What Is an MMC?
Missional Micro Churches
In 2019, HFL began an intentional season of discernment. We identified three seasonal priorities and were working to modify our programs and structures to more seriously prioritize mission, prayer, and discipling our children and youth. We have a long history of church being done in a certain way. Covid restrictions effectively deconstructed many patterns and traditions that previously seemed unquestionable. This was uncomfortable and painful for many. We acknowledge this, and also think that God is sovereignly guiding HFL to a better structure as we pursue our seasonal priorities and the never-changing mission of the church (i.e., mission, worship, discipleship, and community).
Next Steps
Through a long and ongoing process of prayerfully seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance, the leadership board unanimously voted for HFL to implement a new version of the two-part structure we’ve used this past year. Large congregational gatherings will occur on the first, third, and fifth Sundays of each month. These will be Sunday gatherings much as you’ve known them. Missional micro-church gatherings will take place in the second and fourth weeks of each month (or more often, depending on the group). Missional micro-churches will be similar in some ways to small groups and house churches of days gone by. We will trial this structure until the end of June 2022, while continuing to seek God’s direction for a more permanent ministry structure. So, what is a missional micro-church? These smaller groups will have the same general purpose as HFL as a whole, and the same seasonal priorities. Missional micro-churches offer unique opportunity to enact purpose and priorities that are not possible, or are really difficult, to enact in a whole-church meeting on Sundays. They will help us move away from a consumable church format; we don’t want to be church attenders, rather we want to be the church! In particular, we believe that missional micro-churches can be more missional (hence the name). There can be a more practical focus and engagement in reaching out, building relationships with pre-Christians, and telling/living out the Good News. This means there will be a mix of both talking and doing. We, your leadership board and pastoral staff, acknowledge that you may be weary of change and have a sense of wanting to “come home”. Many have expressed a desire to return to church the way it used to be. Some of us have had similar feelings. We understand that through this process of change there will also be an element of grieving. Please allow us to explain a bit more of the rationale behind this decision.
Reasons Why
We believe God is leading us this way. We are in an ongoing process of seeking and discerning God’s will, and we invite you to join us.
We used a two-part structure during Covid. House churches during this time were meaningful and effective in ways our old structure wasn’t despite the limitations of Zoom and restrictions on in-person gatherings.
As we’ve evaluated the past two years, we have concluded that we will better put into practice our seasonal priorities (i.e., mission, prayer, discipleship of our children and youth) and the never-changing purpose of the church (i.e., mission, worship, discipleship, community) by adopting this structural change. Here are some specific examples of why we think that:
We believe that using missional micro-churches will keep mission on the front burner. Smaller groups are more easily mobilized to action than the whole congregation. We can do much more than teach about how to be individually missional in our day to day lives. We can practice corporate mission. We can learn together by doing together.
Researchers in adult learning have been saying for decades that in most scenarios, lecture-style teaching is not the most effective method for learning. When we apply this to the church setting, we see that preaching might not be the format of teaching most conducive to learning and retention. Preaching is one good way to teach, and we will not eliminate it. However, we want to tap into other teaching and learning modalities that have been shown to be far more effective for transformational learning. Some of these teaching strategies are more practically implemented in a small setting like a missional micro-church.
Missional micro-churches will offer an opportunity for community that extends beyond friendships and simple affinity. In missional micro-churches, a group of people (some friends, some not) will come together, know and be known, love and be loved. This will give another opportunity for learning by doing.
Using this two-part structure will free up some staff and volunteer time as well as money that has historically been poured into Sunday services. Keeping in mind that this is not a budget-driven decision, the prospect of reallocation of some resources is exciting.
Western culture is highly consumeristic. Unfortunately, the western church is not remarkably different. We believe that using a two-part structure of large group gatherings and missional micro-churches will combat church consumerism and better engage more people in Kingdom work. Our intention and hope are that everybody at HFL will participate in one of these groups.