I believe that over the next several years, micro churches will become an important part of renewal within The United Methodist Church.
While there are many different settings in which micro churches might thrive, I believe that the greatest potential may be in planting new churches. As micro churches continue to multiply and grow, leadership would increasingly be pushed to the local level. A pastor could be appointed to oversee a network of 20 micro churches and serve as a circuit rider in ways that are similar to early Methodism. This allows churches to be planted with little overhead and initial expenditure of resources and for healthy congregations to more easily birth congregations than may otherwise be possible.
I believe that micro churches will have a significant impact on the way that churches are planted in The United Methodist Church.
How do you respond to this idea?
This is part of a series of posts about micro churches. You can read more in the next several days at these posts:
- Micro Church: Renewing the Mainline Church (1 of 5)
- Micro Church: Home (2 of 5)
- Micro Church: College (3 of 5)
- Micro Church: Existing Congregation (4 of 5)
can your micro church label be translated as house churches? or are we looking at more the old school parish sizes?
Gavin – Good question. Micro church = 10 to 20 people recognizing that it might not always be in a home. A network of 15 to 20 micro churches would make up a circuit to which a pastor might be appointed.
Andrew, your idea might be an aid in gaining traction against: RT @jr_briggs: Top 10 reasons why church planting in North America is in trouble http://bit.ly/bX4Co
michael – Thanks for your encouragement. How do you see this coming to be?