a singular, simple but profoundly dynamic group of people quickly spread across the map of the then known world.  There was no such thing as Baptist, Lutheran, Anglican or Assembly of God, to name a few.  Now people who come to Christ are faced with a jungle of religious traditions to choose from.  How does one choose? Should one have to choose?  Another reality today is the explosion of house fellowships, where fellowship is really fellowship, spiritual growth is personal and there is an openness between people.  These have come out of various religious backgrounds to share in a rich organic reality that truly helps people to know for themselves what it is to follow Jesus Christ.  Join author Jon Zens in this book that takes a part traditions that have divided the body of Christ into groups, built walls under various guises and separated people of faith by distinctives that Christ did not author.  Zens is a 25-year veteran of simple church and is editor of Searching Together magazine, a quarterly publication rooted in setting people free of religious bondage in its various forms.

In Acts 2, Luke described a church where everyone shared their possessions, had everything in common and was devoted to practices like fellowship and prayer.  If you’ve looked around the modern Church and wondered where that kind of gathering is hiding, we suggest you read Reimagining Church, which will help form your convictions into revolutionizing thoughts.  Frank Viola, a leader in the home-church movement for 20 years, lays out the complicated issue of “redoing church” in a tangible and practical way, never skimming over the hard issues like unity, authority, and spiritual status quo.  Spilling over with relevant scriptures and illustrations, Viola’s convictions are sure to challenge and excite you.

What would you do if you met someone you thought just might be one of Jesus original disciples still living in the 21st Century?  That's Jake's dilemma as he meets a man who talks of Jesus as if he had known him, and whose way of living challenges everything Jake had previously known.  So You Don t Want to Go To Church Anymore is Jake s compelling journal that chronicles thirteen conversations with his newfound friend over a four-year period and how those exchanges turn Jake's world upside-down.  With his help, Jake faces his darkest fears, struggles through brutal circumstances and comes out on the other side in the joy and freedom he always dreamed was possible.  If you're tired of just going through the motions of Christianity and want to mine the depths of what it really means to live deeply in Christ, you ll find Jake s story will give you hope for your own. This book probes the difficult questions and offers some far-reaching answers. It just might turn your world upside-down as well! 

Organic Church shows how we can return to those ancient roots by letting the church be alive, organic, growing, spreading in the most likely and unlikely places.  "In an age where millions are saying ‘God yes, church no!’ most of us instinctively feel that church as we know it prevents church as God wants it.  But where, exactly, is the catch? Where do we go from here?  Neil Cole expertly places a thrilling invitation before us to join probably the most exciting spiritual pilgrimage going on today: the global migration of a church on the way back home.  Come and dial in!"
--Wolfgang Simson, author, Houses that Change the World 

World renowned pollster George Barna has the numbers, and they indicate a revolution is already taking place within the Churchone that will impact every believer in America.  Committed, born again Christians are exiting the established church in massive numbers.  Why are they leaving?  Where are they going?  And what does this mean for the future of the Church?  Using years' worth of research data, and adhering to an unwavering biblical perspective, Barna predicts how this revolution will impact the organized church, how Christ's body of believers should react, and how individuals who are considering leaving (or those who have already left) can respond.  For leaders working for positive change in the church and for believers struggling to find a spiritual community and worship experience that resonates, Revolution is here.  Are you ready?

"PAGAN CHRISTIANITY contains a wide variety of interesting and helpful historical information of which most Christians - or non-Christians - will be completely unaware.  The book identifies - in part or in whole - the pagan roots of many of our current church practices, as well as indicates some borrowed from earlier Jewish or, occasionally, more recent Customs."
-- Robert Banks, New Testament scholar, author of Paul's Idea of Community and The Church Comes Home.

Watch the New Testament come alive! Understand God's Word like never before!  The New Testament is often hard to understand.  A major reason is because it is not arranged in chronological order.  Paul's letters, for example, are arranged by size rather than chronologically.  This makes the New Testament a bit like a Chinese puzzle!  For this reason, one famous Bible scholar said that reading the New Testament letters is like hearing one end of a phone conversation.  The book you hold in your hands reconstructs the other end so that you can understand virtually every word.  "The Untold Story of the New Testament Church" is a unique Bible handbook that weaves Acts and the Epistles together chronologically . . . creating one fluid story.  This epic volume gives readers a first-hand account of the New Testament drama that is riveting and enlightening.  It includes dates, maps, and background information about the people, the cities, and the events of the first-century church using a "you-are-there" approach.