Why is Discovery Transitioning to a Micro-church Network?

If you're reading this blog as a member of Discovery who wants to know a little more of the "why" to our transition, or if you've heard about it and are just interested in what we're doing and why, here are the reasons why Discovery is transitioning from a "traditionally structured" church to a micro-church network:

1. It is biblical. The church in the New Testament met in homes (see Acts 2:42ff., et. al.). The church met in homes for the first 300 years that it existed.
2. Our current structure isn't helping us introduce people to Jesus. Currently, our Sunday AM Connection service isn't seeing many new people. And it isn't for lack of effort! We've tried the attractional marketing thing, and we've determined that, for us, it's very poor stewardship of our finances. Our folks are inviting like crazy, and rarely does someone accept the invitation. Therefore, it isn't helping us to introduce people to Jesus Christ. We've seen some instances where new people come to our Community Groups first, and then are integrated into the "big Sunday service."
3. Our current structure isn't helping people become sold-out followers of Jesus. We've accepted the fact that it is so easy for people to slip in and slip out of a big Sunday AM service and never be transformed by Jesus. God, however, has blessed our Community Groups in this way--people are becoming followers of Jesus and taking steps to become sold-out followers of Jesus in these groups (which will become our churches).
4. The truth of the Bible "sticks" better in a small group. People forget around 93% of what they hear after 72 hours. That means I've been pouring 20-30 hours a week into a sermon that everyone will forget all but 1 or 2 sentences from by the Wednesday after I've preached it. But in our Community Groups, the teaching time sticks because of the conversation, interaction, and encouragement among group members.
5. It's a wiser use of funds. Why would anyone continue to pour money into something that just isn't working as well as it should? A micro-church network is cheaper, and any additional funds collected from our offerings that go above and beyond our needed expenses goes right back into the churches to use as God leads them.
6. It can be easily reproduced. It requires hundreds of thousands of dollars to launch a "traditionally structured" church (public service on Sunday, staff, equipment, marketing, etc.). A micro-church can be reproduced much more quickly and for "pennies on the dollar".
7. It is where God is leading us. The evidence of the past 2+ months is the answer to a lot of prayers, reflection, and examination of our church. God has shown us that it is so much more important to be the church than to simply do church.

This certainly isn't for everyone. The above reasons are things we've found true for our church's situation and where God has led us. We're joining what He is blessing. It's our hope and prayer that He's also blessing your church, and that your church--whatever "model"--is striving to be the church. If you want more info, check out the resources and links to the left.

How long will the transition take?

We're sailing out into uncharted waters, so this is a tough question to answer. Here's our initial plan (and this is certainly subject to change):

• Clustering to address key issues (4 weeks--April 1, 15, 22, 29): Starting Sunday, April 1, we will continue meeting as a large church each Sunday. We will, however, use our time differently than we have in the past. Instead of a sermon, we will cluster up into our new churches and spend that time discussing and brainstorming on 1-2 issues each church will face when the transition is complete and they're meeting in homes. These issues include location and time for each church's Sunday meeting, solutions for children, Lord's Supper, prayer, community (i.e. fellowship), discussion facilitation during the teaching time, offering, and miscellaneous stuff (music, meals, etc.).
• Network Celebration "dress rehearsal" (1 week--April 8): Easter is April 8. We will use that Sunday as a "dress rehearsal" for what our monthly network celebration may be like.
• Micro-church "dress rehearsal" (1 week--May 6): After the above two steps, we will get together as a large group, but each church will get a chance to practice. They will go off to an area by themselves and, for the first time, experience church together--they'll do their own Lord's Supper time, they'll pray together, take up their own offering, etc. The only time together will be the teaching time, but they'll discuss that in their group.
• Micro-churches meet on their own (1 week--May 13): After the above step, each micro-church will be on their own to experience church together. Honestly, this first meeting will feel a little strange, and that's OK!
• Clustering to address questions raised from the first week together (1 week--May 20): After the churches meet in their respective locations for the first time, we'll get back together the next week to address issues that may have come up. We'll brainstorm together for solutions, share some stories (good and bad!), and prepare to do it all again.
• Micro-churches meet on their own (1 week--May 27): Each micro-church will meet on Sunday again and experience church together, using the knowledge gained from clustering together the week before to make for a better experience.
• First Official Network Celebration (1 week--June 3): We'll gather for our first official monthly network celebration. We'll share stories, celebrate what God is doing, and encourage each other as we go out to be the church! The next week, June 10, the network will start meeting together.
• Transition completed: The network now goes into their neighborhoods to be the church, to be Jesus in their own backyard!

