MICROCHURCH Resource Kit
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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.
The Microchurch Next Resource Kit will explore:
What is a microchurch?
Why microchurches and where can it lead?
Where do we begin to make transitions?
4 AREAS OF FOCUS
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MICROCHURCHES: WHAT ARE THEY AND WHY ARE THEY NEEDED?
What is a microchurch? Are they just small groups by a different name? How are they distinct from small groups? What are the cultural, missiological and biblical reasons to engage microchurches?
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ACTIVATING ORDINARY PEOPLE IN EVERYDAY MISSION FIELDS
Our cities are made up of thousands of unique people groups. Asking people to leave their cultural pockets to attend weekend gatherings reverses the missionary flow of God’s people. What happens in a city when all of God’s people are activated to be disciple-makers in the networks of relationships in which they already exist?
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LAUNCHING MICROCHURCH MOVEMENTS
In recent days, post Covid, there has been a sea change in the world of “church planting.” Five to ten years ago, virtually all planters and church planting organizations were focused almost exclusively on the legacy model of church planting, often known as “launch large.” Now, a surging number of young leaders have different dreams and aspirations, “How do we launch a decentralized network of disciple-makers and microchurches in our city?” Where do we begin? How does a microchurch movement start up? What about money and financial viability? What about children, students, and families? What about elders or concerns for doctrinal error spreading?
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TRANSITIONING TOWARD MICROCHURCH
More and more church leaders are wanting to start a “skunk works'' R&D department, and/or a parallel pathway to develop missional leaders, who can lead micro-expressions of the church, either within a current congregation or as an extension of it. Many churches have attempted this missional transition, and most would say it has had mixed results. Many would also tell you that it was very difficult, often fraught with discouraging crosswinds, and many times the fruit was limited. However, more and more fruitful experiments are emerging in our time from within the prevailing model. Join us for a panel discussion with some innovators in starting a microchurch movement within the predominant (traditional) model.
microchurch Summit sessions
- Definition of Microchurch (Part 1): Rob Wegner and Brian Johnson
- Definition of Microchurch (Part 2): Brian Sanders
- Q&A: Microchurch team
- Why Microchurches?: Tomy Wilkerson, Stacy Gaskin, Hugh Halter
- Introduction: Rob Wegner and Brian Johnson
- Example #1: KCU – Missionary Pathway – Bre Wiebe
- Example #2: Mission Church – Five H – Myron Pierce
- Example #3: Channel Church – Dori Yuen
- From within the Predominant Model: Dave Ferguson & Rodrigo Cano
- From within the Predominant Model: Joel Repic
- Video Game Church: DJ Soto, VR/MMO Church
- Q&A: Microchurch Team
- From the Streets: Peyton Jones
microchurch SPEAKERS
An unparalleled lineup of practitioners to guide you through these conversations.
Bre Wiebe
Breanna Wiebe
Breanna Wiebe serves as one of the founders and directors of the Kansas City Underground, a mission agency and decentralized network of missionaries and microchurches in Kansas City. KCU’s forty-year vision is to have a missionary on every street and a microchurch in every network of relationships, connecting with training Hubs throughout the city, saturating Kansas City with the beauty, justice, and Good News of Jesus. Breanna's primary role is to multiply and equip coaches for missionaries and microchurches within the KC Underground network. Her other passion is supporting adults with special needs in their community-based employment in her co-vocation with WillowTree Supports in Shawnee, Kansas. Breanna and Ryan live as missionaries with their two kids in their community, seeking to build an extended spiritual family there.
Brian Sanders
Brian Sanders
As a social entrepreneur, Brian has helped to start hundreds of missional enterprises, including churches, nonprofits, and businesses all over the world. Most notably, Brian is the founder and former Executive Director of the Underground Network; an international coalition of mission driven communities; creating ecosystems of faith, creativity and empowered social enterprise. Based in Tampa, the Underground now has movement hubs in 17 cities and 7 countries. Most recently Brian has been working as a specialist in collective impact alliances for the National Christian Foundation.
