What is a MicroGroup?

A MicroGroup is 3 to 4 men or women called together in response to God’s Holy Spirit who covenant together to seek to become transforming and multiplying disciplemakers.

The Key Elements of a MicroGroup

1. What is unique about a MicroGroup? The MicroGroup creates the environment for accelerated growth. When people commit themselves to study Scripture, record their own insights, and then come together to verbalize their discoveries, they are getting God’s Word into their life. These insights are shared in trust-based community.

2. How are the MicroGroups formed? Micro Groups are formed through personal invitation of the initiator of a group. The group “facilitator” has prayed for our Lord to place on their heart who is ready to receive this invitation. This mirrors Jesus' approach of praying all night to His Father priort to selecting the twelve from the crowd who would be in disciples. (Luke 6:12-13)

3. Why just 3-4? The key to transformation is open, honest, trusting, and transparent relationships which can be fostered only in the smaller environment.

4. Why same gender groups? To build the bonds of trust, men need other men to talk about their issues, just so, women need to do the same.

5. How long do the groups last? MicroGroups generally meet for a year to a year and a half, which is essentially the general length of time it takes to get through our foundational curriculum of Discipleship Essentials.

6. What is the length of a MicroGroup meeting? A general rule of thumb is to meet for at least 90 minutes weekly. This gives time for sharing the joys and challenges of life; to interact over the biblical content of the disciplemaking material; and then to pray for each other around issues of personal accountability.

7. What holds the group together? The centerpiece that holds the group together is a covenant. A covenant is a mutual agreement between two or more parties that states the commitments and expectations in the relationship. The covenant can be found on page xvi in Discipleship Essentials.

8. What is the biblical disciplemaking content around which the group gathers? We recommend Discipleship Essentials as a foundational curriculum, because it was designed specifically for the MicroGroup setting.

9. Where do the groups meet? Find a quiet place where personal revelations can be shared without concern that others are listening in. We have met in a wide variety of settings such as private homes, business conference rooms, quiet corners of a coffee house or restaurant, outdoors during receptive weather, etc. Note how valuable the group size is for operating under the radar screen in repressive countries.

Where can I find out more about MicroGroups?