Chapter 2

Early Church Life

The first meeting of Gathering of Believers (GOB) occurred on Saturday, April 16th, 1977
approximately twenty months before TAG ended in December of 1979. Three weeks after
GOBs first meeting, Jeff Truesdale brought his camera to capture a snapshot of the first
members. From a series of three pictures that were taken that evening, one picture has become
the official first picture of the church.1 Gary Riccuci remarked how many of the members
were relatively new Christians, zealous for God, in love with the Savior, filled with life and
not a lot of direction.2 GOB was indeed new, it was exciting and saw everything they did as
being novel. The group was young, but that did not stop them. While many have moved on
to other churches or have passed away, there are still who are still here at CLC that were there
that very first day.
What did a Sunday morning look like? The first part of this answer would be to say that there
no such thing as a typical Sunday morning. As part of their desire to enhance the work of the
Holy Spirit, GOB held services that some called chaotic.
In response to Larrys reading of 1 Corinthians 14, the members wanted to be led by the Holy
Spirit in a manner that the other churches were not. Verse 26 reads:
How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm,
hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things
be done unto edifying. -KJV
Through this reading of this passage, Larry coined a phrase, hath-a-meeting, which in practice
meant that everyone was encouraged to bring something to share with the rest of the
congregation; be it a scripture reference, a song, or even a prophetic word. The pastors
(servant leaders as they preferred to be known) wanted it appear that the Spirit was leading
the meetings. Guests were often confused as to who the pastors were.3
Another member noted that, when it came to the worship, everyone was involved and brought
their own instruments in order to participate. Worship was loud, [and] worship was noisy. 4
Additionally since a childrens ministry had not been established yet, the kids were part of the
1It

is the same picture that graces the cover of this book

Ricucci, ##, 2:09
3 Glen Flowers
4 Scot Riddlesburger, A Gathering of Believers (Gaithersburg, MD: Covenant Life Church, 2002), DVD,03:15.
2Gary

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service and it was very common to see mothers changing their childrens diapers in the back
of the room. This lead many a sense of chaos to the meetings as one member remarked.5
This may seem out of the ordinary for a modern church of today, but this was clearly a
remnant of the Jesus Movements effect. Sociologist Ellwood makes note of a church that he
visited was like that of the early Quakers [a]nyone who felt like testifying, teaching, or
starting a song did so.6 The leadership of that particular church was similar to that there were
no pastors, but elders.
Based on their reading of early church in Acts, GOB believed that other churches were not
providing their congregants a truly biblical church setting. 7 Thus, they wanted to build to build
this church slowly and properly into what they saw as a modern re-interpretation of the Acts
community.
To achieve this birth of a New Testament church, they worked to keep GOB a secret. 8 By
keeping the community a secret, they would be able to prevent throngs of individuals from
TAG streaming into the services and leaving their own churches. Members were added very
slowly and on the recommendation of someone who was already attending. Core leaders of
TAG (when it was still operational) would invite individuals that they were discipling to come
and be equipped further. By doing so, they were able to avoid being labeled as sheep stealing
church by other regional pastors. Thus, in addition to not announcing their meetings to the
public, they met on Saturdays, so that the members could continue to be active within their
own churches until the time was right for them to leave.9
Even though they did their best to stay quiet and not arouse suspicion, the group continued
to grow, and some of this growth was not welcomed by other churches in the area. At one
point early in the churchs history CJ met Richard Klein, pastor of Halpine Church in
Rockville, assuming it would be an amicable breakfast, but the other pastor immediately turned
to Romans 16 and told CJ that GOB was a divisive community and that if it did not end, he
would publicly make his thoughts known, which he did.10 This was mainly due to the number
of GOB members who had been part of Halpine Church and left to join GOB.
The reason that other churches did not immediately welcome GOB was because it was not a
normal church. It did not conform to the stereotypical idea of a church within a steepled
building, under the authority of a denomination, led by pastors, which met on Sunday. GOB
25th Anniversary Show
79.
7Glen Flowers Interview
8Truesdale email 7/21/2014
9Marc Fortier Interview
10Mahaney, A Testimony, 44:00.
5

