What Is In-Between the Church Growth Movement and the Micro Church Movement?

By Pastor Doug Beutler

Over the last four decades, the Church Growth Movement—often called the Seeker Movement—has significantly shaped the American church. With leaders like Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, and Robert Schuller at the forefront, this movement emphasized connecting with non-Christians through engaging services, positive messages, and attractional strategies.

Marketing, extensive programming, and a polished Sunday experience were key. Like many pastors, I bought into this model wholeheartedly. I’ll never forget the first time I visited Willow Creek—I was blown away. As a young church planter, I believed this was the way to do church.

But now, another model is gaining momentum…

The Rise of the Micro Church Movement

Though house churches have existed for centuries, the Micro Church Movement is a modern expression focused on reaching people who are far from traditional church. The goal is to build relationships with those who have been hurt by the church or are skeptical of Christianity. Through spiritual conversations and relational discipleship, people are invited to follow Jesus outside the walls of a traditional church building.

Two Evangelistic Models, Two Real Challenges

Both the Seeker and Micro Church models are motivated by a heart to reach lost people—which I wholeheartedly applaud. Evangelism is essential to the Church’s mission and is one of the five ministry gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11.

However, both approaches come with real limitations.

1. The Seeker Movement: Church Activity ≠ Spiritual Growth

In 2008, Willow Creek conducted a study of their own ministry model. The results were startling: church activity didn’t necessarily lead to spiritual maturity. Nearly 25% of their congregation had “stalled” in their walk with Christ.

The idea that “if we build it, they will come—and grow” turned out to be a flawed assumption.

2. The Micro Church: Leader Shortage and Lack of Oversight

As micro churches multiply, they face a leadership crisis. If a 65-person church splits into micro churches of 10, you’d need 6 trained and equipped leaders. Without sufficient training and accountability, these groups can veer off theologically, become personality-driven, or fall into spiritual abuse or isolation.

With no denominational structure or doctrinal oversight, some micro churches become disconnected from biblical orthodoxy and historic Christian practice.

So What’s in-Between? The Small Church

I believe the small church stands in the gap between the Seeker Movement and the Micro Church Movement.

It offers the relational depth of the micro church and the structure and stability often missing in both newer and larger models.

Let me share a few advantages of the small church that are often overlooked:

1. It Doesn’t Require Big Budgets

Like the micro church, small churches can operate simply. You don’t need a high-end sound system, elaborate lighting, or a staff of specialists. You don’t even need a major online presence. What you do need is a faithful pastor and committed people, willing to build relationships, share Jesus, and invite others in.

2. No Hero Worship

Large seeker churches and even micro churches can accidentally elevate their leaders to near-celebrity status.

In contrast, small churches respect their pastors, but don’t idolize them. The size allows for healthy accountability and shared leadership, without the superstar complex or codependency that can plague other models.

3. A Strong Relational Focus

Micro churches excel at deep community. But so do small churches - just in a different way. In a small church:

* The Sunday school teachers already know your child by name.

* People don’t need name tags.

* Potlucks, service projects, and prayer nights are natural parts of life.

And unlike some micro churches, small churches are less likely to become isolated or inwardly focused.

4. Built-in Accountability

Small churches usually have denominational or local accountability structures that help guard doctrine, character, and mission. That’s a major advantage over newer models that lack oversight.

Plus, many small churches are located in tight-knit communities, where pastors and leaders are known -not just inside the church but in the town or neighborhood as well. That’s a powerful and natural safeguard.

A Quiet but Powerful Presence

New trends and fresh models will always emerge. But the small church remains—faithful, adaptable, and deeply rooted in relationship.

In a culture longing for authenticity, connection, and trust, small churches are already equipped to meet the need. They aren’t flashy, but they’re faithful. They aren’t large, but they’re deep. And they’re uniquely positioned to be part of the revival stirring in our day.

