After years of leading churches, preaching sermons, and growing ministries—Russ Johnson realized something essential:

The modern church model is built on the myth of a transactional god—so it was designed to sustain itself by managing behavior, not freeing people into a life of trust.

The truth is, the gospel—the news of God’s unconditional grace—doesn’t sell to a world addicted to doing. And the way people actually learn to live free—through unhurried conversations of grace—doesn’t fit a system that needs control.

Somewhere between the burnout and the backyard wine, Russ finally saw it: The gospel of grace is a lark—a joke, a prank on religion, played by the God who never followed the rules we made for Him.

Jesus didn’t come to make us better. He came to heal our blindness—to help us see the God who had already made His home in all of us.

So he didn’t start another church. He partnered with his longtime friend, Tony Sorci, to start Lark: a movement of friends who are setting faith free—from the myth of a conditional god, the pressure to improve, and the church brands that divide.

Because the tattered stories of our lives—and the shipwreck of human history—are the very places Jesus said He could be found. To speak of Him, as Scripture shows us, is never to speak of Him in isolation. It’s to speak of the Father and Spirit who are one with Him—and of all humanity. For in Him is “life” itself, our very existence, “the one in whom we live and move and have our being” (John 10; 14; Acts 17).

This is why any version of “following Jesus” or “having real faith” that centers on perfecting your story or fixing society misses the point. It doesn’t just fail us; it fails Him. It fails Jesus because it undermines the reconciliation He already accomplished for everyone (Col 1:15-20). And it fails the world because it offers a false hope—a hope dependent on what we’re doing and who we’re becoming, instead of the freedom found in who Jesus already is for us.

When we look to Jesus, we don’t see a teacher handing out bullet points or leading a study group. We see someone who asks questions, shares meals, and tells stories—open-ended conversations that invite people to wrestle, wonder, and discover.

Sermons and studies can tell you what the Scriptures say, but they can’t teach you to live free. Why? Because faith isn’t something you master—it’s something you practice. And that happens in conversations where you can be honest about who you are and where you’re at in life. It’s unhurried and unplanned, not pushed or programmed.

It’s for this reason that we’re committed to the one thing we can do: bring the open-ended conversation of grace into real life, rather than straining to bring the change we believe is needed in others and within our control.

The Church, as described in Scripture, is not a place or an event but a people. Flawed, everyday people who are learning to trust Jesus. It’s not somewhere we go; it’s who we are as those who live and move in the "body" of Christ (Eph 1:22).

When the Church gathered, Scripture describes it as an ekklesia—a cultural term that existed long before the Church for political, military, or civic meetings. It wasn’t a religious word; it was a word for gathering. In the early days of the Church, these gatherings happened in homes, around meals, and in unplanned spaces.

Stating "Jesus is Lord," instead of Caesar, was illegal. So Rome wasn’t granting building permits, they were handing out arrest warrants. And declaring "Jesus is the Messiah" clashed with Judaism, leaving no space for rented synagogues on Sunday.

This forced simplicity brought something needed instead: a Church marked by "unnamed friendships” where grace was unconditional, faith was unhurried, and growth was unplanned. The key is trusting Jesus enough to let it be that simple.

We hold to the doctrines expressed in the Apostle's Creed in general, and specifically to the following:

About Christ: Aware of humanity's perpetual love affair with performance, Jesus tells the most shocking stories of grace to level all our empires of progress. For both religious Pharisees with resumes and despondent tax-collecting outcasts, Jesus did the impossible. He reconciled all to God through His death and resurrection. This “Good News” is the invitation out of the exhausting madness of trying to hide the junk of our lives. We are free to be nothing in Christ.

About Church: The mystery of the kingdom of God is like a dragnet being hauled to shore, catching everything in its path. It rejects nothing, Jesus said. One day this net will arrive on the beach, and the angels, not us, will determine what is and what is not. In the meantime, we are free to be what we are: a random sampling of the frail world that God has united himself to in Christ. To be the Church and pretend we are anything more would be false advertisement.

About Change: We are conditional creatures. But only because we love the allure of control that lies with if/then transactions. We want a life of sight—not faith; a life that’s about here—not hope in a place to come; a life that offers lists to assure we’re okay—not a way of love that doesn’t compute. One is tidy, the other is messy. But only one is the life God has actually given us. Like branches on a Vine, we exist solely in the hands of a Vinedresser. Transformation is His work, and happens in his time. Not ours.

Yes, Lark is a licensed non-profit organization governed by a dedicated Board of Directors. Together, we are committed to setting faith free—from the myth of a conditional god, the pressure to improve, and the church brands that divide.

As a recognized non-profit, all donations to Lark are tax-deductible.