Micro-Church: Churches that Multiply Churches

I’ve written a lot about small groups, and recently suggested an annual planting season approach. Lately I’ve been mulling over a church form that combines the strengths of both with low overhead, strong evangelism and powerful mission outreach. Tying everything together is a highly intentional, personal discipling process lived out in close community. Pew-sitters need not apply.

The premise is that rather than having a single large church experience, you have lots (and I mean lots) of cell churches or micro-churches. These are largely autonomous, and each church is probably no bigger than 40 people.

Membership means you’re expected to participate. Each church is guided by mentors (elders) who help others discern their God-given gifts and calling. Churches learn to obey the headship of Jesus Christ rather than any particular leader. The mentor is rather a kind of overseer who points people toward Christ, then gets out of the way so they can respond. This mentoring process is largely one-on-one, and each church typically raises up a handful of mentors.

The micro-churches are tied together into a network, with a central hub greatly resembling a diocese or parish. There is a central office and lead pastor, but the pastor’s job is to hold and spread a vision from God for the church. The pastor embeds the vision in key leaders (who we might tentatively call “deacons”) who are gifted and called to work with the micro-churches and mentors. These deacons also carry out the networking function, helping micro-churches stay connected. They also measure the health of the larger church through various metrics, combined with insights from working directly with micro-churches.

The office is the resource point for organizing large events or missions. One common event will be large-venue worship. This is not a weekly affair, but rather monthly or even quarterly. The key purpose is evangelism. Church members are expected to share faith with newcomers as much as experience the event. These events will take whatever shape will best reach the community.

In my own New Orleans context, I’d expect them to look like concert venues, all-day fairs or other large public events. They might happen in public parks, stadiums, convention centers or other places made to accomodate crowds.

The other common task of the central office is facilitating mission. Micro-churches carry all the weight, including following Christ’s call to mission service. Many mission projects take more than a couple dozen people, though, so the central office helps connect mission leaders to resources, existing non-profit networks, communications tools, training and whatever else they need.

The key to this model functioning successfully is discipleship. Members of the micro-churches must be disciples of Christ, prepared to follow his lead and act on his wisdom instead of their own ideas. This will never be a perfect scenario, which is why the deacons and lead pastor pay regular visits and keep in contact with the elders and church members. Much of this process is about encouragement and alignment.

This necessity is intentional. Declining churches are unhealthily dependent on the lead lastor, staff and a few overfunctioning leaders. Many just do as they’re told, passively receiving. The micro-church model takes many of the safeties off.

How to Increase Lay Participation

Many churches struggle with stagnant or declining participation from lay people. Even growing churches want to get more of the congregation active in ministry.

Often that means staff and clergy pick up the slack. This often leads to church members slacking more.

The reason lay people are notoriously passive is because of the very distinction between laity and staff/clergy. Laity are amateurs, while clergy are professionals. Lay people volunteer to support ministry, but the truth is the ministry belongs to the church, and the church is run by the professionals.

There are various strategies to boost lay ministry, but I believe they are ultimately short-sighted. When a particular mission is accomplished, laity will default back to a passive mentality until prodded into action again. The goal should not be specific participation but a perspective change that empowers laity to pursue mission without waiting for approval.

The first step for pastors and staff is stop doing ministry! As long as you’re willing to pick up the slack, laity will feel they have permission to leave slack.

Ministry is the job of the whole church, not a specially appointed caste of ministers. Pastors often see their calling as “doing ministry” when this actually robs the church of its full functioning.

Instead, pastors must become equippers of the saints. This does not happen through sermons, meetings, counseling, or educational opportunities. It happens through one-on-one or small group mentoring, to help members discern their personal gifts and callings, then coaching them on pursuing that calling with integrity. The goal must explicitly be to train and release a Christian missionary into the field.

