Everyone has an origin story. Our origin stories tell us who we are, why we think the way we think, why we act the way we do, and they can even tell us where we’re going. They’re worth paying attention to and even retelling often.
While microchurch networks have existed globally and historically since the book of Acts, we’re seeing an increase in these networks emerging in the Western context with diverse and unique ways of expressing themselves.
In this webinar and in the upcoming miniseries, Everyone Has an Origin Story, we will interview key leaders from these networks to discover their origin stories and key points of learning. We’ll also explore where they are today, how they make disciples, repeated principles that may cross contexts, their most difficult moments, and where they’re headed next.
The missional conversation in the West has been snowballing for decades. Leslie Newbigin, who is considered by many to be the instigator of this conversation, posed the question in his book Foolishness to the Greeks, “What would be involved in a missionary encounter between the gospel and this whole way of perceiving, thinking, and living that we call ‘modern Western culture’?” We’ve been wrestling with that question for 40 years. Over the last two decades, pioneering efforts in the missional movement have been made with the mixed results expected of early experimentation. Now, mature forms of microchurch movements are emerging. COVID-19 has demonstrated the fragility of the predominant forms of Church, which has created a surging interest in simpler forms of the Church led by ordinary people.
Of course, microchurch is not a new form of the Church, but the most ancient one. A compelling case can be made that the microchurch is the original design within the pages of the New Testament. In addition, it is also the primary expression of the Church in the most significant disciple making movements on the planet today, in places like India and China. Now is the time for us to return to the microchurch in the West for biblical, cultural, and missiological reasons.
Join Leadership Network this year for a series of catalytic conversations with leading practitioners. And follow this move of the Spirit that is bringing about the return of the microchurch.