Again, this schedule is subject to change! We'll continue to pray for God to guide us through this transition, and if He guides us to make changes, we'll follow what He's doing.

How do you invite people to a micro-church?

Our current (and soon to be old) strategy is that Sunday morning is the first step—bring them to a Sunday AM service first, then show them the steps to get into a Community Group. In other words, there’s been one avenue for getting people into church. Anyone who came to church through a Community Group first was an exception to the rule. Now, we have to change our thinking—if we are the church, aren't people "going to church" whenever they come in contact with us?

Many of us are so used to “going to church” and try to get people to “come to church” that we’ve forgotten that we are the church wherever we are—in a “church building”, in the park, in the bowling alley, in our homes, at the movies, etc. That means that there are multiple ways “invite people to church,” because if you’re a Christian, you are the church wherever you are.

Does an unchurched friend seem open to checking out your Sunday meeting? Invite them to it. Do they seem a little unsure of that, but they’ll come to a BBQ? Invite them to your church’s BBQ first. Are they service-minded? Invite them to join your church in a COMPASSION project. In all of the above scenarios, you’ve invited them to church because you and your group are the church. Is our ultimate goal to see them become Christians and see them participate in all aspects of the life of our church? Absolutely. But now, there's more than one way to get them started on that path.

So... identify those people in your life that you want to see become Christians, start praying for them, be Jesus to them (serve them, show them that you care, etc.), and ask God for the wisdom to know which environment to invite them to first—your Sunday meeting, your 2nd weekly meeting, a COMPASSION event (they can serve right there with you), a COMMISSION event, or when your church is just doing life together. In any case, they'll be "going to church."

What will happen to our Community Groups?

Most of the barriers to transitioning from a “traditional church” framework to a micro-church network are in our head. Some of us have been in church so long that we have a lot of “unlearning” to do. As one of our Leadership Team likes to say, “We need to ‘unchurch’ the churched!” This is now true for us—we’ve developed our own traditions and procedures at Discovery… and now we’ll have to “unchurch” ourselves!

One of those things is the division between “church” and “community group.” Most of us know that we’re always the church, but that division still takes place—we “go to church” on Sunday and then we “go to Community Group” during the week. In this new network, they become one and the same. Your community group is now your church, and your church is connected with other churches like yours in our network. You and your group don’t “go to church”—you are the church.

For most of us, this will take a little time to overcome mentally. We do have one micro-church that will be a combination of two Community Groups—our men’s group and our women’s group. They will meet together on Sunday, and then “sub-group” during the week—the women will get together, and the guys will get together. As our churches grow, this may become a way to plant new churches. The larger group of 15-20 meets on Sunday, and then they sub-group during the week into groups of 8-10. After a time, the two sub-groups could multiply into two churches.

Would each micro-church meet once or twice a week?

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS:
In the New Testament, we find that the churches got together daily (see Acts 2:41-47). This doesn’t mean that they had a formal meeting every day. It means that they did life together (they ate together, they served each other, they hung out together, they served others together, etc.). The principle we draw from the Bible is that the church isn’t meeting centered—its relationship centered. We should focus on doing life together instead of attending meetings.

THE POSSIBILITIES:
As far as “formal meetings” go, each micro-church in the network would meet sometime on Sunday. This is when each church gathers to participate in the Lord’s Supper, pray, for teaching, to collect their offering, etc. Because of 21st century work schedules, a church may find that they cannot gather on a Sunday for this purpose. A church in this situation should then find the next best time to meet for this purpose.

Apart from their Sunday gathering, each group will determine for themselves if they’ll meet more often during the week. We’ll encourage groups to “formally” meet one more time during the week. The purpose for any additional meetings could range from “community time” to strengthen relationships, “compassion/commission time” to pray for their neighborhood and plan/carry out service projects, etc. Between any “formal meetings”, each group should make intentional efforts to do life together—eat together, hang out together, etc. In many instances, it may not be the entire group—it may be couples from the group getting together, the guys/girls from the group getting together, etc.

