The future of the American church is multiethnic. It’s not merely the rapid shift in demographics, in which there are currently more Latinos than whites in California, or that the Asian American population grew by 81% in the last 20 years, or that by 2044 there will be no majority ethnicity in the US. It’s that in order to demonstrate the Gospel’s credibility to a culture increasingly torn apart by racial division, we need churches planted or co-planted by diverse leaders who are modeling gospel unity, genuine sharing of power, deep commitment to racial justice, and missional and evangelistic impact in their communities.
At Pentecost the Holy Spirit ushered in this multiethnic, multilingual era, and the church in Antioch (Acts 13) modeled multiracial and missional leadership, culminating in the sending of Paul and Barnabas as apostolic church planters. So we too are called to identify, encourage, equip, and support a growing number of minority church planters, as well as train majority culture planters to become culturally competent and aware of their influence. Together we anticipate and participate in the heavenly vision of every nation, tribe, people, and language worshiping our Lord.
Welcome to the post-Covid era, where the world of church planting has undergone a significant transformation. Gone are the days of solely focusing on the traditional “launch large” model. Now, a rising number of young leaders are embracing new aspirations.
Join one of two vibrant learning communities to unravel the emergence of this fresh approach to movement and unlock the power of key paradigms and tools within your own context. Don’t miss out on this chance to be part of the future of church planting.
Are you ready to embark on a transformative journey of prayer and mission? Look no further than Extraordinary Prayer: Tools, Movements, Microchurches, and the Missionary Pathway by Rob Wegner and Brian Johnson. This practical guidebook is designed to equip ordinary people on mission with the tools they need to advance the Kingdom of God through extraordinary prayer.
Brought to you by Exponential NEXT and KC Underground
A walkthrough of the Missionary Pathway that has been the framework we have shared to organize the training, articles and interviews we’ve been culminating in Microchurch Next. This video will reiterate, “If we make disciples, microchurches will emerge. But disciples aren’t made if the Good News of Jesus isn’t being lived out among a people (what we call a gospel presence), if the Good News of Jesus isn’t being demonstrated (what we call a gospel demonstration), and if the Good News of Jesus isn’t being shared through our words (what we call a Gospel Proclamation). That’s what this video series is about. We want to give you a few tools that will support your work in Planting the Gospel in a context. We’ll start with a framework for the Gospel, then we’ll give you some tools we’ve used to train ordinary people in planting the gospel.
“The Gospel is the “nuclear engine” for salvation and transformation. The gospel provides us with a new operating system: a whole new way of engaging every area of life. We let the gospel provide a new center for all of life. In order to see this unleashed in the lives of ordinary people, we will need both Gospel Language and Gospel Tools. Leaders who see movements of disciple-making emerge provide:
Gospel language to describe the gospel in a clear, faithful, simple and reproducible way.
Gospel tools to help disciples integrate the gospel into all of life, rather than merely giving intellectual assent, and then to be able to share the gospel with others.
In this video, Rob Wegner will provide an example of “Gospel Language” that is used in the Kansas City Underground. This includes two simple frameworks using simple language to that help us understand both what the Gospel is and how we best embody the Gospel.”
The prospect of evangelism can be a daunting. But what if it didn’t have to be? In this session, Tony Wilkerson will unpack a framework for the journey people take toward the Kingdom and explore how you can help someone take a next step.
In this video, we will discover how to have open-ended, love-fueled conversations that lead from small talk to meaningful talk, to spiritual conversations, and eventually gospel conversations. This is not a series of forced questions organized like a decision tree to yield a “presentation” as quickly as possible. It’s not about high-pressure tactics, it’s about learning how to listen and what to listen. It’s about being curious and learning to see and understand others like Jesus does. It’s about letting the Spirit lead, along with your conversation partner. It’s about discovering where God is at work and joining Him. Haley Miller will unpack a training that has helped hundreds of young people have conversations that have led to spiritual discovery and the sharing of the Gospel.
In this video, we will discover a holistic way to share the greater narrative of Scripture and our place within it. This tool will help us reinterpret our lives through the lens of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. This is a tool that is so simple it can be shared on a napkin in a few minutes, or it can be expanded to guide a series of many long conversations. You’ll discover it is a picture to help us understand the Scriptures, a mirror in which to see our reflection and a window to look at life through.
Discovery Bible Study is a simple but very powerful tool for evangelism and disciple-making centered on opening the Bible with someone who doesn’t yet follow Jesus. Don’t listen to the bad press (“That only works in Africa or India.”) This tool is working all over North America in very diverse contexts. So many new disciples are being made, and microchurches are emerging through Discovery Groups (groups of spiritual seekers using Discovery Bible Study). Often this tool is actually being misunderstood or not used correctly. This video will introduce you to why, what, and how of Discovery Bible Study.
Gospel yourself. All day. Every day. If we don’t begin by speaking the Gospel to ourselves, then we will continue to try to fuel our own transformation with will power, cheerleading, and toxic shame. We must first learn to speak the Gospel to our own deepest needs. We must first learn to let the Gospel heal our warped image of God and self. We must first and continually learn the practice of Gospel Fluency.
