When Jesus thought about the church, what did he imagine?
Most churches are small, and rightly so. With power being redistributed in our time, networks of smaller enterprises are both growing and thriving. The yearning for participation and empowerment has us all looking for versions of church that make room for everyone. Perhaps, after all our hand wringing and insecurity about the size of our churches, we have missed the point. Microchurches can be strong, beautiful, accessible and potent portraits of just what Jesus had in mind, if not for all time, at least for ours.
This book is a guide to understanding, appreciating, and if you are up for it, starting a microchurch.
A Smaller Way
What is a Microchurch?
About the Author
Brian Sanders
A social entrepreneur, Brian Sanders 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 fellowship of microchurch incubators creating city based ecosystems of faith, creativity and empowered social enterprise.
Endorsements
Over the past decade, the language of “microchurch” has risen in popularity. However, along with the increase use of the term, has come some confusion around its defining traits and how it fits into the broader conversation of church and mission. In his latest book, Microchurches, Brian Sanders provides an excellent primer for better understanding these creative expressions, as well as casting a compelling vision for how they provide the best opportunity for all the people of God to engage in mission and proclaim the good news of the kingdom. I could not more highly recommend this resource to anyone who desires to see the church be all Jesus intended it to be.
—Brad Brisco
Author of Missional Essentials and Covocational Church Planting
Brian Sanders and the Underground Network take missiology and ecclesiology very seriously. What Brian phenomenologically describes in this book goes beyond just small gatherings and house churches. He writes as someone who has started and led a growing and mature microchurch network. My theological imagination is constantly provoked whenever I’m with him and now this book will become a practical guide for how I can help others think through starting microchurches and microchurch networks.
—Daniel Yang
Director of The Send Institute
Reading this book, Brian's prophetic voice is clear. He has wisely learned from the past, acted practically and courageously in present tense, and offered sage and reasoned biblical advice for the church moving forward. This book is not simply a historical record of one church: it offers a clear, way forward for God’s people. Few understand how to do this.
—Linda Bergquist
Co-Author of City Shaped Churches, The Wholehearted Church Planter, and Church Turned Inside Out
This book makes a compelling case for a new approach to building the church in the 21st century. Brian is a man of deep love for Jesus and His people. With prophetic clarity, he calls for the church return to its core of mission, community and worship and grapple with an expression that brings ever member into the fullness of their God ordained assignments.
—Stuart Greaves
International House of Prayer, Kansas City
To write a practical book that still leaves room for God to work in innovative ways––rather than punch out cookie-cutter, plug and play methods––is a huge challenge, but Brian has done it. This book will join the shelf of those few that change the way we see church, and as a result changes us, so that together we can change the world.
—Neil Cole
Author of Organic Church, Church 3.0, Rising Tides, and Primal Fire
These pages represent over a decade of work in cultivating church in its most basic and unstoppable form, and it is all grounded in a rich scriptural basis. I know it will help you take in God's compelling vision for his people and then take that vision into the world.
—Dr. Chris Backert
National Director of Fresh Expressions US
There is no doubt that Brian Sanders is one of the more important voices in the missional church conversation. Based on the compelling story and approach of the Underground, this book is an articulate manifesto on reproducible and authentic forms of church. There is every reason to expect that this book will help define our thinking and practice over the next few years.
—Debra and Alan Hirsch
Founders of Forge International and Movement Leaders Collective
Every chapter is a game-changer. Brian has compellingly, prophetically, and artfully communicated to our generation, what it means to BE the church, faithful to our origins and present to our future. A few chapters in, I realized I’d highlighted virtually every word! This is a book where every word matters.
—Rob Wegner
Director of the Kansas City Underground, Lead Team of NewThing, Co-Author of Made For More and Find Your Place: Locating Your Personal Calling Through Your Gifts, Passions, and Story.
This book challenges our thinking about the nature of the church and how God’s purpose for it is best fulfilled. Brian sets before us both practice and theology, grace and challenge. This book is powerfully rooted in love for the Triune God and His church.
—Rev. Dr. Heather Morris
Secretary of Conference, Methodist Church of Ireland.
Brian Sanders is one of my heroes. I’m never around him without re-evaluating my life in light of his insights, but this book presses me further than usual to reconsider the times when I’ve experienced church as spiritual reality versus church as a human institution. As you read, you’ll ponder over why “…microchurch is not just the smallest expression of church, it is the most common.” And you’ll wonder if it’s possible to fully function as the body of Christ if you’re not enmeshed in the irreducible minimums that define church in Brian’s thinking. If you believe the central message of this book, you must conclude that if you have no micro-expression of church in your life, you do not truly experience church—at least that’s what happened to me.
—Ralph Moore
Founding Pastor of the Hope Chapel movement