Matt Harris is planting a new kind of church, a church with many groups. The former small groups and discipleship pastor at Crossview Church in Grabill, Indiana, has launched Neighbors House Community Church in his neighborhood this summer. Neighbors Church offers a new kind of church for people who don’t attend a traditional church.
Matt’s passion for small gatherings and neighborhood ministry ignited a new idea: A church with many groups in neighborhoods across Fort Wayne. Even as church attendance declines in America, Matt believes that people are still drawn to small neighborhood gatherings where they share food and hang out with people who care about them.
To invite people, Matt used Nextdoor, an app that facilitates communication within neighborhoods. He created an invitation to his home on Sunday evenings for a meal and discussion from the Bible. Since the first invitation, Matt and his wife, Andrea, have opened their home to young families, elderly people, and everyone in between. One woman in her 80’s who had not been to a church in years found Neighbors House on the app.
Every Sunday evening his neighbors, new and repeat, gather around the Harris’s large table for a meal and fellowship. After supper, they crowd into the living room and share their high and low points of the week, noting how they have seen God at work. During the evening, Matt teaches from the Bible. This summer, he taught a series about church, “What the Heck is a Church and What is it Supposed to Do?” and they talked about baptism. After that discussion, six individuals wanted to be baptized, so a group member offered his pool for the baptisms on August 10.
Matt envisions a Neighbors House church in every neighborhood that welcomes, loves, and serves. A church made up of neighbors could embody the scriptural command, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).
