Remember the opening lines of this little nursery rhyme? 
Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,
And can’t tell where to find them;
Leave them alone, and they’ll come home,
Bringing their tails behind them.

Little Bo-Peep fell fast asleep,
And dreamt she heard them bleating;
But when she awoke, she found it a joke,
For they were still all fleeting.

I have a stack of Books by James Emery White in my library.  In a couple of his books White describes an American church culture that sounds a lot like Little Bo-Peep.  Two books in particular caused church leaders to really sit up and take notice.  In 2014 he wrote “The Rise of the Nones” and then in 2017 he followed up with a book entitled “Meet Generation Z”.  

White says, “Not only are people not returning to the religious fold.  They are not thinking about religion and then rejecting it.  They’re simply not thinking about it at all.”  There is no shift from Protestant Christianity to another religious brand. Instead, there is simply the abandonment of a defined religion altogether. Hugh Halter would say, we are now living in a missionary context.  

So, over the past few podcasts, we’ve wrestled with the question: If the church is, and will always be the divinely established vehicle of kingdom ministry, then what kind of church am I willing to throw my life into?   What does a post-pandemic—sustainable model—of the church look like?   How do we expand the boundaries of God’s work beyond our current demographic and embrace an “incarnational missionary outpost” mindset that looks a lot like a Luke 15 lost sheep search and rescue operation?  

Carol was a young urban professional living in a high-rise apartment in downtown Miami.  She didn’t have much use for God in her life.  But she stumbled across a man who was able to explain his faith and share Christ’s love in a way that led Carol to believe in, and follow, Him.  Carol began to meet with this gentleman and his wife, and continued to grow in her faith.  She met routinely with a small group of believers and eventually began leading other small groups.  Today, Carol is an ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene and works with other churches establishing mission outposts or “micro churches” on the Southern Florida District.

Up in Michigan Mark launched a network of missionary outposts that followed the Luke 15 model.  This market place ministry reached into homes, malls, and even bars.  

John formed a network of micro churches in Los Angeles.  Matt worked with college students, forming clusters of micro churches throughout his Midwestern town and now works with church planters in the San Antonio area. 

Brian launched an initiative called “Reach 77” was based on reaching neighborhoods in Chicago through planting organic churches.  

The idea of planting churches through small groups is not a unique idea.  It finds its roots over two thousand years ago with Jesus Himself.  We see it played out in the lives of early Christians throughout the book of Acts and the Pauline Epistles.  And it’s finding new expressions throughout North America.  

In the next few podcasts we are going to introduce you to some micro church planters.  We are going to discover how this Luke 15 approach to ministry finds its expression in today’s world.  We are going to open the tool box of micro church planting and see what’s inside.

I hope you will join us in this journey.