what a microchurch is

A microchurch is a gathering of people, seeking to be faithful to God by following Jesus.  It has fewer than 70 people.  In some places, a microchurch is called a small missional community or SMC. A microchurch is missional, meaning they are participating in God's mission to emancipate the world from (s)injustice. God's good creation has been corrupted, distorted, broken by an enemy force. BUT, the goodness of GOD sustains and renews creation with the promise that God will make all things new.  Jesus' death and resurrection begins the restoration of the whole creation to become what God made us to be---beloved children, loving caregivers, good stewards, faithful and holy priests of the new covenant. God's mission is to heal wounds, release those imprisoned and enslaved, feed the hungry, reconcile enemies, and bring peace.      
MIcrochurches begin by:

• Listening to the Word of God. God speaks to us in the bible.  Creation itself speaks God's word to us. Martin Luther, doctor of theology and bible (1483-1546) said this: God writes the gospel not in the bible alone but also on trees, and in the flowers, the clouds, and stars. So, a microchurch must be acquainted with the bible and the natural world that God has made. Also, we listen to the whole bible and not discreet verses or passages that confirm our thoughts about God. 
• Listening to our neighbors.  According to Jesus the neighbor is someone who shows compassion and mercy to someone who suffers.  Listening to the neighbor means becoming sensitive to others' hungers, thirsts, vulnerabilities, weaknesses, longings, diseases.Not to exploit or take advantage but to serve them.
• Listening to one another .  Building Christian community means living vulnerably and transparently with people we come to know and trust. 
• practicing justice with and for people struggling on the margins, at the bottom of the human pyramid, or outside the accepted center.  justice is love setting right the things that threaten to dehumanize and destroy us. Justice is healing and reconciliation in public. 
• Missional incarnational expression. Microchurches live to serve locally, promoting the common good, restoring the beauty of creation, and building bridges to heal divisions in communities.
• microchurches are sacramental communities of prayer and action. Baptism and the eucharist, the means of grace, draw us into relationship with Jesus and the creator. We gatheraround font and table to be refreshed, nourished, and remade in the way of Jesus.  His way is the way of the cross and resurrection.  We learn to die, togive freely, so that we can live for our neighbors who need us. Our prayers emerge from our experiences and from the Psalms, the ancient prayer book of God's people. 
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