Dwellings is a relational network of everyday believers cultivating communities and house churches around the presence of Jesus. We are taking cues from the early church and Jesus’s way of discipleship. We are also learning from the most rapidly multiplying church movements around the world.

We are a decentralized movement — each community is autonomous, finding wisdom and accountability in its local sphere. What unites our relational network is not central human authority but shared values centered in Scripture, simple tools, and the Spirit who makes mustard seeds grow into something far greater than we imagined.

  • There are many lonely people, outside the church but also within. We don’t think we can change the whole world at once, but we can follow Jesus’s method of investing deeply in a small group of people. We believe that tight-knit and authentic spiritual family is an important remedy to the individualism and loneliness of today. We invite isolated people into our living rooms and our lives. We engage with the lost and the poor in our communities, desiring to extend the spiritual family. We gather adults and children together, involving everyone in conversations and discipleship. We multiply into additional, small expressions as we grow, retaining relational connection. We promote unity with the broader church family. We love the Church and don’t take pride in our own expression, but love the thought of helping to build a thriving ecosystem for the future church.

  • In a world with access to all kinds of teaching and information, we recognize we can learn it all and still not know God. We are devoted to learning the Scriptures, but we intentionally invite the Spirit to bring life and power to the Word so that our lives might be transformed. We are not content with gaining second hand knowledge; instead, we want to experience God’s presence first hand, through the Word and Spirit, so that our lives actually look more like Jesus’s life. We commit to living out the primary issues of Scripture according to the way of Jesus rather than arguing over secondary issues of our faith.

  • In a church culture that tends to lean on a few professionals to lead, we want to activate the ordinary person. We help identify gifts in people, knowing we experience the presence of God more tangibly when the gifts are on display. We follow Jesus’s strategy of involving his disciples in conversation-based and practiced-based learning. We keep our forms and practices simple so that anyone can replicate them. We create spaces that encourage active participation - through dialogue and serving one another - because we value all in the body of Christ.

Read more about the three shifts we are all making as we gather communities around our center - the presence of Jesus.

“The meetings were held in private houses, or in any rooms that could be obtained, or in the open air, no special buildings were required. This drawing of all the members into the service, this mobility and unorganized unity, permitting variety which only emphasized the bond of a common life in Christ and the indwelling of the same Holy Spirit, fitted the churches to survive persecution and to carry out their commission of bringing to the whole world the message of salvation.

…Although each church was independent of any organization or association of churches, yet intimate connection with other churches was maintained, a connection continually refreshed by frequent visits of brethren ministering the Word.” (Acts 15:36)

A description of the early Church from The Pilgrim Church, EH Broadbent

  • At Dwellings, anyone can use our free tools and resources. If you or your community desires to register with this movement and use our name, we will ask you to agree with our Statement of Belief:

    At Dwellings, we hold to the historic teachings of Christian orthodoxy as expressed in the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. In a time of division within both culture and the Church, our heart is to pursue unity around the essentials of the faith, centering our lives and ministry on the presence of Jesus and the truths affirmed in these foundational creeds.

    We acknowledge that believers may differ on secondary matters, but we consider the core tenets of Christian faith non-negotiable.

    We believe the work and gifts of the Holy Spirit continue today and are vital to fulfilling the Great Commission.

    We ask our leaders to pursue Christlike holiness—living lives marked by the fruit of the Spirit and a desire to reflect Jesus in every area: relationships, conduct, work, and rest.

    Because we love and value both truth and people, we hold that sexual intimacy is designed by God to exist within the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman. We expect our leaders to refrain from sexual relationships outside of this biblical vision, including premarital, extramarital, or same-sex sexual activity or marriage.