The second step then is to train small group leaders. Leading the groups yourself maintains the perception that it’s the territory of professionals. For your first mentoring small group, seek out one or two people gifted and called to equip others for ministry. Focus your attention on them. Go to lunch, do hands-on mission together, talk to them about your work and ask for their thoughts. If you’ve stopped or at least reduced your time “doing ministry,” you’ll have time for this.

The third step will be getting out of the way. Depending on your polity and particular congregation, control is held by different people. If Christians are being released into mission with integrity, and continue to be supported and held accountable through small groups, they will need a streamlined process to gain permission. Ultimately, this should not require asking for it.

Christians will find true motivation only through pursuing Christ. The church’s job is to help them hear Christ’s call, discover Christ’s gifts, equip them for excellence, and keep them on track as they “run the race.”

Annual Planting Season

What if every chuch planted another church every year? Just a thought.

What If Worship Was…

…a conversation.

A lot of churches are experimenting with new worship service formats. Some have been for years; some are just starting. Almost inevitably, they still revolve around one or a handful of leaders speaking to a crowd of listeners.

In the new culture of networks, clouds and global collaboration, most people learn and grow through participation. The bible’s also pretty clear that everyone should share their gifts in a chuch’s regular meetings.

You’d need smaller crowds, of course – probably less than 20. And folks trained in group dynamics to keep things on Jesus and not current events, and manage potential conflicts. It’d help to have some folks gifted in pastoring to talk privately and pray with folks who have strong emotional responses.

What do you think would happen to a church that worshiped this way? How would people grow? Would responsibility and participation in worship bleed into other areas of the church?

What Is Worship For?

The obvious answer – worship is for worshiping God! – is not my answer. Not exactly, anyway. I think the real trouble is we’ve misappropriated the word “worship” to apply to regular church gatherings, of which worship was only part. I’ll keep using “worship” to refer to church gatherings because it’s familiar language, so please just bear that in mind while you read.

I believe there are three distinct kinds of worship we can find in the New Testament. Unfortunately, I find only one – or at best two – in modern churches. We have a lot to learn from our past.

Regular Meetings

We have to start at the regular weekly gathering of the early church, particularly because the other two won’t make sense without this foundation. 1 Corinthians 11-12 give some specific images of these gatherings. They’re small, intimate, and most noted for their participatory nature. Everyone is involved through their gifts to make the concept of a unified Body of Christ a legitimate reality.

The central purpose is expressing Christ as his Body. The main event is the Lord’s Supper, which for them is a genuine feast. Everyone comes together to share the meal equally. The meetings are also marked by a mutual sharing of spiritual gifts. All the believers are gifted, and all are exhorted to use their gifts in the meeting, as led by the Spirit. Paul is clear this shouldn’t be chaos – Christ guides the church in its meeting with unity, as one guides their own body. Sometimes the early churches messed it up, but were always encouraged to continually seek to be more faithful.

This kind of meeting is absent from modern churches, and I mean entirely. There are ways to use one’s spiritual gifts in various ministries, but not in any communal setting like this. If a brother or sister is gifted for teaching, they can either teach a class or (if they’re either clergy or in a particularly open church) preach a sermon. Other gifts, like prophecy or tongues, in these settings would be disruptive.

Preaching

The second kind of worship we can talk about is marked by preaching sermons, large crowds, a mix of believers and non-believers, and (if it’s successful) baptisms. This is most familiar to us, because it looks almost exactly like a modern worship service.

The central purpose here is evangelism. We can see the marked absense of spiritual gifts and sharing. There is generally one preacher talking to a large crowd. While it isn’t described as such, I can easily see other brothers and sisters leading songs or prayers for the group. It’s also likely brothers and sisters were mingling in the crowd, talking one-on-one with non-believers or new converts, praying with them, baptizing them, and connecting them with a local church.

While we see leader-to-audience services with a focus on teaching the gospel, there’s usually a greater expectation that members attend than newcomers. Not that visitors aren’t welcome, but they’re only part of the puzzle. Members going deep in faith – however that happens at each church – are expected to get their primary spiritual experience from what is intended as a sort of newcomer’s seminar.

