Organic Microchurches

Aaron at The Road Less Traveled has written an excellent series on microchurches that I think is well worth your time to read. He has written it in four parts and I am including all four links under the following titles:

Microchurch 1: Disciple Making
Microchurch 2: Stewardship
Microchurch 3: Simplicity
Microchurch 4: Reproducibility

Aaron is not condemning one model to try to justify the microchurch model and he gives his disclaimer before talking about the good points of microchurches. Here are some nuggets from both the text and the comments:

"Everyone we talked to within our church said that the main environment that helped them become a follower of Jesus was our small groups."

"We spent about $800-$1000 a month on facility rental... We had thousands wrapped up in equipment. We spent most of our week getting ready for Sunday... All on an event that didn’t contribute to making disciples. The cost/result ratio was ridiculously out of whack. And we weren’t putting near enough into what was really making disciples–small groups. So we cut out the Sunday service altogether."

"It all revolves around relationships."

"If we see church as a lifestyle instead of an event, then our systems will be simpler."

"...there’s a lot of effort being put into making things 'relevant'… which, to me, is trying to make up for that vacuum for no relationships. A lot of effort is placed on 'assimilation,' which has to happen if there are no relationships."

"But because our system is simple, reproducing churches has been simple. Now we’re looking to multiply (and multiplication always starts slower than addition… but it eventually surpasses it)."

"Pick up 'Organic Church' by Neil Cole. It gives a pretty decent overview of organic churches."

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Aaron.