Hi, My name is Mark. I am married to Jan and have two daughters.

My young years as a Christian are filled with happy memories. I was part of a youth group which loved the Lord, was very supportive, and a whole lot of fun.  I will always look back on those years very fondly. I also have to say, that for me something was lacking. I could never put my finger on what that lack was, and sometimes it seemed like I might be the only one feeling that way. I loved the Lord with all my heart but didn’t feel I knew him experientially at all. Yes, I had all the normal ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ and water baptism experiences. But the something lacking still remained.
Years went by of dedicating and rededicating my life to the lord but nothing ever changed.
And then someone put a book into my hands that changed everything. I am not much of a reader, but this book gripped my mind and en-livened my spirit. It gave me hope of an alternative to the way church life is normally lived. The book was ‘The Early Church’ by Gene Edwards, now called ‘Revolution.’ It wasn‘t an alternative in that it was something new because it was just the story of how it all began.  What I was reading and my experience of going to church were so different. This book radically altered my picture of what the Church is. I have come to know the Church is a living, breathing girl, a bride. She lives, and moves, and has her being inside her Lord. She is not something we do or go to on Sunday. How could she be! When I compared the story of the early church and my present experience of it they looked like chalk and cheese.

I’m not critical of the leadership of the church I went to as they were only doing what everyone else was going and had been doing for years before that.
I had a decision to make. Stay where I was and say nothing and shrivel up on the inside. Or leave in search of church life like I had read about. It was an easy choice and one I have never regretted. That was about twenty five years ago.

Now I am just a brother in the church of other like minded people. We are a small group who come from various Christian backgrounds. We have been together since 1999 and live close together in Te Atatu. We do not agree on everything but that doesn’t seem to matter when we are all so in love with Jesus Christ our Lord. We meet regularly and sing, share Christ with one another. We all decide what we are going to discover and uncover next. We also look after one another. One more thing that is so wonderful. We are free in Christ. Our freedom in Christ is very important to us because ‘He set us free for freedom sake.’
Once a year for about a week we have had a visit from one of the brothers whom Gene was training to carry on the work of caring for the churches. They also work with other groups when they were invited. We talk with Gene from time to time over the internet. These men don’t tell us what to do as you might be thinking. Rather they tell us about our Lord Jesus in so many different ways that we keep falling in love with him. And then they leave us to carry on in our own pursuit of loving him and caring for each other. None of this we do perfectly but we exist for him, and him alone.

Mark