Church Planting

The last kind of worship gathering is when an apostle is planting a church. The church isn’t ready to be led exclusively by the Spirit, so an apostle mentors them – usually for a handful of months – in functioning properly. The work is never truly completed, as the epistles show us, because the apostle continues communication and coaching in Body life. However, a point always comes when a church is mature enough to function independently, without constant supervision.

The central purpose here is discipleship. Newly converted Christians are guided into the full experience of Christ’s church through his Spirit. They find their gifts, learn to express them in an orderly, Spirit-led way, and comprehend living Christ as a group instead of as an individual. They are also taught in how to live all of their lives in Christ, how to serve the poor, and how to spread the faith and make more disciples.

This kind of meeting happens in some modern churches, but not all. In the ones it happens in, one or more facets are still missing. It’s usually done as a small group ministry, but may be a bible study, outreach or service mission, or membership class. Small group ministry is most akin, and most effective, as a small group can practically function as an early house church. The trouble is, there’s never a separation from apostolic leadership. The church is never allowed to truly mature and grow up; they’re trapped as spiritual children, or perhaps even teenagers.

The Full Measure of Christ

We’ve lost focus on why we do the things we do, what the purpose is. All three kinds of gatherings are vital to the whole church, but church leadership needs to reclaim the apostolic traditions of evangelism and planting. We also need to acknowledge each other’s spiritual gifts, and create space for their proper use.

Spiritual matters don’t come naturally to our sinful flesh, which is why it takes time to learn. Since the apostolic traditions are so lost among most of our churches, it will be a messy process.

I don’t want to discourage anyone reading this, especially those part of an institutional church. I believe we are a long way off, but rather than condemn I want to help shed light on the Way of Christ. We Christians have a long and famous history of making mistakes. Rather than fall prey to guilt, instead we must affix fresh eyes on Christ. His Spirit is a guide to us, guiding us ever closer. There are small steps you can take at your own church now to pursue Body life. Seek them out always, and pray in the Spirit constantly.

Bursting Wineskins

There’s a very familiar bible verse I recently saw in a new light. This is Jesus talking, from Matthew 9:16-17.

No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.

The unshrunk cloth and new wine are like new Christians, and the cloak and wineskin are like the church. We can especially see a declining church in the damaged cloak. Members of a declining church often see solutions in new (and especially younger) members.

But the reality is, new members will need to grow and flex. They’ll be moving in new directions. A “damaged cloak” church can’t accomodate it, and the existing damage is made worse by yet another conflict.

Rather than try to assimilate new Christians into an old church, raise up missionaries to plant new churches. The old church has experience to offer, but its procedures, habits and patterns will smother new enthusiasm. Let it instead become a parent church fostering and releasing children churches to create new families, who will in turn raise and release their own children churches. Just as a family stays connected through regular correspondance and special gatherings, so churches can do, too.

What the Church Needs

I hear frequently statements that begin “The church needs…” Some of the more common endings are:

• Young people
• Young families
• A particular ministry or program
• More volunteers
• More money

There’s only one thing declining churches need: Jesus.

Some might be quick to argue their church has Jesus, or is faithful, or feels the Spirit moving, or whatever. The thing is, the above “needs” betray different priorities. Through many, many conversations I’ve had about what the church needs, Jesus never comes up. He’s just plain not mentioned. His absence is profound.

If you’re in a declining church and struggling with what your church needs, listen for Jesus’ name. Seek him. Ask others about him. Thriving church life is a side-effect of the overflowing abundant life of Christ.

All the church needs is Jesus. The rest of that stuff follows, because everyone else needs Jesus, too. They’ll show up, volunteer and contribute their hearts and souls, but only for Jesus.

The Dwindling Power of the Sermon

The more sermons I hear, the less impact each new one has on my life.