What stands between a once-effective model and a new, exciting movement is the often overlooked, always faithful small church—ready to offer Jesus, real relationships, spiritual maturity, and a family to belong to.

Why Telling Your Disciple-Making Story Is So Critical to Your Church

Pastor Doug Beutler

In my experience, most Christians have no idea how to make disciple-makers. That’s often what keeps them from doing it. One of the main reasons adult Christians don’t engage in disciple-making is because they were never personally discipled themselves.

Discipleship is not a new concept—Jesus clearly commanded us to go and make disciples. But somewhere along the way, the Church shifted its focus from making disciples to doing church. As a result, many believers simply don’t know how to do it, what it looks like, or where to start.

That’s why telling your disciple-making stories is absolutely critical for your church. These stories cast vision, model what disciple-making looks like, and create momentum. Let me share with you three reasons why telling these stories matters so much.

1. It Teaches Your Church to Celebrate the Right Things & Communicates Vision

There’s a simple but powerful truth:

What you celebrate communicates what you value.

If you constantly celebrate high attendance numbers, your people will assume numbers are your priority. There’s nothing inherently wrong with numbers, but if all the excitement is about how many people showed up to a service or event, you’re shaping the church’s values around that metric.

If your real priority is seeing people come to Christ or grow in their faith, then celebrate that. Share stories of salvation, transformation, and spiritual growth. When you testify about someone deepening their walk with Jesus or learning to make disciples, you’re casting vision in a practical and compelling way. You’re showing what matters most in your church.

I remember standing before our church celebrating that over 400 people came to our Trunk or Treat event. But we didn’t know who they were. No one from our church personally invited them. We didn’t capture any follow-up info. They came for candy, not connection. Afterward, someone asked me, “Why are we celebrating that?” It was a fair question. We weren’t celebrating disciple-making—we were celebrating attendance at a candy giveaway. That moment challenged me to rethink what I truly wanted our church to celebrate.

2. It Shows Your Church What a Disciple-Maker Looks Like

We know how to develop leaders. We create pipelines. We give opportunities. We debrief. We offer mentoring and training.

We do the same with volunteers. We pair new volunteers with experienced ones. We train, we observe, we equip.

So why don’t we approach disciple-making the same way?

Too often, if discipleship exists in our churches, it’s relegated to a program taught by professionals. But our people don’t need more curriculum—they need examples. They need to see how disciple-making relationships form. How do you start one? What do you talk about? What do you study together? How does it multiply?

These questions can be answered through real stories.

One of our disciple-makers built a friendship with a woman attending our church who was struggling after a painful breakup. She didn’t trust easily. So they started reading a book together on rebuilding trust from a biblical perspective. As they continued meeting, healing and spiritual growth took root. Six months in, the disciple-maker suggested the woman lead a women’s group at church. Her first response? “No way!” But over time, she agreed—and that step changed her. When they shared their story publicly, people saw exactly what disciple-making can look like. It wasn’t a program—it was a relationship. And it was powerful.

3. It Motivates Your Church to Actually Do It

Small churches often struggle with momentum. They may not have large crowds, big budgets, or flashy building projects. These are traditional signs of growth—but they’re not the mission.

Disciple-making is.

And what generates momentum more than anything else? Changed lives.

Whether it’s someone coming to Christ for the first time, returning to church after years away, or recommitting their life to Jesus—stories of transformation spark excitement. You don’t need big numbers or big dollars. You need testimonies.

I once shared a story in a service about a young man I was discipling and a bartender we were building a friendship with. The bartender had questions about faith, and we encouraged those conversations to grow. After the service, another Christian came up and asked me, “Can you and I do that? I want to start having spiritual conversations with my waitress.” That story motivated action.

When people hear stories of real-life disciple-making, it removes the mystery and fear. They realize: I could do that. And that’s the goal—to spark a movement of everyday disciple-makers in your church.

