In
June of 1998, six people, following what they believed was God’s
leading, uprooted their lives in southern California and moved to Roseville
to start a brand new church called Horizon Community Church. This team
of people, led by Brad and Catherine Swope, knew that God wanted to gather
a community of people to authentically express their faith in a unique
and relevant way.
In
the summer of 1998, the team begin to meet people who were interested
in becoming part of not only a brand new church but a brand new kind of
church. This core group began to meet every Sunday Night to pray together
and answer the question, “What kind of church does God want us to
become?” Over the next few months God began to reveal that he wanted
us to be the kind of church that had the following values:
“Come as You Are” — Anyone andeveryone
is invited to be a part, no matter what their religious history, socio-economic
background, level of faith, or political persuasion.
“Raise the Bar” — We don't want to just
talk about faith, we want to live it. We don’t want to just discuss
virtue, we want to become virtuous people. We want to treat faith at least
as seriously as everything else in life.
“Change the World” — We want to do more
than just have a life goal of personal comfort and prosperity. We want
to become a community of world-changers and world shapers.
And so in January 1999, we started an evening “coffeehouse”
dedicated to worship, and real dialogue on faith. In the first few months
of that year as people experienced our “coffeehouse,” slowly
a community of like-minded people began to form. The more time we spent
together, the more our commitment to God and to each other grew.
Later that summer, God began to challenge us to move our faith to a whole
new level. We began an intense study of Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon
on the Mount. As the summer drew to a close, many of us decided for the
1st time that we actually wanted to live what Jesus taught. We began to
think about how we could become the kind of people who could follow Jesus
radical teaching.
In September of 1999, in order to accomplish this goal of being a people
who were determined to live out their faith, we changed locations and
format and launched Sunday evening community worship services. The next
few months, we learned much about the power of corporate worship. As we
did, more and more people began to be drawn into our unique fellowship.
In April 2000, we again felt it was time to adjust our format. This time
we moved our services to Sunday mornings and moved back to a coffeehouse
format. We immediately became more diversified, reaching a broader spectrum
of people, and so launched a children’s program to better minister
to our younger members. We also began to learn how to meet in small groups
to more intentionally pursue our faith.
In the fall of 2000, God began to direct us to use our collective resources
to begin to make a difference in the greater community. We began by getting
involved with children from abusive homes living at the Children’s
Receiving Home of Sacramento. That taste stirred a desire in us to feed
the hungry, help the homeless, and resource those in poverty.
In the spring of 2001, we began to be exposed to the ministry of a church
in the Washington DC area named The
Church of the Savior. This church invested itself in one of the poorest
neighborhoods in DC over a 60-year period. They drew a circle around this
area and said, “These people are our people and their problems are
our problems.” The result was thriving ministries called “mission
groups” that completely changed the spiritual and physical landscape
of the area.
Due to their influence, in the spring of 2002, we created something called
“Common Meal” that sought to build “bridges” to
the homeless and low-income families in our area. This meal is a dinner
prepared once per month where we gather to eat with and get to know the
homeless in our area. Once relationship is established, it is far easier
to include them in the various activities of our church community. We
have averaged more than 125 -175 people per meal, and have seen some of
these folk slowly begin to join us in our small groups and our Sunday
worship services.
In 2003-2004, we established a relationship with K.I.S.S., the transitional
home for women and their children who are coming out of abusive relationships
or off the streets. We are attempting to care for the physical, emotional
and spiritual needs of these women and children. We began a food distrubution
program called Graceful Giving which gives grocereies to those in need
at the end of each month ...and we helped to found the Gathering
Inn and emergency winter shelter for the Homeless in Placer County.
In 2005, we moved into our first church home which we occupy 24 hours
a day and 7 days a week. Both our children's workers and our worship
band seem very content not to have to tear down and pack up every week
after church. We also hope to establish a new missional hub for a ministry
to the poor early in 2006.
What’s next for this thriving community? Only God knows. But we know
we have only scratched the surface of our call to prayer, community, and
mission. And we’d love for you to join us on this journey and become
part of our new and exciting community.
