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Monday, June 16, 2014

Micro-Church


We all know about the megachurches in the U.S. But most of the churches in the U.S. are small churches. Now there seems to be a movement to even smaller gathers. Take St. Lydia's, a Dinner Church for example. They are a church of 30 that meet around dinner tables to share a meal and worship together. They have been meeting in a less than 1,000 square foot space. Now moving to a little bit larger space but with the focus still on the meal and sitting together in community. Rev. Emily D. Scott, pastor of Dinner Church, says, "Dinner Church takes place on a small scale. We might call it a micro-scale. In a macro-city like New York, one can feel like a tiny cog in a giant machine. … A gathering of 30 or so folks over a meal we cook together. Everyone is known by name (we're all wearing name tags) and folks there for the first time are invited to chop vegetables or set out silverware." Keep reading

See also
Breaking (More) Bread Together
St. Lydia's Dinner Church
The concept of a micro-church has merit even though the example of such a church given in this article is "a progressive, GLBTQ affirming congregation." The idea should not be dismissed out of hand for that reason. The second article, "Breaking (More) Bread Together" does point to the importance of carefully sizing up a particular community or target group before launching a particular kind of micro-church. Those pioneering a micro-church cannot simply copy what another group is doing elsewhere. They must tailor their micro-church to the particular community or target group. 

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