A church is a gathering of believers in Jesus for worship, community, and mission (the irreducible minimums for anything called a church). There is a distinct difference between the church in the Western world (sometimes referred to as the “Global North”) and the non-Western world (often referred to as the “Global South”). Churches in the Western world have come to be defined by a place (i.e., a building or facility). You may be surprised to know that MOST Christians in the world do not meet in dedicated buildings for their church community. The AVERAGE size church around the world is 18 people. However, many of these churches grow rapidly and eventually involve hundreds, if not thousands, of people. More importantly and significantly, Christian churches as a whole did not meet in their own buildings for the first 450 years. Once the church started meeting in dedicated buildings, church growth slowed dramatically.

A microchurch is a small community of people seeking Jesus together by focusing on God’s word and meeting together for the purpose of worship, community, and mission. These gatherings (at least in underground churches) follow a simple but powerful format that is easily reproducible. A house church could be a microchurch as defined above. In many parts of the world where there is persecution or strong government surveillance, the church is forced to meet in homes. The content of these gatherings can vary from country to country and people group to people group.

Christians gathered in homes can have many different reasons for doing so. Most often, a home group centers around a curriculum established or sanctioned by their church leadership for the purpose of going deeper into the scriptures or the sermon from the previous Lord’s day. A microchurch does the same thing with a serious focus on God’s word and a deliberate passion to obey what has been read and studied together. In addition, a microchurch practices care for each other and participates in specific missional opportunities as presented to them.

When Jesus chose twelve to join Him and follow, they were not close to anything we would consider a Christian today. But, surprisingly, they dropped everything they were doing to join Him. Jesus spent over three years with these young men. He didn’t seem to be too concerned about rushing them to a commitment. These young men (from what we can read in the gospels) did not “invite Jesus into their hearts” or raise a hand or walk forward in a worship experience. In fact, it is somewhat difficult to fully understand when these men were truly converted, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and truly saved from their sin. Jesus discipled them to conversion not AFTER conversion. We, in North America, have often seen “discipleship” as something that happens after a person becomes a Christian. The Underground takes a different approach. We ask people to join us in hearing and reading God’s word together, obeying it, and watching God change that person’s life. We disciple to and through conversion like Jesus did.

The Underground has a hard time finding the western concept of Pastor in the Bible. The word “Pastor” is only used twice in the New Testament. In terms of importance in the prevailing-model church, you would think that the term “Pastor” would show up on every other page of the New Testament. Instead, what we find in the pages of scripture is a plurality of leaders exercising apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral, and teaching gifts and sometimes a combination of those gifts (see Ephesians 4:10-12). The gifts are given so that the entire body would be equipped for ministry. Unfortunately, the Protestant Evangelical church has fallen into a clergy/laity divide much like the Roman Catholic church. The “Pastor” or “Pastors” are expected to do the work of the ministry while the rest of the people watch, encourage, pray and give lots of money for them to do it. In the Underground, we expect everyone to do the work of the ministry. We believe that any Christian can lead someone to Jesus. We teach people how to share God’s word and help people to obey it. In our view 1,000 dedicated Jesus-loving and Jesus-sharing disciples is WAY more powerful than a gifted Pastor/Communicator. The leaders in the Underground work (usually) in regular employment unless they have built a business that allows them to do ministry full-time. Paul the Apostle was a “tentmaker” (Acts 18:1-4). He had acquired a skill that he could lean on if he needed to generate income. This was not a full-time job but a job he could pick up and lay down as needed. Because the Underground does not expect only Pastors to do the work of the ministry, we do not need to pay people for that. Instead, the Underground is able to give substantial amounts of money to help the poor, take care of needs within the network, and support those taking the gospel to the least reached peoples in far away places.