Brought to you by Exponential NEXT and KC Underground
Before we can begin disciple-making, we must know the answer to the question, “To whom have you been sent?” Breanna Wiebe will walk us through the context map, a tool that helps us explore the various relational networks in which exist and determine where we might have the most spiritual interest. These are often the best places to engage in missionary living. We can be a missionary everywhere we go. To be effective in missional living, we need to discern one or two contexts and approach those relationships with greater intentionality. Brought to you by Leadership Network and KC Underground.
Once we know our primary context in which we will focus our disciple-making, we have to begin the relational work to know the people in that network of relationships. Jay Pathak walks us through the neighboring map, a tool that will assist us in knowing the people in our lives in a deeper way. Brought to you by Leadership Network and KC Underground.
Jesus sent the 12 disciples and the group of people known as “the 72” on mission to the next towns and villages he was about to travel to. He instructs his followers to identify people of peace who would welcome them and receive the Good News from them as well as open their network of relationships. Gina Mueller teaches us that the finding the persons of peace in our context can accelerate our mission as well. Brought to you by Leadership Network and KC Underground.
Each of the BLESS rhythms has a breathing in and breathing out element. As we Begin In Prayer, we breathe in prayer first, that is, we start with listening prayer. Rob Wegner will walk us through a listening prayer practice called The Prayer of Examen. Brought to you by Leadership Network and KC Underground.
Breathing out prayer is probably far more natural to most followers of Jesus. This is where we bring our requests to God or engage in some form of intercession. Jill Randall will teach us another form of prayer we call “Blessing Prayer.” This form of prayer is how we join God in praying blessing into this world. Brought to you by Leadership Network and KC Underground.
Jesus was a listener. He asks a lot of questions. Even when he is asked a question, he often begins his response with another question. Good missionary leaders practice listening first, rather than bringing our own ideas to the table. Darryl Answer will challenge us to think about how we approach our context as a listener first. Brought to you by Leadership Network and KC Underground.
The BLESS rhythm that most of us love is Eating. There’s something about sharing a meal that can move a relationship from merely an acquaintance to deeper intimacy. Throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus sharing meals as part of the way he learns more about the people he is asking to follow him. Hugh Halters shares about how meals have played an integral part in his family’s disciple-making practices. Brought to you by Leadership Network and KC Underground.
Serving often feels like the BLESS rhythm that is the most missional. It’s the rhythm where we get to do something for another person. Stacy Gaskins helps us reframe our serving to see that our serving must be highly contextualized based on our specific calling. The way we serve, that is, must be a natural response to the needs of the people to whom we’ve been sent. Brought to you by Leadership Network and KC Underground.
We must breathe in the Gospel before we can speak Good News. If we are not regularly proclaiming the Good News to ourselves, we will not have a Gospel to speak to others. And the Good News will always reshape our lives. Jeff Vanderstelt will walk us through a practical tool called Fruit to Root which helps us identify areas of unbelief in our life, speak the Good News over those areas, and move toward greater belief in Jesus in response. Brought to you by Leadership Network and KC Underground.
We breathe out the Gospel in natural ways by helping others discover Jesus in the Scripture and then respond in obedience. Dori Yuen will share how their network engages Discovery Bible Studies (DBS) to lead people toward a surrendered life to Jesus while also helping believers grow in their faith. Brought to you by Leadership Network and KC Underground.
Watch Leadership Network’s Microchurch Next Directors, Rob Wegner and Brian Johnson, with guest Doug Paul from Catapult for Part 1 of, “The State of the Microchurch in the West,” Over the course of three gatherings in 2022 hosted by Leadership Network, Microchurch Networks from across the US gathered to explore three questions, “How did we get here? Where are we currently? Where are we headed?”
In part 1 of this 2 part series, Rob, Brian, and Doug will primarily explore the answers discovered to the first question, “How did we get here?” You’ll hear about the process these networks engaged to discern the critical factors that led to the return of the Microchurch in the West over the past three decades, both within the church world and the cultural contributing factors.
Over the course of three gatherings in 2022 hosted by Leadership Network, microchurch networks from across the US gathered to explore three questions: “How did we get here? Where are we currently? Where are we headed?”
In part 2 of this 2 part series, Rob, Brian, and Doug will address the barriers to success and sustainability discovered by these microchurch networks. As a note, we admit that we don’t have holistic answers to these barriers, but we do see bright spots where networks are creatively exploring solutions. There will also be Q/A time with Rob and Brian following the discussion. Before joining us for the second part of this webinar, we encourage you to read the “State of the Microchurch in the West” which you can find at leadnet.org/microchurch-next.
In our present moment, Microchurch is at the fore-front of the conversation for many in light of the changing cultural landscape we find ourselves in, coupled with the ongoing deconstruction and reform back to what many believe is a return to a more biblically faithful expression of church. Call it Missional Community or MicroChurch (MCs for short in this article), there really is a big difference between typical small groups and MCs.
by Jeff Vanderstelt
Len Tang has served as the Director of the Church Planting Initiative at Fuller Seminary since 2016. He is the convener of the Multiethnic Church Planting Collaborative, a group of church planting leaders who gather and equip diverse church planting leaders. He is called to the intersection of church planting and racial justice. Len planted a church in Portland, Oregon, and also planted and currently pastors Missio Community Church in Pasadena, CA. He has been married to Amy for 28 years and they have three young adult boys.
