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Vineyard Central's decentralized ministry was not a strategic decision, but rather the result of what Kevin Rains calls "our Acts 8:1 moment." That verse reads: "On that day, a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria."

The church began as an inner-city plant of the large, suburban Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati, and met until 1994 in a local community center. When the building became the center of a municipal legal battle unrelated to the church, the congregation was given 48 hours notice to pack all their things and leave.

After announcing this would be their last Sunday to worship in the current space, the pastor asked the congregation to stand and cluster into groups based on geography. When the groups were formed, he told them, "Welcome to your new church."

In a single week, Vineyard Central went from one central location to six home-based congregations scattered across Cincinnati. The plan was to reconvene as soon as a building became available.

But, Rains says, in their decentralized expression, the church discovered it was finally accomplishing its goals for community, discipleship, and mission. Even though it cost them nearly half of their members, they decided to remain a church distributed. "There was just so much good fruit coming from it—so much community and missions and healing—that we decided to stay in that format."

Now, after 14 years, Vineyard Central meets every Sunday morning as a conglomeration of autonomous house churches.

"We consider each of our house churches a true expression of 'church,'" Rains explains. For that reason, not everyone involved in a Vineyard Central house church attends the weekly gathering.

"The house churches perform all the functions of a church, including community, teaching, Communion, and deciding how to use the gifts and resources of the people involved. A lot of people feel they get all they need from the house church without joining the larger gathering."

Vineyard Central purchased property from the local Roman Catholic diocese that included a sanctuary, school, convent, and rectory. Rains, whose main source of income is the auto body repair shop he owns and operates, purchased the rectory from the church for the balance of the mortgage, so the church is debt free. Each house church contributes a small stipend to cover utilities and taxes and compensate the church's part-time administrator.

Rains is not a pastor in the traditional sense. He doesn't preach every Sunday, and he does not have a single congregation to oversee.

"I'm most interested in the mission side of pastoral work," he says. That commitment prompted him to move his auto body shop to within walking distance of the church so that his whole life and ministry could be located in the West Norwood community. Other church members followed suit; nearly 80 people have relocated to within a few blocks of the building. They have bought older homes and updated them. Church members have opened a café, an artist co-op, and purchased rental property—all independent of any particular church program—in an effort to incarnate the gospel in the neighborhood.

Rains puts it this way: "Our ministry isn't driven by the organization—the 501c3—but by people who connect with the church's vision and decide to put it into action."

Brandon O'Brien is assistant editor of Leadership and BuildingChurchLeaders.com.

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