A reimagining of ways to disciple people in small communities and individual contexts is rippling across Australia: the micro church.
This concept has gathered momentum over the past 10-20 years as a number of Christians have felt God prompting them to invite neighbours and friends to meet together in worship (up), spiritual growth (in) and reaching people who don’t know Jesus (out).
Micro churches, another tool in the gamut of ways to share Christ, are typically informal, volunteer led, involve around 5-40 people, and aim to multiply into more micro churches. At least 70 operate across Australia – most fairly new – and many did not know other micro churches existed when they started.
The BUV meets regularly with a network of Victorian micro church leaders to enable them to build connections and share resources and inspiration. Recently, BUV Micro Church Consultant Andrew Hill talked to several leaders on how they’re embarking on mission, as part of the Reimagine Mission podcast series.
As micro church leader Megan Stock shared, a group can centre around something as simple as hot chocolates in winter and playground gatherings in summer. “I felt really convicted that I’d lived in the same area for 20-odd years and no longer knew my neighbours… I found myself sitting in the sunshine outside my house looking at the park going, ‘Hmm, I think I’m supposed to do something with this.’”
This prompted Megan to knock on doors along her street with a plate of cookies and an invitation to a barbecue in the park. Now she hosts monthly outreach gatherings (out), and hosts a group of 10-12 people in her home to worship (up), read scripture, take communion and grow together in how to disciple others (in).
“When you have a smaller number of people, it’s much easier to connect with one another than what some of our predominant model churches look like. But that’s not to say that predominant models don’t have their place and aren’t part of the Christian spectrum of worship, but what I felt to do was to start a micro faith community with a view to training and equipping people within that community to then start their own.
“How do we better minister to people who will never walk in the door of a predominant model church or a traditional church because they have absolutely no experience? And in a way, the catalyst to that thinking was actually my daughter getting married to a young man who had no church background, no understanding of what church was about, didn’t really even understand who Jesus was… And so what we’re working on is, how do we have a language and how do we talk about our faith and our experiences of Christ with somebody else?”
Megan uses the Discovery Bible Study method to help her group to encounter God through reading the Bible together because it “helps people take scripture and apply it to their lives”. The plan over the next six months is to equip some group members who might be confident to start micro churches in their own settings.
Megan said this multiplying model is the key difference between a bible study and a micro church.
“(Bible studies are) quite scripture focussed, or relationship focussed which is fantastic. I think that’s a great space for people. But the micro church space having an intentional rhythm of, we meet together, we meet in our community, and we read the Bible with people, those three things being part of our DNA actually pushes us … to being more outward focused and more purposeful in what we’re doing.
“It really is listening to the Holy Spirit, following the steps of Jesus, using some tools that are out there. It’s starting at that discipleship, that relational space, and all of us have relationships, and all of us can do that.”
Matt Moran of Croydon Hills Baptist Church (CHBC) has gradually been stepping away from his youth pastor role in order to plant a micro church that’s linked to CHBC. The micro church was born out of a desire to share his love for Jesus with people who don’t know Him, who have been hurt by the church or were afraid of the church. With confirmation from CHBC, Matt sought what God wanted him to do and felt led to pray for every house in the suburb for a year.
“We walked every street and every house just really saying, “God, how do we reach this community? How can we be present?” And that was powerful… And then patience – waiting for God to do his work, really setting a posture of readiness.”
Matt started a “blokes’ barbecue” alongside a printing business where he worked two days a week.
“There were lots of men living in their factories [or who had] broken up their family relationships and didn’t have anywhere to go. There were lots of guys that just rock up to work early, leave late and don’t have any relational space. So primarily, good news in that community was a group of blokes around a barbecue, turning a sausage, talking about life.
“We started with just three of us, and at one point we’ve had 15 or 16 guys on a Thursday lunch. It actually gets more difficult as more and more people come because it’s hard to be so relational and so intentional. But what we found over nearly two years is the depth of relationship has gotten to a point where a day doesn’t go by when I don’t speak to one of those guys. They’re setting the agenda.
So the conversations about faith are prompted by what they see in my life, what they see in the life of some of the other guys that have joined me on this journey.”
The barbecues led to doing an Alpha course with some of the men and, through God’s calling and the relationships and testimonies shared, several people have come to faith.
Matt said starting a micro church involved listening for where Jesus is calling us to go and considering “what do we need to give up, to get there”.
“My mission field was the people I see right in front of me, these people with their heads down and they’re kind of living life, but just surviving. And it was just the push of the Holy Spirit to say, ‘Plant where you are. Right here. You’re here. You know these people. Love them with my love.’
One member of the micro church who responded to God’s call has naturally started sharing the Bible and his faith with others. Another prayed for a friend four times and God healed her from a painful sickness.
Matt is excited about encouraging and equipping others at CHBC to become a “centrifugal force” – building disciples who make disciples, rather than being internally focused.
For more details on micro churches visit microchurch.com.au.