About

Matt Ulrich

Matt serves as the Microchurch Pastor at the Greenhouse Church.  He was born and raised in Vero Beach, FL.  Not coming from a Christian home or background, he met Jesus through an elderly woman in a Savannah ghetto in 1999. Since then, he has been trying to follow Jesus while avoiding the snares of Christendom. He graduated from UF with a degree in World Religions and also attended Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, CA.  He is married to Tracy and they have a beautiful daughter, Alethea.

Greenhouse Microchurches

Acts 2:42-47.

What a beautiful representation of how the early disciples lived out the way of Jesus: worshipping together, on mission together, and in community with one another.  In the temple but also in their homes. In both their public life and in their private lives.  There was a macro expression of the church gathering as well as micro expressions.  There was an extended family of the faith that transcended any boundaries or barriers that would have traditionally held them back and kept Jews and Gentiles from coming together.

It was counter-cultural.  It was untraditional.  It was beautiful.

We at the Greenhouse are so moved by this depiction of the early church that we are devoted to seeing this 1st century reality manifested in the 21st century church.  We recognize that it is not only the structure that brings life but a focus, love and desperation for Jesus.  We understand that you can build it and they might not come, which is why we are not putting our trust in buildings, programs, or the newest church conference hype.  We are simply trying to reconnect with the ways the early church practiced radical, life-on-life discipleship that ended up changing our world forever.

Enter the microchurch.

It’s not that we are opposed to Sunday morning gatherings.  If lost people are hearing about Jesus, followers of Jesus are being refreshed, and souls are being recalibrated with His rhythms, we celebrate.  We don’t think that traditional weekend gatherings are a bad thing; we just don’t think they are the only thing.

Faith is more than just Sundays.  Discipleship is not simply taught; it is caught.  Jesus told His disciples to follow Him, and for the next three years they did.  Paul told his disciples to follow him as he followed Christ.  And he didn’t just mean when church gatherings were taking place.  In the same way, we are calling disciples to a 24/7 lifestyle… because Sundays alone won’t cut it.

This is why we take the Acts 2 both/and approach to church life.  We believe there are things the macrochurch (weekend gatherings) can do that the microchurch cannot.  We also believe there are things that can happen at the microchurch gathering which are crucial for real discipleship to take place; things that simply cannot happen at the macrochurch gathering.  We believe both of these types of expressions have a place in creating an authentic discipleship culture that captures the essence of the Acts 2 church.

Microchurches are where the saints get equipped to do the work of the ministry.  We have to be honest: not everyone is called to lead to 100, 1,000 or 10,000 people.  But there are many followers of Jesus who are called to lead smaller expressions of 5, 10, or 30.  (Our brothers and sisters in the Chinese and South Korean churches have tapped into this truth, as they have seen hundreds of thousands of micro church expressions multiply and flourish in the past century.)  There are many gifts that do not have a place at a weekend gathering, but are vital and essential for the church to be fully expressed in a microchurch setting.  We want radical hospitality, spiritual gifts stirred regularly, and discipleship that is lived out in the context of real life and real community.

The way of Jesus is the way of discipleship, and discipleship doesn’t happen without regular interactions with the church (i.e. the people – you are the church) throughout the week.  Microchurches are where this type of life-on-life discipleship becomes a reality, and to accomplish this kind of community we have put all our eggs in the microchurch basket; we want them to be excellent.  We want them to be the best place to learn about Jesus and grow in your walk with Him.  We also want microchurch leaders who are confident and equipped to launch, lead, grow, and multiply microchurches.  If this is the way we make disciples, then let’s make sure we set up our microchurches to have maximum discipleship impact while keeping our hearts and eyes focused on Jesus, which is why we wrote this blog: to help you lead in a way that is going to produce radical disciples who are going to make radical disciples.

For more info check out http://www.greenhousechurch.org