The network
Nine houses, one church
Every house is small. None of them is on its own.
How we grew
From one chili pot to nine kitchens
Each new house began when an old one passed twenty people.
2013
Kenton, eleven people
A rented bungalow, a borrowed table and a pot of chili.
2015
Across the river
Half the Kenton house starts again in Montavilla.
2018
First quarterly gathering
Five houses fill the Kenton Grange hall for the first time.
2021
Porches and fire pits
Every house moves outdoors for a year and nobody quits.
2024
A bilingual house
Foster-Powell begins meeting in English and Spanish.
2026
Nine houses
Cully opens in March with ten people and a fire pit.
How we're knit
Hosts decide, together, on the first Saturday
Nobody runs Lantern from an office. The nine hosts and three coordinators meet for breakfast on the first Saturday of every month, at whichever house has the biggest table that season. Anything that touches all nine houses is decided there: a new house, a split, where the shared fund goes.
If the hosts can't agree, the question waits a month. It has happened four times in thirteen years, most recently over whether the quarterly gathering should move to Sunday afternoons. It did, and attendance went up.
What we believe
The short version
We hold to the Apostles' Creed. Here is how we would say it at supper.
God is at the table
Jesus ate with everyone, and he still does. Our meals are the center of our worship, with the Lord's Supper shared at every quarterly gathering.
Luke 24:30–31
Jesus
Fully God and fully human, crucified and risen, the one who makes strangers into family.
John 1:14
Scripture
We read the Bible slowly, out loud and together, and expect it to change us.
2 Timothy 3:16
The Spirit
Gives gifts to every person in the room, including the newest one.
1 Corinthians 12:7
The neighborhood
Each house adopts one practical need on its street: a tool library, a tenant fund, a winter coat rack.
Jeremiah 29:7
Where the money went
The shared fund, line by line
Each house passes a basket at supper about once a month. This is everything that came in and went out, September 2025 to August 2026.
Sept 2025 to Aug 2026
Checked by two hosts from different houses every September. The spreadsheet is open to anyone who comes to supper; just ask.
- Given at suppers across nine houses$41,876
- Rent assistance, paid straight to landlords1$23,900
- Lents tenant fund$9,600
- Cully tool library: shelving and two table saws$4,180
- Kenton Grange hall, four quarterly gatherings$1,640
- Safeguarding courses and background checks for hosts$1,310
- Host groceries reimbursed2$734
- Carried into next year$512
- 1Nineteen households, none of them asked to come to supper.
- 2Most hosts never send a receipt. We wish they would.
Come to the next quarterly gathering
Sunday, December 6, 4 PM at the Kenton Grange hall. All nine houses, one long table.