Brian holds degrees in Communication (BA, University of Florida), Religion (MA, University of South Florida) and Applied Theology (MA, Spurgeon’s College, London). He is the author of 6 books including Life After Church: God’s Call to Disillusioned Christians (IVP, 2007), Underground Church (Zondervan, 2018) and Microchurches: A Smaller Way (UGM, 2019). Brian and his wife Monica have 6 children, 4 adults and 2 still living at home. They have just returned to Tampa after living and working for the last 2 years in Dublin Ireland.
Dori Yuen
Dori Yuen
Dori Yuen is the Executive Director of the Channel Network. She is currently serving as a City Missionary in North America. She was the Church Planter of Channel Church in Berkeley, California. Dori is currently soliciting other partners with similar passion for God to plant more churches and train disciple makers in their own communities, both locally and internationally. She is also a strong advocate for overseas missions and have been leading teams to India, Lebanon, Mexico, Uganda, various places in South America, and many other places worldwide.
Hugh Halter
Hugh Halter
Hugh has been a leading voice in the missional church movement for the last two decades. He has served as a church planter, pastor, and consultant across the United States. His books include The Tangible Kingdom, Flesh, BiVo, and Sacrilege. He specializes in developing content for marketplace ministries with V3.
Hugh and his wife Cheryl have planted several churches across America. Recently their family moved to Alton, IL. Within a year they were given a 12,000 square foot federal post office, and with the help of family and friends family turned it into “Post Commons,” which the locals call the “living room for Alton.” Under Hugh’s non-profit “Lantern Network,” Hugh facilitates a coffee house, brunch kitchen, events center, whiskey society, and co-working space to birth and nurture small ventures that impact the local community.
Joel Repic
Joel Repic
Joel lives in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, with his wife and three children. He has a deep love for his city and neighborhood. Joel is the lead pastor at a local church, The Gospel Tabernacle as well as deeply involved in a small, growing network of businesses, non-profit organizations, missional communities, and other projects called The Greenhouse Network. His mission is to be a part of a movement of people that gets to witness God’s Kingdom in unlikely places.
Tomy Wilkerson
Tomy Wilkerson
Tomy Wilkerson currently serves as the Tampa director of the Underground Network. As such, he is responsible for equipping, serving, and stewarding the decentralized network of churches in his city. Prior to working with the Underground, Tomy served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA for eight years, planting student ministry in Tampa and the Cayman Islands. He holds master’s degrees in both creative writing from National University and ministry leadership from Belhaven University. In his spare time, he can be found enjoying precious moments with his wife, Brianna, and their two-year-old daughter, Neema.
Peyton Jones
Peyton Jones
Peyton Jones is a serial church planter, author, speaker, outreach consultant, and founder of NewBreed Training. Born in Washington, D.C. but raised in Huntington Beach, CA (Surf City), he married the girl he fell in love with at 17. He is the adoptive father of two children with mixed ethnicities, Liberty and Eden.
Peyton served as a youth pastor, assistant pastor, and interim pastor of the mega church Refuge Huntington Beach that has served as his sending church since 1999 when he embarked on a 12-year mission to Wales Uk. Originally serving as the Evangelist at Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’s historic Sandfields church, Peyton served as the both the interim pastor, and helped them plant their first church. From there, Peyton engaged in a replant of a Baptist congregation in West Wales, which grew and led to Peyton planting a collegiate church in a neutral venue based around discussion groups. Peyton’s church planting experience include planting a church out of a Starbucks, which multiplied three churches, to planting a church in urban Long Beach, that also planted two other churches.
In both the U.K. and United States, Peyton formed the NewBreed Training, a training collective that specializes planting in hard places utilizing 1st century principles. NewBreed is a collaborative network and Peyton has served Presbyterian (Welsh Calvinistic Methodist), Baptist, Southern Baptist, Calvary Chapel, RCA, and Nazarene churches over the years. Peyton has also been bi-vocational for nearly 20 years, using his RN license, serving as a firefighter, factory worker, barista, online university instructor, or anything that will help him accomplish the mission.
