Church hurt is real. Could microchurches be the cure?
Church hurt is real. Could microchurches be the cure?
By L. Kaiser, Op-ed contributor
Christian Post,
The last eight years or so have been rough on the Church — scandals, COVID, deconstruction, church hurt, political polarization, pastoral burnout, institutional distrust, etc. But there’s some exciting good news. There’s a movement of microchurches that is challenging the prevailing church model and bringing healing to people who would otherwise give up on church.
The emphasis is small group discipleship that ministers to people individually, leadership/missional development of every member, and “minimal ecclesiology” to avoid the pitfalls of denominations. It is the antithesis of the “launch large” strategy of church planting organizations for the last few decades.
It’s difficult to know how many of these microchurches exist in the USA... BraveFuture.org lists a collective of 28 networks. In March, I attended their conference in Tampa, where workshops helped people navigate the microchurch concept. Many churches don’t belong to any kind of network and go uncounted.
The church-hurt theme
As I visited versions of small churches, I saw a common theme. Every group had a majority of people who came from a place of church hurt. Some were on staff at churches and got used up. Others were abused because they asked accountability questions of leaders. Others were “counseled” in damaging ways. Still others wanted to serve in the way they felt called by God but their church was more of a hindrance than a help. That’s just a sampling of ways people experience hurt in a church.
Someone might ask, “Isn’t there equal possibility for hurt in any sized group?” Although there’s always the possibility of hurt, it helps to not have hierarchy and a big overhead.
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