Consider going to a motivational seminar and hearing a compelling keynote address. Now consider if you heard a keynote once a week for the rest of your life. They’d have less and less impact the more you heard.

The Body of Christ is meant to be built up through ‘one-anothering’ with spiritual gifts. There’s a wide variety of gifts, and the church is intended to worship through all of them regularly. Sermons are at best two gifts (teaching and prophecy), and at worst a mere human-crafted speech.

Most institutional churches revolve around Sunday morning worship, which in turn revolves around the sermon. It’s okay to keep it, so as not to alienate existing members. Change your focus to intimate small group experiences. Train small group leaders in worship, encouragement, and especially using and discerning spiritual gifts. Each group should feel like a New Testament church, with members ‘one-anothering’ each other weekly in the group, and also regularly throughout life.

With most of your congregation living into their spiritual gifts and experiencing the depths of Christ among each other, leadership will be freed from management to discern Christ’s mission and movement, and truly lead their flocks to God’s kingdom on earth.

How to Evaluate New Ministry Ideas

Most folks in declining churches have at least one or two ideas on how to turn things around. But how do you sort through the ideas to know which are good?

First, I think it’s important to give honest consideration to most any suggestion made by congregants. The reason is, it gives them a sense of empowerment and ownership. They’re more likely to get actively engaged in ministry if they feel like equal partners instead of mere volunteers for someone else’s idea.

So if you’re listening to more suggestions, it’s that much more important to know how to evaluate them. There’s a few simple questions you can ask up-front that’ll sort out the few substantial ones from the armchair ideas. In the case of ideas that don’t pass the test, you can still support the person in carrying out their mission – just not through the church budget, communications vehicles or any other official accomodations.

Does it support our overall congregational mission? You should have a clearly articulated mission, defined by a tangible change in a specific people-group’s lives (if not, get on it!). If the idea will not promote the intended change in the lives of people your church is passionate about reaching with the gospel, don’t do it.

Does it violate any of our values or beliefs? You should have the most important principles and foundational beliefs defined (even if only with metaphor). If the idea compromises any of these, don’t do it.

Did the mission idea form through spiritual habits, a spiritually-growing small group or discernment process? If not, don’t do it. Mission in the church needs to be more than good ideas; it needs to be rooted in prayer, scripture reading, dwelling on the Lord, and other spiritual habits. That can include small group participation, but it must have developed through spiritual growth in the group.

How will the mission’s effectiveness be evaluated? You must have two measurable criteria to evaluate the mission, and a reasonable timeframe to evaluate within. If these can’t be determined (with help, of course), don’t do it. This can be hard to come up with, especially if you’re trying to spiritually feed people somehow. If you can’t come up with easy-to-measure numbers, try counting testamonies (stories, times people cried, number of newcomers gained by word-of-mouth…).

Who will carry it out? If only one person will lead the mission, don’t do it. No mission should be undertaken by less than two people, for a lot of reasons (mutual support, carrying on if one drops out, accountability…). If the mission team is reduced to one person, that person must find an apprentice to train into partnership.

If an idea passes all five of these questions, odds are the rest will fall into place. Yes, you’ll want to eventually talk about where it will happen, what training or technology the mission team will need, and what it will cost (in terms of changes to people’s comfort zones, then property or financial cost). Ultimately, money is the last issue – although in many declining churches it’s the first.

This short process will ensure quality ministry that has a far better chance at impacting people’s lives, making positive change in your church’s world, and ultimately revealing the Kingdom of God.

Church Ain’t What it Used to Be

I’ve become veritably smitten with the “organic church” model Frank Viola promotes, because it sounds exactly like the churches of the New Testament.

If you don’t know what I mean, and don’t have time for books like Pagan Christianity or Reimagining Church, check out the short PDF Finding Organic Church. It makes a decent primer, and more importantly gives tips on how to start looking for an organic church (without moving to a new city).