If you were a parent at Northland Church just outside Orlando, and your high school child asked to be part of a microchurch, what would you say? That’s their youth division’s term for groups that “gather as a family through eating, reading the Word, and being on mission to impact our school for God’s glory.”
If the term is new to you, whether applied to youth or adults, you wouldn’t be alone. And if you’ve encountered the word, but with a different meaning, you wouldn’t be alone either.
A number of churches are pioneering different models of microchurch. The idea is still fluid but most users mean something like this: a microchurch is an intentionally simple, streamlined approach to church that’s often small, volunteer led and informal in style. Typically these spiritual communities involve five to 35 people.
In most cases, they don’t meet in a church building but in a home, a restaurant or another neutral place. Most emphasize that the mission of the church needs to be better known than the church as an institution. Many capitalize on the strengths of small-scale ministry dynamics to give maximum focus on Christian discipleship.
There is overlap between the microchurch idea and terms like minichurch, simple church, organic church, house church, hybrid church, greenhouse church and missional church—none of which has a universally accepted definition.
Here are five trends I see from the various front-line churches I meet through Leadership Network.... Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment