It is happening again. A new species of church is emerging throughout North America and in other nations. In major cities as well as rural areas, a unique kind of church life is peeking through like the fresh growth of new crops pressing through the surface of the soil.
Hungry for community and relationship, people are learning what the church is really all about by first-hand participation. They meet in small groups in homes, offices, boardrooms or restaurants. For them church has become a way of life where discipleship and growth occurs naturally as everyone develops their gifts and “learns by doing,” under the mentorship of spiritual fathers and mothers. I like to call this fledgling grassroots phenomenon “micro church networks.”
They are called micro churches because each one functions as a little church. They are networks because the churches work together to foster accountability and encouragement. These new micro church networks are beginning to dot the landscape of North America just as they already do in other nations of the world. Places like China, central Asia, Latin America, India and Cambodia have experienced tremendous growth through micro churches that disciple and empower each member to “be the church.”
In micro churches, many are finding true Christian community where they can form close and supportive relationships and be assisted in their personal development. People are searching for this kind of connection.
The constant need for new wineskins
Here is how we became involved in the new micro churches both in our area of Lancaster County Pennsylvania, USA and in other nations. I had the privilege of serving as a senior pastor of a church in our county for fifteen years. In 1980, our new rural church plant in south central Pennsylvania started as a cell group in our home and grew from 25 people to over 1,000 within seven years. By 1990, we had grown to over 2,300. Back then, we thought we had a radical outlook on doing church because we incorporated cell groups as our foundational structure. However, after several years, it became apparent that there was a sense of unrest in our growing church.
I especially noticed this with some of the young people. They craved a new type of wineskin that would provide a more contemporary venue in which to get involved. They were saying the same kind of things we had said ten years earlier: “We are looking for something new. We need something that truly meets our needs.” Our wineskin had begun to age—it was past its prime for many of the younger generation.
In 1996, we decentralized our church into eight cell-based churches in Pennsylvania and three other cell churches we helped to plant in other nations asked to be a part of our new family of churches—DOVE Christian Fellowship International (DCFI). Today, by the grace of God, we are blessed to serve together with believers from five continents as our family of churches has grown to over 125 churches in more than fourteen nations.
But now, we have seen the need to help a new generation plant new churches—micro churches—that fit their generation, alongside the current church models (community and mega-churches) we have been planting for years. “Community churches” are needed in every community, and “mega-churches” in some urban areas meet a need the average community church may not meet. But let’s get ready for the new micro churches that will soon be springing up all around us. Let me explain it like this.
The community church.
In nearly every community around the world, you can find what I like to call “community churches.” Most of these churches meet in a church facility each Sunday morning, in addition to holding various meetings at the church building throughout the week. There are many styles and flavors of community churches. There is the Methodist flavor, the Baptist flavor, the Congregational flavor, the Episcopal flavor, the Presbyterian flavor, the Vineyard flavor, the Assembly of God flavor, the non-denominational flavor, the independent flavor; the list goes on and on. Some are Calvinistic; some are Arminian. Some are Charismatic in their worship expression, while some are traditional. Some churches are dispensational in their theology, while others focus on the here and now. Some churches are cell-based, and others are not. Some are “seeker-sensitive”—geared for those new to Christianity, while others appeal to the mature Christian with extended times of worship and the exercising of spiritual gifts. Nearly every Sunday somewhere in the world, I have the privilege of speaking at one of these community churches with their different flavors. I love the many unique expressions of the body of Christ. It would be boring if each expression looked exactly the same!
In our county alone, there are more than 600 community churches of every kind imaginable. The great majority of those churches have between 50 and 200 members. Some have 400 to 500 or even 800 to 900 people. (When they reach approximately 1,000 attendees, they usually fall into another classification—the mega-church.)
Although community churches range in size, they all have a clear target area they are reaching—the local populace. In many cases, those that attend and those they reach live in the general geographical area.
Community churches are like community stores
The community church reminds me of the local community store. Where do you buy your groceries? You probably shop at a local grocery store in your community. It might be an independent store, or it could be part of a large chain of stores, but it is a store in close proximity to where you live. You may personally know the clerks, and you know where specific items are shelved.
Some neighborhood stores, like community churches, are larger than others, but they still feel like a community store. This store serves your local area. Very few people in your neighborhood would drive a long distance to get their groceries. Some even walk to a corner grocery store.
Likewise, very few people will drive long distances to worship with other believers who gather each week at their community church facility. Proximity and ease of access are a large part of the very nature of the community church.
More choices.
Thirty years ago, nearly every church in America was a community church (generally a church of 50-1,000 in attendance). There were very few exceptions. Then something happened. American Christians and American pastors started to hear reports about churches in places like Seoul, Korea, that were massive. Dr. Yonggi Cho, pastor of the world’s largest church in Seoul, came to America to explain how pastors in America can also have large churches by “praying and obeying.” He taught these church leaders to obey the voice of the Holy Spirit and train small group (cell) leaders and release the ministry of the church to these trained leaders. Through the help of small groups, rapid multiplication and growth occurred.
The mega-church
This new mentality led to a wave of mega-churches mushrooming across America. Many implemented cell groups to help them grow. Victory Christian Center of Tulsa, Oklahoma, whose founding pastor is Billy Joe Daugherty, is a mega-church that has had cell groups for 20 years. Their weekly Sunday worship attendance is 7,700 and they are now one of the few churches in the world who will break through the 1,000 cell group mark, according to Karen Hurston in her book Breakthrough Cell Groups.1
Not only did mega-churches like this spring up in major metropolitan areas, they appeared on the rural scene. Today, at least in the United States, it is not unusual for people to drive for over an hour to attend worship services at a mega-church. Mega-churches have much to offer. There are ministries for every member of the family, twelve step programs for those with addictions, Bible schools, concerts, youth ministries, singles’ ministries; you name it, almost anything is available. The mega-church phenomenon has changed the face of the church in America.
Popular Bible teacher and bishop, T. D. Jakes, started his mega-church upon relocating his family and 50 other families from West Virginia, to Dallas, Texas, to establish a new church called “The Potter’s House.” Within eighteen months, it grew to more than 14,000 worshipers! It is one of the nation’s fastest-growing mega-churches. Christianity Today Magazine notes “other mega-churches such as Saddleback Valley Community Church in Mission Viejo, California, and Willow Creek in South Barrington, Illinois, took several years to become so large.” 2
It is a fact that mega-churches are growing rapidly. According to the National Association of Evangelicals, there are about 189 churches with more than 3,000 average weekly attendance nationwide. In our nation, every two weeks a new church with 2,000 or more members opens.3
Our rural area of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, presently has five mega-churches, each having over 1,000 people in attendance every week with two of these churches having about 3,000 attendees.
Mega-churches are like Wal-Mart superstores!
I like to call the mega-church the “Wal-Mart superstore church.” Wal-Mart, a department store chain, has taken our nation by storm. Now Wal-Mart is everywhere! People will drive for an hour or more to shop at a Wal-Mart because they love the low prices, the huge inventory of consumer products and they can get all they need in one place.
Mega-churches, like the Wal-Mart superstores, are large and they offer an abundance of services to the churchgoer. However, unlike the community church where you may know nearly everyone, at a mega-church you probably know only a few people. Yet, church members thoroughly enjoy a mega-church since everything is easily accessible in one location.
Everyone is different, having varying needs, so it’s not unusual that some people love Wal-Mart while others seldom if ever shop there. The same is true when people decide which church to attend. Some love the mega-church while others feel lost in the crowd and prefer the smaller community church.
The new micro churches—a new wineskin
Time marches on. What was new and unique several years ago becomes an old wineskin in today’s world. I believe it is time again to pray and obey. Generation X and many others who share their passion and convictions are dreaming of another type of church in America—the micro church network.
The Lord has been instructing me and many of my generation to prepare the way for the next generation of church planters and church leaders who will model a new type of church for the next generation.
In today’s church world, you can find the community store churches and the Wal-Mart superstore churches everywhere. The Lord has and will continue to use both. However, He will also use the new micro church networks with their different approaches and structures to build His kingdom. Let’s open our hearts to this revolutionary force that is growing quietly in humble house churches across the nation and around the world.
In describing a micro church network, the analogy would be equivalent to the stores in a shopping mall. If the average store found in a shopping mall was taken out of the mall and let to stand on its own, it would die within a year. The normal store in a shopping mall needs the others to survive. Each specialized store flourishes together within the cluster of the others. Yet each store is fully a “store” in its own right, despite being in a mall. Each micro church has its own unique vision from the Lord and focuses on a specific group of people it is reaching out to. However, the micro churches are accountable to the larger vision of the micro church network. This provides accountability for the leadership of the micro churches and keeps them from getting into heresy and exclusiveness.
The home school phenomenon in America
The new micro churches are a bit like the home school phenomenon in America. Three years ago, I agreed to home school our sixteen year old son Josh. Had I told you thirty years ago I was going to home school our son, you would have looked at me strangely. Back then, home schooling was almost unheard of in America. Nevertheless, early home schooling advocates made their mark on education in America and today home schooling is commonplace and well accepted as an alternative to traditional classroom training.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not promoting home schooling as the pinnacle of educational experience, but it certainly is a wonderful choice. Parents today have the choice of home schooling their children, along with the traditional choices of public or private schooling. All three types of educational training coexist in nearly every community in America.
I believe within the next several years, micro church networks will mushroom all across America. Like our educational choices, they will coexist and network with other more traditional community churches and mega-churches of our communities meeting in church buildings every Sunday. Our God will use and bless all three—the community churches, the mega-churches, and the micro church networks.
We needed to rethink our wineskins
It didn’t take us long to conclude that we must find ways to plant new churches (new wineskins) and begin the process of handing over the reins to the next generation. If we didn’t, we would lose what we already had. How then could we reach out to our world and reap a harvest? As Dr. Peter Wagner has said so often, “The single most effective way to evangelize is to plant new churches.” 4
DAWN (Discipling A Whole Nation) Ministries, a saturation church planting organization, agrees. This kind of church planting infiltration, that envisions a Christ-centered congregation of believers in every neighborhood in every nation, will deeply affect our society. They suggest that one church is needed for every 500-1,000 people, and our current and prevailing church models will not be able to do it without the influence of these micro churches.5
New micro churches networking effectively together in our communities give the opportunity for thousands of new churches to be planted rapidly all across the nations of the world. Many more new churches are needed to care for the harvest of souls coming into God’s kingdom. Now is the time to prepare.
Micro churches in Pennsylvania, USA.
Six years ago, a group of young men and women started a Bible Study in our county. Four years later, this weekly Bible Study grew to over 1,000 young people coming together every Tuesday evening. The secular press in our community took notice, and featured a front-page article of the Tuesday Bible Study. Literally thousands of youth from our region have been touched by the Lord through this gathering simply known as “TBS.” But many of the young people who have been touched by the Lord at TBS are now looking for a more contemporary wineskin. And some of them are starting micro church networks.
Three new micro church networks are now starting in our county, each connected to a different denomination or family of churches. Other micro churches in our area are springing up and receiving accountability from other local church pastors. Let me tell you about one of these micro church networks—the Lancaster Micro Church Network—and the young leaders with whom I am privileged to serve.
Young leaders with a vision.
My wife LaVerne and I are currently serving with a group of young leaders who started a new micro church network here in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, last year. A team of young leaders started their first micro church in our home. Nearly one third of the believers in the micro church were new believers! Within four months, the micro church grew to fifty believers! People were everywhere in our house! Two months later the church multiplied into two churches and the micro church network had begun. Church in our home meets every Wednesday night. We start with a meal, and then have a meeting for worship and prayer and spiritual discussions in the basement of our home. Then we break up into about eight cell groups for personal ministry and relationship building. This micro church network is still in its infancy stages, but it has been exciting. LaVerne and I are not leading any of the micro churches, but we are involved in coaching the leaders and trying to stay out of the way!
A few months ago, the third church started in our micro church network. Plans are being made to start the fourth micro church within the next few months. We have found that we must have leadership developed to lead each new church. The Bible warns us to not give a new believer the responsibility of an elder (1 Timothy 2), and elders must be trained and seasoned. Each micro church has elders, and a “spiritual parent” is commissioned as the senior elder/pastor of the micro church. Each micro church also has small cell groups to train leaders and disciple new believers. Cells are also encouraged to meet at other times during the month outside of the night the micro church meets.
The Lancaster Micro Church Network
The micro churches in the Lancaster Micro Church Network meet together in a combined meeting once every two months. Sometimes we have a picnic in a park, at other times a night of worship or teaching, and sometimes we have a baptism to baptize the new believers. We also baptize new believers in bathtubs and in swimming pools as a micro church.
The Lancaster Micro Church Network has designed a simple vision for the new micro church network. It states: “The vision for the Lancaster Micro Church Network is to create new, flexible wineskins that will be a leadership training ground for rapid reproduction of leaders of small, relational, evangelistic churches.”
Each micro church has a vision to plant a new micro church. One of the young men in our micro church took a group of us into the basement in his home. He was dry-walling his basement in preparation for the new house church he is praying about starting in the near future. He is planning to mount a video projector on his basement ceiling and use PowerPoint technology to project words to worship songs against the wall of his basement. He told us he could also use this for teaching videos to train believers in his home.
Micro churches and finances
In most churches today, approximately 80% of all finances are used to support the church staff, buildings, and church programs. The other 20% is given outside the church to missions and to support ministry to the community. We have found that in the micro church this figure is inverted. Since there is no building rental, and pastors are not paid but are bi-vocational, 80% of all finances are used to support missions and to support ministry to the community, and the other 20% is given support the micro church needs for ministry within the church. The micro churches in the Lancaster Micro Church Network have been willing to give thousands of dollars to missions and to serve our community. When a fivefold minister comes in to minister at a micro church meeting, they receive very generous offerings, because micro church folks love to give! The micro church elders tell me they love to give money away to missions and to needy people in our community, because they have the money to give!
Accountability and training
DOVE Christian Fellowship International, the worldwide network of cell-based churches that I and a team of spiritual leaders oversee, found we had to broaden our territory to include micro church networks. We realize that cell-based community churches, cell-based mega-churches and micro church networks, although different, are close cousins.
In light of this, we added special training to our current leadership training school for micro church planters. DOVE Christian Fellowship International (DCFI) has a church planting and leadership school developed to train micro church leadership. It includes 135 hours of training and can be taken in a live school here in Pennsylvania during three months or can be taken by a video correspondence school. The video school can also be purchased. Information is available online at www.dcfi.org.
We emphasize that there can be cells in micro churches, cells in community churches and cells in mega-churches. If we want all three types of churches to coexist, we will need to be proactive in training for all three.
We want to stay current with what the Lord is doing in our day and work with the existing churches as well. We believe we are called by the Lord to help start new cell-based community churches, cell-based mega-churches, and cell-based micro churches that form micro church networks, because all three types of churches are a part of the Lord’s plan for His church in every region. Leaders of all denominations and movements will also be wise to reach out to those within their family of churches and help them start micro church networks, otherwise future micro church leaders within their denominations will look elsewhere for spiritual oversight.
