About Us
Our History
In the summer of 2002, second summer Josiah Project members with Rock the World Youth Mission Alliance, sought to create a space in which their friends and others might connect with Jesus in a culturally relevant way. By meeting in a home rather than a church building, the Summer Fellowship laid the groundwork for a house church movement. The summer ended, but the desire for Christian fellowship and worship was still strong.
In February of 2003, twenty individuals gathered for an informational meeting. As a result of that meeting, a launch team was formed and Three Nails was born. For three months, we met to dream, pray, and study the Scriptures to seek the Lord’s will and plan for this movement.
In May of 2003, the first cell was planted in the Strip District of Pittsburgh. The “City Fellowship” was started to provide a place for future cell leaders to be trained to start and lead new cells. Also in May, we began to experiment with different types of gatherings including baseball games, barbecues, blues festivals, baptisms, etc. with the intent of forming a community of faith. We are a family that plays together, works together, and worships together.
In September of 2003, we launched four more cells in different areas of the city and surrounding counties. We continue to meet in homes and public places for the purpose of connecting people to the life of Jesus. In October, we launched another cell in the East End of Pittsburgh. Cell Groups make up the life of Three Nails. They are analogous to families within the larger tribe (Three Nails). We meet in homes, bars, coffee shops, etc. We wrestle with life and purpose, while turning to the words of Jesus for direction and hope.
Our Mission Statement
We exist to see a contagious release of God’s freedom and purpose in the world, through connecting people to the life of Jesus through his death and experiencing true relationships by living life together.
Our Core Values
Communication with God
We seek to connect people to the life of Jesus through worship, prayer, and apostolic teaching grounded in the authority of scripture. We value an attitude of adoration toward God and His creation and revel in our relationship with Him.
Authority of Scripture
The Apostles challenged and encouraged their community through culturally adapted teaching from the Jewish Scriptures, the life of the Messiah, and the experience of His early followers. These texts constitute the Canon: the Almighty Creator’s authoritative message to humanity. We love this literature as God’s Word and view obedience to its message as the ultimate validation of our faith. We value the form of teaching modeled by the Apostles, now drawing from the entire Canon and two thousand years of additional history. We also understand its complexity and value the insights provided by the careful study and meditation of the faithful.
Worship
We value worship as an attitude of adoration toward our Creator and Lord. Focused worship may involve music, prayer, art, liturgy, or a variety of other expressions, but we want the attitude to pervade our lives, to mark our every act. Worship is our joy and our feast, which we seek to share with others through evangelism and missions.
Prayer
We value prayer as the high privilege of conversing directly with our Creator, through speaking and silently listening. Through such conversations we seek His counsel and the manifestation of His power, which we hold to be real and tangible. We also recognize Yahweh as a Person with purposes beyond our comprehension, who values our requests but does not blindly obey them. Appropriate prayer honors this Person, expresses honesty and vulnerability, and submits our will to His.
Appreciation for Creation & Beauty
We value all that exists naturally as the art of Almighty God, an expansive expression of His goodness and power. Yahweh presented this great work to humanity as a gift, of which they would be stewards. The rebellion of humanity has corrupted nature, but it retains the mark of its Maker and its power to direct us to Him. Each individual is God’s most highly valued creation, and we value human-birthed art as an expression of humanity’s beauty. We want to use our gifts to contribute to the beauty that God and His stewards have created in this earth.
Contagious Release
We exist to see a contagious release of God’s freedom and purpose in the world, expanding the Kingdom of God through building and releasing followers of Jesus. This involves making disciples who make disciples, partnering with and blessing the entire Body of Christ, and turning mission fields into mission forces.
Discipleship
As people who love and willingly follow the Lord Jesus, we are His disciples and value helping each other to follow His example. This means that we study Jesus’ teachings and try to live by them in all that we do. This - both study and action - is ‘discipleship’: the process by which one is more fully becoming a disciple. Rather than a program, we intend to make disciples within the context of our life together, mentoring one another and making the most of everyday opportunities to learn and grow.
Leadership Development
We value the development of servant leaders who effectively serve the Body and the world as Jesus did. We seek to identify and encourage emerging leaders by providing mentoring relationships and opportunities to test and exercise their gifts in a variety of leadership roles. Rather than a specific course of study, we desire to grow leaders organically as we serve Jesus together in our daily life and work.
Missions
We value and take seriously Jesus’ instructions to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth. We see making disciples as the primary work of the Christian faith, gathering worshippers of every tongue, tribe, and nation around the throne of our God. We are committed to accept God’s invitation to join Him in this work of reconciling the world to Himself by praying, sending missionaries, caring for missionaries, and going ourselves. We seek excellence in missions, focusing on effective preparation, partnering with others, and being “learners” as we go.
Evangelism
We value the lifestyle of sharing our personal stories of redemption and God’s continuous work in our lives within the context of our relationships. We desire to clearly present the Truth of Jesus in engaging and relevant ways, always being honest to the Biblical message of our need for salvation and God’s plan to provide it.
Freedom to Fail
We value the freedom to fail as we step out together in new roles as disciples and leaders. We are committed to trying new ways of communicating ancient truths through all aspects of our life together, encouraging one another to learn from prior mistakes while not fearing the “new mistakes” we will make along the way.
Life Together
We desire to instigate an organic people movement, by following Jesus together and building authentic friendships with those both in the movement and outside of it. Our life together will be marked by diversity, radical generosity, and a willingness to be changed by God and adapted to our culture.
Change
We seek to embrace and value change instead of being frustrated by it. We will be flexible with one another and how we live life together as well as recognize that this movement will be morphing continually as God directs. We strive to be changed to more closely reflect Jesus individually and as a community, responding to His agenda rather than our own.
Diversity
Our experiences, gifts, backgrounds, and ideas differ greatly. We seek to not only acknowledge these differences but celebrate them in a way that inspires us to love more deeply and to look more like the One we follow. We acknowledge that at times we will hurt each other, both directly and indirectly, but seek to live lives that both seek forgiveness and forgive.
Fellowship
We seek to be people that are a part of a fellowship: a group of people bonded by our relationship with the Father and the common mission He gives us. To do this, we spend time with one another, both scheduled and unscheduled. We hang out. We are a part of each other’s lives.
Radical Generosity
We desire to be a group of people known for our radical generosity. We want to respond freely to the physical, emotional, monetary, and spiritual needs of others. Called to be a blessing, we want to offer help when people need it, not only when it its easy or convenient for us.