THE SOLUTION:
Getting together on Sunday (or as close to it as possible) is a must. Beyond that, each church is free to determine their need for any additional “meetings”, and how to best do life together between meetings.

Should we rotate locations or should we stay in one place?

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS:
In the Bible, it wasn’t an either/or—it was a combination. They ate together “from house to house” (Acts 2:42), but they also met regularly in one member’s home (see Romans 16:3-5—the church that met in Aquila and Prisca’s house). The principle we draw from this is that the churches in the Bible didn’t just get together at the normal “meeting time” but that they did life together.

THE POSSIBILITIES:
Rotating locations gives each person/couple a chance to host the church, it allows the group to share responsibility and serve each other, and it doesn’t place the entire burden of hosting on one person/couple. Keeping the location constant allows each church to develop a presence in the neighborhood in which they’re located, which will transform into influence as the church begins to impact the neighborhood through their presence, and through compassion and commission projects. A third possibility is to keep the location constant most of the time and changing it every once in awhile, which allows for flexibility but still allows the church to develop a presence in the community.

THE SOLUTION:
Each group needs to answer this question for themselves. Talk about it in your group and seek God’s leading—pray in the group about how Discovery’s mission will best be fulfilled through your church in regards to this question.

How do you “stay on task” during your time together?

In the “traditional” way of doing church (everybody meeting at the same time in the same place on a Sunday), the service is pre-arranged and scripted out, down to the minute. Nearly all the reading and researching I’ve done suggests that micro-churches steer clear of trying to duplicate a “church service.” It just doesn’t work. Instead, treat your Sunday time together more as a family reunion. At a family reunion, there are usually some basic elements that are always the same—a time to hang out and talk, a time to eat, some time for games, etc. All those things take place, but they’re rarely scripted—they just tend to happen.

In your micro-church’s time together on Sunday, there will be some elements that happen each Sunday: the Lord’s Supper, teaching time, community (what the Bible calls “fellowship”—when we’re hanging out, catching up, and encouraging each other), prayer, and offering. Your group may also decide to include some other elements—music, a meal, etc. When you get together (and this will take some getting used to—some of us may go through “detox” from Sunday AM church), try not to have a set agenda ahead of time. Try to, as in a family reunion, to let them happen. The “task” of your time together is your time together connecting with God together.

Along the same lines, we’re going to try something to help in this area: each person or couple in the church will become responsible for one of those elements. Someone will be in charge of the Lord’s Supper (and they can do it however they want), someone will be in charge of prayer (and they can do whatever they want), and so forth. During the transition, we’ll spend time in our groups brainstorming for ideas on how to do these things, and we’ll model some possibilities.

Offering Questions…

Several questions have been asked about offering:

Would we still have an offering? If so, why?
Yes, we would still collect an offering. The church in the New Testament collected offerings for several purposes: to help the needy in their own church (Acts 4:34-37), to help the needy in other churches (1 Corinthians 16:1-4), and to pay their preachers and elders (1 Timothy 5:17-18, 1 Corinthians 9:6-11, Philippians 4:10-19).

What happens to the offering after it is collected in the group?
Currently, our offerings are collected during our Sunday AM service. Two people count and recount what has been collected in order to verify the amount. A list is made of those donations that are made by personal checks (for tax purposes), and a deposit slip is filled out. Our deposit person makes the deposit immediately after our Sunday AM service. Our treasurer then keeps track of our finances, and generates reports for our leadership team.

In this new model, right now the best solution (and we’re more than willing to take suggestions) is to replicate this system with a few adjustments: each group collects their offering, two or more people count and recount the funds, make the check list, and fill out a deposit slip. Each group would have their own deposit person, who would deposit their offering in the church’s account at one of the branches of the bank our account is at.

What would our offerings now be used for?
Currently, our offerings go toward facility rental, staff salaries, licenses (to project song lyrics and movie clips legally), liability insurance, “living room events” (like the Summer Luau, Fall Fiesta, etc.), etc.