DCFI micro churches in New Zealand
Micro churches within the DCFI family of churches are now springing up throughout various parts of the world. For example, more than ten years ago, Murray and Heather McCall from the Orewa on the North Island of New Zealand have been involved in cell church planting with the DCFI family. But a few years ago, it became clear that DOVE Christian Fellowship New Zealand was really a micro church network with micro churches on both the North and South Island working together. This past year, the McCalls turned the leadership of DCF-NZ over to Les and Heather Gribben from Kaiwaka on the North Island. This network of micro churches is committed to growing into a network of hundreds of micro churches, networking with other micro church networks and other community and mega-churches to see the kingdom of God come to New Zealand.
Both young and old want involvement in church life but fail to find their niche.
Just like the generations before them, many of today’s young people of Generation X, (18-35 year olds), look at the existing wineskins and have no enthusiasm for them. Young people are looking for a church experience that will give them a reason to get involved and motivate them to enthusiastically participate.
Older people, too, are looking for a new model of church where they can be fully involved. I can still vividly remember a man in his 50’s confiding in me, with tears running down his cheeks, after I taught at his mega-church: “I know the Lord called me years ago to be a pastor, but I just do not know how it can ever happen here in my church.”
This man, who gave relationships high priority, was a loving person with a pastor’s heart. He was longing to fulfill God’s call on his life. Think what could happen if he had a micro church venue. As a spiritual father in a micro church, he could fulfill his heart’s cry. In a micro church, he could look after his spiritual extended family and find his niche.
Therefore, it is not just the younger generation that micro churches appeal to. However, overall, I believe it will be the younger generation that will take the lead in starting new micro churches and micro church networks in our communities. Why? Because they will thrive in a new wineskin that fits their generation’s need for authentic relationships. Young adults are very open to small groups that are based on friendships and socializing. They love to spend time in homes and in discussion. This young generation especially craves real-life connections because it is a generation raised in the non-physical oriented communication structures of cyberspace. PC’s, palm pilots, cell phones and a multitude of other gadgets at this generation’s fingertips do not inspire deep relational connections. This generation is looking for dependable, meaningful relationships.
The need for spiritual fathers and mothers
A few months ago, I spoke at a Bible school sponsored by a thriving mega-church in the United States. After the class was completed, a young man in his mid-twenties came up to me and opened his heart. “I have been a staff member of this church for the past few years. I have not told anyone yet, but I am planning to quit and move on to something else. I can’t take it anymore. This is a great church, and I love the leaders and the other staff. But they are too busy. If just one of them gave me only one hour a month to sit down with me for breakfast and hear my heart, I would stay. What I really want is a father. I just do not feel I fit in here. Therefore, I am going to leave. I need to find a place I fit. Even though good things are happening here, it is just not me. I must take a step of faith and find my way. There has to be more.”
I hear this same heart cry repeatedly from one end of our nation to the other. The value system of Generation X is much different from the value system I grew up with. I was a part of the industrial age. Generation X is a part of the information age, and it has its own value system. Older adults must recognize the tremendous changes that have taken place and make some adjustments accordingly if they hope to have significant involvement with the younger generation.
On my travels, I find the young people of Generation X value four basic things. Amazingly, micro church networks can be the perfect wineskin for them to experience each of these four values.
The four basic values of the next generation
What do Generation Xers look for in a church? The four top things I hear repeatedly from this generation is that they are looking for relationship, authenticity, the freedom to be creative and intergenerational connection.
- Relationship Young people just want others with whom they can connect. They love to “hang out” with friends. They really value their relationships.
- Authenticity They are tired of the plastic, smiling Christianity, where things look good on the surface, but underneath it isn’t real. They are looking for people who are real who live out their Christianity authentically every day. If they blow it, they say so, receive forgiveness and move on.
- Freedom to be creative They want the freedom to express Christianity in a way that is unique to them. They say, “The kind of church I’m involved with may look different from other churches. I may be involved with one particular sector of society because that is where God has called me.”
- Intergenerational connection I hear them say again and again, “I don’t want to do it myself. I want fathers and mothers in the Lord who will encourage me, help me avoid pitfalls, and release me to fulfill my destiny in God.”
