Reba Place Church Emerges from Reba Place Fellowship
(1979-1991):
The Vision of God's Varied Kingdom
By the end of the 1970s the practical and spiritual
desirability of having a congregational identity distinct from Reba Place
Fellowship led to the formation of Reba Place Church. After extensive
discussion, the leaders brought forth the "Rochelle" proposals (named after a
place of retreat) for forming noncommunal ways for persons to be at Reba. These
were approved, and several leadership couples left RPF to spearhead the
formation of the new "congregational" small groups and clusters in 1981.
The strong establishment of Reba Place Church was a
notable new development in Reba's history. By the early 1990s Reba as a whole
had become a large and vigorous congregation with about 25 small groups and
about 300 members. More were non-communal than were communal. But the absence
of persons of color, except as visible exceptions, was conspicuous in this large
white congregation meeting in an interracial neighborhood. Reba's problems
dealing with diversity were visible in the lack of a common intake and
formation process, the drift from a united common life within common
expectations, and the simple reality of size.
