Our Story
Our Roots
Formerly known as Community Christian Center, Oikos Ministries began in 1992 as a church in the home of Teryl & Diane Hebert. Although we started in a home, we were still in a traditional mindset and quickly moved into a rented building.
We knew the church needed to be small in order to be most effective in our goals of relational ministry, true fellowship, and deep discipleship. So, as we continued to grow, we planted more churches; but there was still a necessary intimacy missing in the structure of corporate worship we were in.
On Sunday mornings, at times there was a lack of up to 3 out of the 4 pillars mentioned in Acts 2:42. With this, we saw a hindering in the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
Calling the church back home
God began revealing to us that the traditional congregational worship service was not biblical. We began to see it was designed by man, not by God, and prevented truly deep relationships.
We soon realized the need to get smaller was a call to bring the church back home.
So, after 13 years, five location changes, three church plants, and non-stop building projects, Oikos Ministries returned to the New Testament pattern of worship and began meeting in homes. Since then, we have become a network of House Churches joined together, walking in true discipleship and edification.
Benefits of House Church
The corporate structure tied the hands of the church; and as we moved into the House Church Model, we began to see the church released in all of her gifts. With the abundance of light in House Church we saw maturity and growth. The Body was truly able to be the Body to one another with the deepened relationships.
By allowing the Holy Spirit to lead from house to house, the whole dynamic of church changed. There was true growth because it was no longer about one man bringing the message, but every joint was given the opportunity to supply.
This enabled us to experience the fullness of joy found in 1 Corinthians 14:26: “Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.”
We have found by bringing the church back home – back to its original framework – it was allowed to flourish as the church did after Pentecost. By breaking away from the traditions of men, full power, authority, and leadership has been given back to the Holy Spirit.