The micro church network gives the opportunity to experience these four values!
We need to release the younger generation to build their own structures and reproduce. I mention in my book The Cry for Spiritual Fathers and Mothers that a few years ago, Rick Joyner from Charlotte, North Carolina, told a group of pastors in our city: “Pastors sometimes don’t like having young stallions in their churches. They seem to cause too many problems. But only young stallions can reproduce. Resist the temptation to “fix” them so they cannot reproduce!”
A group of 18 to 35 year olds recently shared with me: “We like our churches and our pastors, but our present churches are not something we want to give our lives for. We lead cell groups, youth groups and serve in the church, but we do not want to do this our whole lives. God is calling us to something new—new kinds of churches. We are not even sure what it will look like, but we want the opportunity to try. We are not rebellious. We want the blessing of the leaders of our churches. We respect and honor them. But we want to build our own house. There are things the Lord has placed inside of us that we desire to see become reality. It is good to have a room within our father’s house, but we have a God-given desire to build a new home.”
The reality is this: new wineskins eventually get old. I believe God often places a burden in the younger generation to pioneer new churches, but they have a different vision for a different era and a different generation. The younger generations come into the kingdom looking for reality—not religious structures. They want relationships—not outdated church programs. Let’s help them start the new church structures that fit the needs of their generation.
Reproducing ourselves
A major aspect of micro church ministry is preparing and training future spiritual fathers and mothers and then releasing them to reproduce themselves. Only a dysfunctional parent will try to hang on to his children and use them to fulfill his own vision. Healthy parents expect their children to leave their home to start their own families. Healthy spiritual parents must think the same way. This generation of Christian leaders are called to “give away” many of the believers in their churches to start their own spiritual families—new micro churches.
We must think in terms of our spiritual children starting their own micro churches in the future. Without raising up spiritual fathers and mothers today, we are in danger of losing the next generation. If we do not believe we have the grace to start a church planting movement, then we should ask the Lord to join us to a church planting movement so we can be productive.
The church in the book of Acts multiplied rapidly because they understood the value of believers meeting in homes in spiritual family relationships. They functioned in close relationship with each other. This healthy activity and interdependence resulted in healthy growth for the early church.
As the Lord restores spiritual family life into His kingdom today, the church in our generation will also multiply rapidly. We must be ready. We must properly train and prepare spiritual parents, sons and daughters so that Christ may be formed in them.
A sweeping revival is just around the corner. God’s people need to be alert to accommodate the great harvest this will bring into the kingdom of God. Spiritual parents will need to be ready to obey His call and take these young Christians under their wings. God has called us to be spiritual parents.
Restoring the New Testament pattern
Although for the past 1700 years much of the church of Jesus Christ has strayed from the truth of relational restoration between fathers and sons, the Lord is breathing a fresh word to His people in our generation. Rather than having the focus on meetings and buildings which promote programs to encourage the spiritual growth of believers, He is calling us back to be His family and return to the New Testament truth of building families.
If you are a pastor or a Christian leader, let me take a moment and speak with you. Now is the time for the generations to come together to build His kingdom! We must commission this next generation to establish their own new churches. We must not hold them back. Let’s empower these young people. And then rejoice with them when they reproduce!
Many believers are meeting from house to house in small groups throughout the world because the Lord is restoring this sense of family to the body of Christ. Christians are again beginning to re-live the book of Acts. They are seeing the importance of empowering and parenting the next generation to start churches that fit their generation.
Notes
- Karen Hurston, Breakthrough Cell Groups, (Houston, TX: Touch Publications, 2001).
- Jim Jones, Christianity Today, “Swift Growth Shapes Potter’s House,” January 12, 1998, Vol. 42, No. 1, p. 56.
- Ministries Today, “Ministry Matters,” compiled by Eric Tiansay, July/August 2001.
- C. Peter Wagner, Church Planting For a Greater Harvest, (Regal 1990), p. 11.
- Proposal for a House Church Network,”
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