Small Groups, Missional Communities & Microchurches
Small Groups
While small groups certainly existed beforehand, the growth of small group ministries came about primarily with the rise of the mega-church and the church growth movement in the 1980s. Many churches recognized that lots of new people were coming in the “front door” but just about as many were leaving out the “back door.” Churches discovered that if people where connected with each other in small groups, especially meeting in homes, they were less likely to leave and attend another church. Simply put, small groups became an assimilation strategy. They helped make a large church smaller, and when functioning well, they created a space for life-on-life accountability and authentic care.
While it is a good thing to help people connect relationally, the outcome was that “community” became the organizing principle of most small groups. Instead of using the collective gifts and resources of the group members to engage in mission, they focused on utilizing the latest small group curriculum. The problem wasn’t with small groups. The problem was that small groups were hijacked by the subtle influence of consumerism.
This can also be seen in the manner most people see the gathering as a way to define their small group. If you ask people about their group, they will tell you when and where they meet, rather than the vision, values, or mission of the group. The hope has been that over time people in small groups would be discipled and eventually engage in mission. However, while that process sounds good “on paper” the reality is that genuine discipleship and missional engagement rarely take place when community is the starting point.
Missional Communities
The organizing principle of a missional community is mission. A missional community sees itself as a network of relationships with a common mission, rather than being defined by a meeting that is attended.
A missional community can be defined, as a committed group of Jesus followers, the size of an extended family (12-25), empowered by the Spirit, to participate in God’s mission of redemption in a particular neighborhood or network.
There are 7 key phrases in this definition:
Committed group. They are devoted to each other and to the mission of the community.
Jesus followers. They are maturing disciples who are following Jesus’ lead.
Extended family. The group is small enough to care, yet large enough to dare.
Empowered by the Spirit. They are formed and sent by the Spirit.
Participate in God’s mission. The missio Dei is the organizing principle of all they do.
Of redemption. They will engage in both Gospel proclamation and demonstration.
Neighborhood or network. They are embedded in a neighborhood or network of relationships as an incarnational expression of the church.
This definition offers a framework to differentiate a missional community from a traditional small group, but at the same time, it provides enough flexibility not to be too rigid. It is important as you define what a missional community looks like in your context that it not be too prescriptive. Each missional community needs to be unique to its context and mission.
Microchurches
While microchurches share several of the same characteristics with missional communities there are a couple of differences. Like missional communities, microchurches see mission as the organizing principle of their existence. However, microchurches not only focus on particular neighborhoods and networks of relationships, but others will engage in specific problems in a city. These areas of missional engagement could include a wide variety of poverty issues, human trafficking, education, crime, homelessness, mental health and other areas of brokenness where gospel restoration is needed.
For me, the language of microchurch also provides a broader umbrella to encompass a variety of church expressions. How and where microchurches gather and engage their missional contexts will be very different. Some of them will meet in homes, as that approach often makes sense for reaching a neighborhood or a social network. But others will meet in coffee shops, cafes, pubs, community centers, apartment complexes, and many other informal public places. There will even be some microchurches that operate around business ventures or non-profits created for the sake of the city.
All microchurches will not (and should not) look alike. Mission is the mother of adaptive ecclesiology. This simply means that if we begin with God’s mission (missiology) then there ought to be lots of wild and wonderful expressions of church (ecclesiology). Thinking outside the conventional paradigm for how mission, community and worship intersect in smaller gatherings is essential. There is no one way.
Perhaps the greatest distinction between a missional community and a microchurch is that microchurches are seen as the church in its smallest, most nimble, and potent expression. Most (not all) missional communities are closely “tethered” to the larger church. Missional communities are therefore seen by many as an outreach expression of the mother church. Microchurches, on the other hand, give special emphasis to empowering people to use their gifts and resources to engage in God’s redemptive mission. They provide an opportunity for indigenous leaders to create and contextualize fresh expressions of the church. They give both the license to lead, but they also give leaders the creative control over what they lead. This does not negate the benefits of networking microchurches together for the sake of training, coaching, accountability, and movement, however those resources exist to support the microchurches not for the microchurches to support the network.
For more on the topic of microchurches read Underground Church and Microchurches by Brian Sanders. Also watch:
