The first morning prayer was Tuesday, July 28, 2026. Twenty-five minutes. A reading. A silence. An amen. Two hundred and thirty-nine people showed up on Facebook to watch.
One of them was Silas. He sent a message part way through. His wife was in labor. They were naming the baby. He wanted us to pray.
That's what I mean when I say this is a community.
What Ecclesia Is
Ecclesia is a fresh expression of Christian community — which is a way of saying it doesn't look like a church service, and it doesn't try to. No building. No bulletin. No sermon series with a branded logo. What there is: a rhythm of gathered practices, spread across the week, designed for people who need something that fits inside a regular life.
The name is the Greek word for church. The word itself just means those who are called together. Not an institution. Not a program. A gathering of people on the way.
It's led by Matt Headley — pastor, flower farmer, Marine brat, Northeast Alabama lifer. He's been in ordained ministry in various forms for over fifteen years. He's also been on the other side of it, where the church failed him or the systems ground people down. He walks with a limp. That's the credential.
Ecclesia's premise: the church is most itself when it shows up in the ordinary hours of the week, not just on Sunday morning. Morning prayer. A walk on the Camp Lee grounds. A campfire. A noon pause on a Wednesday. These are not warm-up acts for a "real" service. They are the thing.
Where It Meets
Tuesday Morning Prayer — 6:30 am · Online
Every Tuesday. Zoom, cameras optional. Thirty minutes: a reading from the Daily Office, a long silence, a few minutes to hold whatever came up in the week, an amen. If you're in a hard season, cameras off. No one is going to ask.
This is the anchor gathering. It started in July 2026 and runs weekly. The archive of past sessions lives at ecclesiacommunity.org/listen.
Monday Morning Walk — 6:30 am · Camp Lee, Anniston
Every Monday, outdoors, on the grounds of Camp Lee in Anniston. No agenda. An hour on the trail, usually back by 7:30. The kind of thing that clears the week before it starts.
Wednesday Noon Prayer — 12:00 pm · Online
A twenty-minute pause in the middle of the week. Lectio Divina format. Bring your lunch.
Thursday Evening Prayer — 7:00 pm · Online
A twenty-minute close to the day. Compline-style: brief, quiet, oriented toward sleep and rest.
Monthly Trail Walk — Germania Springs + NE Alabama
Once a month, a longer walk in the landscape. Germania Springs is home base. Other trails in the rotation: Coldwater Mountain, Chief Ladiga, Cheaha.
Campfire Gathering — Seasonal
Occasional campfire nights — outdoors, usually at Camp Lee. Fire, quiet, conversation. Not structured. Bring a chair.
Overnight Retreat — Twice a Year
Two annual retreats, built around silence and presence. Location varies. Past retreats: Camp Lee, Cheaha State Park. Open to everyone in the community.
Formation Practices
The community uses Attune — a set of daily formation practices drawn from contemplative Christianity, Ignatian tradition, and the ordinary rhythms of the body and land. Five practices in five types: Move, Attend, Tend, Create, Wonder. Each is short enough to do in fifteen minutes, repeatable enough to become a pattern.
Attune is built by Matt and is free to use. If you're looking for a daily formation practice that doesn't require you to follow a program, it's worth trying.
→ Try Attune formation practices
Resources
Ecclesia for Your Church or Nonprofit — Ecclesia Marketing offers communications support for churches and faith-adjacent nonprofits in Northeast Alabama. If your church needs consistent, honest, AI-honest content without an agency layer, see what's available.
Daily Office reading guide — the Tuesday morning prayer follows the Revised Common Lectionary, Daily Office track. Texts are posted each week in the Facebook group.
Facebook community — active discussions, prayer requests, announcements, and the Tuesday prayer livestream. Join the group.
Merch
Shirts, stickers, and prints made locally in Alabama. The 8-bit coin, the pilgrims in the forest, the Cheshire Cat who is also the early church, and a few others. Printed on demand through local sources. Every order helps sustain the community's work.
How to Join
There's no membership roll and no formal joining. Show up to one of the gatherings. Come back. That's what membership looks like here.
If you want to stay connected between gatherings:
- Facebook group: fb.com/groups/ecclesiacommunity
- Email list: ecclesiacommunity.org/gather
- Pastor: Matt Headley · matt@gatherstudio.app
Ecclesia is a fresh expression — a way of being church for people who've left, been hurt by, or never found a home in institutional Christianity. The door is open. Come as you are.
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