Telling your disciple-making stories is critical because:

1. It teaches your church to celebrate what matters and clearly communicates your vision.

2. It shows people what disciple-making actually looks like.

3. It inspires and motivates your people to step out and do it themselves.

You don’t need to have all the answers, but you do need to share the stories. Because stories plant seeds. And when the Church begins to celebrate and multiply changed lives, you won’t have to chase momentum—it will come naturally, as your people obey Jesus’ call: Go make disciples.

From Baseball Analytics to Church Discipleship: Why the Numbers Matter

By Pastor Doug

I’m a big Chicago Cubs fan. So you can imagine how I felt when they won the World Series in 2016—on top of the world. But in the nine years since that historic win, I’ve noticed something remarkable happening in the world of baseball: analytics have taken over.

It all started (at least in the public eye) with the movie Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt. The story follows a general manager who ditched traditional scouting instincts in favor of hiring a stats-savvy analyst to build a winning team. Instead of relying on what a player looked like, they looked at stats like On-base Percentage (OBP), Slugging Percentage (SLG), Weighted On-base Average (wOBA), and Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+). Some baseball purists hated it. Others embraced it. But there’s no denying: analytics changed the game.

And now, analytics are changing the Church too.

Moving Beyond Attendance and Budgets

For years, churches have measured success with the “three Bs”: butts, bucks, and buildings—attendance, giving, and facilities. But just like baseball moved beyond batting average, the Church is beginning to shift from output goals to input goals—the things that help people actually grow in their faith.

In a recent post, I shared a study from Lifeway Research about discipleship. They identified 8 attributes of a growing disciple of Christ:

1. Bible Engagement

2. Obeying God and Denying Self

3. Serving God and Others

4. Sharing Christ

5. Exercising Faith

6. Seeking God

7. Building Relationships

8. Unashamed (Transparency)

These aren’t just ideals—they’re measurable outcomes of spiritual growth. As I researched I also found that certain spiritual disciplines consistently help people grow in all eight of these areas. Four disciplines stood out above the rest:

1. Attending weekly worship services

2. Daily Scripture reading

3. Being part of a small community

4. Actively serving others

Putting Discipleship Analytics into Practice

In the middle of the pandemic in 2020, our church took the discipleship assessment from Lifeway. The results helped us refocus on these four key disciplines. So, our elders began to intentionally guide our congregation in these directions. Here’s how we translated those disciplines into actionable practices:

1. Sunday Morning Worship

   We encouraged regular, in-person attendance—making it a spiritual priority, not just a weekly habit.

2. Daily Devotion: The 5-5-5 Plan

   We introduced a simple, approachable rhythm: 5 minutes of Bible reading, 5 minutes of prayer, 5 days a week. This came from the “On Mission” training by the Missionary Church denomination. It’s an easy on-ramp for developing consistency in time with God.

3. LifeGroups: The Next Step in Community

   LifeGroups were already part of our church, but we challenged people to go deeper—not just studying the Bible, but applying it and holding each other accountable. One of the questions we began asking regularly: “How is your 5-5-5?”

4. Serving with Purpose

   We helped people discover how God designed them to serve using spiritual gift assessments, personality profiles, and their own passions and experiences. The expectation grew: everyone has a role in ministry.

A New Way to Measure Church Health

For the first time in 2025, we used these four input goals to evaluate our ministry year—not attendance, not budget, not how many events we pulled off. Here’s what we measured instead:

1. Sunday Attendance Engagement

   87% of our church attended worship on a typical Sunday.

2. 5-5-5 Participation

   Among our leadership team and their spouses, 83% were actively doing their 5-5-5. We still need a better way to track this church-wide, but it’s a start.

3. LifeGroup Involvement

   81% of our church were involved in a LifeGroup.

4. Serving in Ministry

   78% of our church was actively serving in some capacity.

Our elders emphasized one key truth: this isn’t about legalism. We’re not tracking numbers for numbers’ sake. These disciplines aren’t boxes to check—they’re pathways to heart transformation. We want people to engage in worship, devotions, community, and service with the right attitude.