Peyton also co-founded Church Planter Magazine, and the Church Planter Podcast, Hardcore Church planting podcast, and the Ministry Ninja Podcast. Peyton is passionate about writing (Church Zero 2013; Reaching The Unreached 2017; and Church Plantology 2021), and training. Training under Mac Lake, Peyton assisted NAMB in a training rewrite project, and managed training for the Western United States/Canada. In addition, Peyton has developed his own training called CityWide that trains planters in collaborative church planting teams wired for multiplication, and Jump School (a six-month training for planters to train their core teams). Peyton has also served as Content Director for both Exponential and Through the Word, helping develop transformative resources for a wide audience of Christians and church leaders.
Rodrigo Cano
Rodrigo Cano
Rodrigo Cano is part of the pastoral team at Community Christian Church in the Chicagoland area. A Mexico native, Cano received a scholarship to study international business at San Diego State University at 19 years old. After working as a financial advisor, he felt God’s call to ministry. He helped plant Comunidad Cristiana de Grand Rapids, a Spanish-speaking congregation in West Michigan. While in Grand Rapids, Rodrigo earned a certificate from Calvin Seminary in Hispanic ministries and a Master of Divinity. He serves as a consultant for the Calvin Institute of Worship and has led chapel at Calvin College. Today, Rodrigo leads a multicultural congregation that is a part of Community Christian Church. He is also in charge of an effort to launch micro-expressions of the church.
Stacy Gaskins
Stacy Gaskins
Stacy Gaskins is part of the Underground Network’s international planting team where her primary work is to equip movement leaders to plant missional hubs that will empower everyday missionaries in their cities. Locally she is part of a home based microchurch and does mentoring, street and club outreach with Created — a microchurch to vulnerable women in the sex industry in Tampa, FL. Stacy has been part of the Tampa Underground since it began 20 years ago and has served as a microchurch coach and Governing Elder. Previously, she served as the Regional Director for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA in the state of Florida, leading the staff team in planting student movements.
Dave Ferguson
Dave Ferguson
Dave is co-founder of Community Christian Church, New Thing and Exponential. Dave oversees the creative process and programming for Exponential Conferences. His enthusiasm for “yes” is contagious.
Myron Pierce
Myron Pierce
Myron is the most unlikely leader in his region. At the age 18 he stood before a judge while facing 200 years in prison due to his life of gang banging, drugs, and crime. Through a series of miracles the prison doors opened for him after 8 years. Myron received his B.A.. in Biblical Studies and Business Leadership at Grace University. He is currently working towards finishing his M.A.. in global leadership from Crown College.
Myron has authored several books, of which his latest book Digital Ministry has become a number one best seller on Amazon. Myron has launched a host of churches, organizations, and businesses. He is now the Lead Pastor of Mission Church, a grassroots inner city mission with a dream to saturate every inner city with diverse Hope filled churches.
He and his wife, Kristin, live in the heart of North Omaha with their three sons and daughter.
As seasons and times change the church stands at the intersection of innovation and irrelevance.
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Meet the directors of microchurch next
Rob Wegner
Rob is a ragamuffin who lives to love Jesus, his wife, his daughters, and his extended spiritual family in his neighborhood. He’s also one of the founding leaders and directors of the Kansas City Underground, a mission agency and decentralized network of microchurches and missional leaders committed to filling Kansas with the beauty, justice, and Good News of Jesus. Rob also serves on the Global Leadership Team of NewThing, a global tribe equipping catalytic leaders in every nation of the world who believe in building networks around the Jesus Mission.
The Starfish and the Spirit: Unleashing the Leadership Potential of Churches and Organizations is his latest book, which he co-wrote with Lance Ford and Alan Hirsch.
Brian Johnson
Brian Johnson serves as one of the founders and directors of the Kansas City Underground, a mission agency and decentralized network of missionaries and microchurches in Kansas City. KCU’s forty-year vision is to have a missionary on every street and a microchurch in every network of relationships, connecting with training Hubs throughout the city, saturating Kansas City with the beauty, justice, and Good News of Jesus.
Brian and his wife Kristen live as missionaries with their five kids in their neighborhood, seeking to build an extended spiritual family there.