In our new model, we’re having to ask ourselves an important question when it comes to finances—do we write up a budget for the year that has little flexibility (which is the standard practice), or should we budget according to what God is blessing? We will still have some regular expenses (Aaron’s salary, license and insurance renewal, maybe rent for our monthly celebration), but not nearly as many as we previously did, because we’re now trying to get behind what God is blessing financially. Our leadership team will now determine what God is blessing and anything over and above our regular expenses will be spent there. We’ve already determined that God is blessing our groups—that means that it looks like anything above our regular expenses will go back into the groups: to fund COMPASSION/COMMISSION projects and events, to help someone out in the group, to help someone outside of the group.

At first, there may not be much extra. But as the network grows, and as we become sold-out followers of Jesus Christ, and as we’re faithful to God with a little, He’ll give us more to be faithful with.

What do we do with the kids?

Almost all of those who are in a house church or house church network say that they include the kids, no matter what age, in their meeting time: they let the kids pick the music, participate in prayer time, ask questions, etc. Some groups keep the kids in the room the entire time, some part of the time. The reason this is done is that studies show that children with relationships with non-blood relative adults function much better and develop much better than those children who don’t. Micro-church places the responsibility of children not on a curriculum or a class but on the group and the parents.

Here are some things to try:

• No matter what, include the children in at least part of your time together. Let them drive some of what you do—music, asking questions, giving answers, etc. Think about doing some teaching with the kids during this time.
• Get creative in your church coming up with solutions. If the children are to go out after a certain time, you can provide some kind of teaching time but don’t feel pressured to do so. They can play with supervision—they’ll be strengthening their friendships.
• Whatever you do, share the responsibility—rotate it among the church members. Do not place the responsibility for the kids on one or two people every time you get together. Develop some boundaries and expectations for the children and adults in the group.

When micro-churches multiply and start a new church, should new believers lead the new church?

There are people who have been Christians for decades, and yet they’ve never grown up in their faith. There are those who’ve been Christians for a few months, and yet they’re well on their way to becoming sold-out followers of Jesus. The normal thing to do with new Christians in American churches is to teach them to death before letting them serve, and when they serve, it won’t be according to their talents and gifts—and thus they’ll likely burn out on “service.”

It’s interesting to see how Jesus interacted with new believers. He never sheltered them or protected them or required them to go through some sort of “New Believers” class before sending them out to get their hands dirty in Kingdom work. Jesus sent a man from whom He had cast out multiple demons back to his home region to tell the people what Jesus had done for him. The man did it and everyone was amazed (Mark 5:1-20). And he did it without a 4 year Bible college degree or years of classroom training. Most, if not all, of the churches Paul planted were planted with new believers (in one instance, he could only stay with the churches he planted for three weeks). There were problems—some lifestyle problems, some theological problems—but Paul dealt with them with the letters of the New Testament, personal visits, and visits by some of his church planting partners.

One of the main reasons God is calling us to this model is because He is using our groups to help transform new believers into sold-out followers of Jesus Christ. In this model, because it requires everyone to serve each other, new believers get hands-on experience and modeling for how to host a church in their home, which is one of the best ways to learn. Those who go start new churches will be accountable to their churches and to the Leadership Team. As problems arise, they can be dealt with.

Will we turn a brand new believer loose to start a new church immediately? No, but we recognize that new believers are the best workers in the kingdom—they’re enthusiastic, passionate, and even barbaric in their faith! Our leaders have the responsibility of encouraging these traits to be used for God’s work, and the best way to do it is on-the-field training. In a micro-church, they’ll have accountability, they’ll be encouraged to serve their church, and they’ll learn how to host and develop a house church at the same time as they’re developing into sold-out followers of Jesus.

What will Aaron’s responsibilities be?

Scott found a description of responsibilities for a Vineyard cell church network in Ohio. I liked it so much that I have edited it to fit our situation.

“Micro-church Coordinator” doesn’t sound as sexy or respectable as “Preacher”, but “Coordinator” describes my new role much better (and maybe a better term will emerge). The term “preacher” has so much baggage attached to it that it no longer communicates what it originally meant. In the sense of a preacher being an overseer of the church along with the eldership team, it fits. In the American version of a “good preacher” that keeps the message to 20 minutes, shakes everybody’s hand and kisses all the babies at “church” on Sunday mornings, it doesn’t fit!