Why This Matters

This shift was revolutionary for our leadership. For the first time, we had meaningful data that showed real growth in the hearts and lives of our people. We saw people taking their next step in following Jesus. We saw genuine life change.

And yes—the analytics backed it up.

We’re going to keep encouraging these four discipleship practices, not because we want higher stats, but because we believe the fruit will be more Christlike people. As the numbers grow, so does spiritual maturity. And that’s something worth measuring.

Switching Price Tags in Churches

Pastor Doug Beutler

There were 2 friends who loved to play pranks on people.  Over the years they had gotten really good at this.  There was a local store owner in this small town that did not like these 2 boys.  He thought they were disrespectful.  So these 2 boys decided to have a little fun and pull a prank on this particular store owner.  They snuck into the local store but they didn’t take anything.  All they did was switch the price tags on the merchandise.  A can of pop was now $695 and a TV was $1.25.  A gallon of milk was $1,250 and a computer was $2.99.  A dress shirt was $250 and a riding lawn mower was $5.  The next day when the store owner opened his store within an hour there was mass confusion and he had to close.

Sometimes I think the church looks like this today.  For decades the church has looked at success as having 3 elements.  The first element of success was how many people you have coming to your church.  The more people you can squeeze into your sanctuary the better.  The second element of success was once your sanctuary is packed then you need a building program.  The building program would attract even more people and it would look like your church was going places in the community.  The third element of success was that as the church grew it would need staff which that would require money.  The more money you could raise the more programs you could run.  If you did not have these 3 elements in your church then you would be considered a failure as a pastor.  There are denominations and churches who still believe this lie.

One of the churches that pioneered this philosophy was Willow Creek Community Church.  But in 2010 Willow Creek took a look at whether the church was actually producing disciples that were maturing in their faith.  In a blog by Chuck Warnock he wrote that the results of Willow’s study showed church programs in and of themselves do not produce spiritually mature Christians. Non-Christians and new Christians grew with Willow’s programming but those “close to Christ” and those who are “centered on Christ” their programming didn’t help.  https://chuckwarnockblog.wordpress.com/2007/10/24/willow-creek-study-says-church-programs-dont-make-better-disciples/  So the question is what helps people to grow Spiritually?

LifeWay Research began a study in 2011, as part of their biggest discipleship study to date, and interviewed discipleship experts from eight countries, as well as surveyed 1,000 pastors and more than 4,000 Protestants from North America.  The intense study revealed 8 attributes of discipleship that consistently show up in the lives of followers of Christ who are progressing in spiritual growth.  They are:

1)     Biblical Engagement

2)     Obeying God and denying self

3)     Serving God and others

4)     Sharing Christ

5)     Exercising faith

6)     Seeking God

7)     Building relationships

8)     Unashamed (transparency)

https://www.lifeway.com/en/articles/transformational-research-attributes-of-growing-disciples

What do these 8 attributes have to do with attendance, building campaigns, or money?  That is the question that is getting a lot of attention today.  Maybe we have our price tags confused.  Have we bought into is good business model but not necessarily a good church model?  The desire to be bigger, better, and the best have driven many away from the church.  It has caused many to question whether following Jesus is worth it.  It emphasized ‘doing church’ instead of ‘being the church’.

But there is hope.  There are spiritual disciplines that we can implement that will help us grow spiritually.  What is even more amazing is that there are no requirements for churches to be a certain size, have so much money, or have a new building campaign.  Churches can implement disciplines that produce these 8 attributes in their people and small churches are a perfect place for this to happen.  What are those Spiritual disciples?  Next time I will share with you what I learned from taking the Lifeway Assessment and digging into the data about how to help people grow spiritually.  I will share with you 4 spiritual disciplines that followers of Christ can implement that will impact all 8 of these attributes of spiritual maturity.   Until next time.