6Ellwood,

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was seeking to create an alternative community that was built on the gospel of Christ and on
one another.11 They wanted to express itself through service and community as seen in the
Acts 2 model given in scripture. They wanted to be counter-cultural to what other churches
were doing in the area. It was this expressed opinion that made other local churches nervous.
It was fine that Larry and CJ were doing the TAG thing, because that was not a church and
thus a not a threat.
In time, GOB was accepted by the other churches in the region. Some of the initial oppositions
to the church subsided, and the other local churches became more accepting of GOB, even
apologizing for some of the actions and critical statements. For the most part, church members
were unfazed by the reception from the other churches.
The churchs first few months were filled with activities and further discipleship. One member
noted that the group was just a bunch of young people with a few older people to make it
legitimate.12 The first message series was on relationships and the community that they would
be building. Next came a five part sermon series on the local church. These messages laid the
foundational material that future new members would encounter in the membership class.
Known as the tapes, new members would be assigned a Servant Leader who would walk
them through the tapes and seek to help ensure they understood the materials. By December,
the first set of members committed themselves to GOB.
In July, a newsletter was started which highlighted activities happening in the group coupled
with a long message from one of the leaders or featured an article from a prominent figure.
Many of the articles focused on Christian life and how the member could walk out their lives
in service to one another. The newsletters would be in production at CLC until about 1989.
The early newsletters are of particular interest in that they included some cartoons. The figures,
affectionately known as Garys people were created by one of the servant leaders, Gary
Riccuci, who employed some of his artistic abilities to beautify the newsletter. 13

EMI
What did this early church look like? Well, an article from the September, 1977 Family News
newsletter clearly shows that each of the members of the church was called to take an active
role in the operation of the church.14 This was seen through EMI, Every Member

Clap Your Hands, 2nd Edition, 186.

Anniversary Show, Time##
13Jeff Truesdale Interview
14Family News, September 1977.
11Tomzcak,
1225th

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Involvement. All of the members were called to love one another in serving each other in the
ways they could as per Galatians 6:13:
For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an
opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. RSV
The church sought to be different from the world around them. The way they felt this could
be done most practically was through loving one another and building a community that
replicated this.

Love Fests
Coming out of the Jesus Movement was a terminology and lexicon that may seem out of place
and strange to a modern reader, but they were much contemporaneous with the era. These
events were actually typical meetings where the members got together and fellowshipped with
one another.15 However, the name may seem out of place to a more contemporary reader. The
term was one of many that have disappeared (and rightfully so) since those early days.
Another interesting term from those early days was that of a committed sister, brother, or
couple. This phrase had nothing to do with whether or not the person residence within a
mental facility! It was a term used for a member of GOB. Commitment to the local church
was and has been very important for GOB and something that the new church took very
seriously. One could come to the meeting, but, to become a member, he or she had to do
more than just sign his or her name on a piece of paper. For GOB, commitment to the local
church was significant. This idea of commitment to the church was also shown in the title
given to the pastors: responsible brethren and servant leaders.
In building the church, responsibilities were given out to the committed members. The
churchs first office was located at the Dillons house, and Janice Dillon served as the first
secretary. Church services were non-traditional. They allowed for longer worship and
messages and, some weeks, included times where questions could be asked of the leadership.
The church also had additional activities that were reminiscent of the hippie era, such as a
clothing exchange that was under the direction of Dick Moore.16 The purpose of these and
other services was taken from Acts 4:32-35:
Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one
said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything
in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a
15Christian
16Family

Initiation: Handbook for Servant-Leaders, Gathering of Believers, Jeff Truesdale fonds, page 8.
News, May 1978.

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needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them
and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles feet, and it was
distributed to each as any had need. ESV
GOB was seeking to help everyone grow in caring about the little things and to instill in the
members a way of thinking that was counter-culture.17
For several decades, whenever there was an engagement, the pastors would announce it on a
Sunday morning and the friends and family would bring gifts and balloons to celebrate. Over
time, the connectedness of the membership would evolve and change with new means and
modes of communication. Engagements would eventually not be announced on a Sunday
morning, but marriages and births would be announced through email to the current
membership.
Child dedications are another means by which the church has sought to bring the membership
together, which typically occurs about twice a year. Members who have had or adopted a child,
gather before the congregation to publically declare their dependence on God for the raising
of their children.

17Family

New, June 1978.

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