My new responsibilities will be simply to coordinate and equip—things I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but some of my current responsibilities have severely limited the time I’ve had to do so. I’m not to do all the pastoring, all the teaching, all the evangelism, etc. My role is to insure that the teachers teach, the counselors counsel, and administrators administrate (and so on) while everyone becomes and makes sold-out followers of Jesus. That’s what I mean by coordination. I don’t do all the work, but I am responsible for making sure it’s getting done.

This is incredibly freeing. First, because it’s incredibly biblical (see Ephesians 4:11-16). We see certain people in the Bible fulfilling similar roles—guys like Barnabas and Paul. They planted churches, equipped leaders, and served the wider body of Christ (i.e. beyond one city) in short spurts. Second, I know I’m not the best counselor or administrator (among other things) at Discovery Christian Church. This doesn’t remove my responsibility to counsel or administrate. I still get to do some. Like a team captain, I still get to play. But if others are more gifted, they should be encouraged to go for it and use their gift for God. I shouldn’t try to play all the positions on the field—a one man team is destined to lose!

When it comes to equipping I want to focus my training on equipping current leaders and raising up new leaders, who in turn can equip and raise up leaders, and so on. I want to find and equip the best planters of micro-churches and missionaries sent from DCC to “plow new fields” with our DNA.

What will be the "church members'" responsibility?

I’ve been wrestling with what a transition from “traditional church” to network of micro-churches means for my role. That’s something I encourage each of us to do. What part will you play on this team? What will your role be in the context of this network of micro-churches?

The model we’re transitioning out of only required the efforts of a few people to pull off. Micro-church networks require the efforts, talents, and gifts of everyone involved—which has always been God’s design. As we transition over the coming months, I encourage you to spend time in your churches talking about this. What does your church need—a way to help people discover their spiritual gifts, a way to help people use their gifts, etc.? Talk it up, pray about it, and give us feedback.

What would the monthly network celebrations look like?

Currently, our Sunday AM Connection consists of a time of music, the Lord’s Supper, a sermon, the offering, announcements, and sometimes something a little “off the wall” that relates to the sermon.

In these monthly network celebrations we will still retain some of those elements, But instead of a 30-40 minute sermon, we’ll spend that time celebrating what God is doing in the network—video/pictures of COMPASSION/COMMISSION events that each church is doing in their communities, baptism videos, videos/live “testimonies” from people in each group about how God is transforming their lives through Discovery. We’ll also do some vision casting—a time reminding us of our mission, our vision for the communities that each church is in, etc. We may also do some networking—a time for the groups to interact with each other and “network”: sharing ideas, strategies, forming partnerships. We may also spend some time equipping—helping groups develop the tools and skills to be a more effective church. We’ll also spend some time developing COMMUNITY between the churches—we may do a big meal at some of our celebrations, etc. To sum up, we’ll connect with God by celebrating what He’s doing in our network of churches.

How will the leaders of each micro-church work together?

Currently, our Community Group leaders get together once a month for a Leadership Huddle. During this time, we discuss how our groups are “winning”—how are they making new friends, doing life together, and discovering God’s core values for their life. Any stories shared are anonymous—no real names are used, just “Jack” and “Jill.” There’s also some teaching time, in which we talk about an aspect of group life and how we can apply it to our groups. We also spend some time praying—for each other, for our groups. This huddle time will become even more important after we transition.

We currently have 4 community groups. Two of these groups will continue to meet during the week in addition to their Sunday gathering. Our men’s and women’s groups will combine to form one micro-church on Sunday and will continue to “sub-group” during the week for their 2nd meeting. So at the new huddles, we’ll have the leaders of two churches, and the “sub-group” leaders from the other church. This, however, won’t have a big effect on the dynamics of our huddle—we’ll still focus on our wins, spend time praying, and look at ways to improve “micro-church life.”

In addition to that, we’ll encourage the leaders to “network” with each other—for combining church to do bigger COMPASSION and COMMISSION projects, for getting churches together to do life together outside of our monthly network celebration, etc.

The ultimate goal is for each church to have an elder(s)—godly men who oversee their church, and who work together with elders from the other churches to form the Leadership Team for the network.