Micro-Church Planting:
The Baltimore Unbound
Micro-Church Network
Helping Ordinary Believers Become Everyday Missionaries
The Micro-Church Model
“They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:46-47)
"Day after day, in the Temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ." (Acts 5:42)
“Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life… Greet also the church in their house.” (Romans 16:3-5)
“There were no missionary societies, no missionary institutions, no organized efforts in the ante-Nicene age; and yet in less than 300 years from the death of St. John the whole population of the Roman empire which then represented the civilized world was nominally Christianized . . . And while there were no professional missionaries devoting their whole life to this specific work, every congregation was a missionary society, and every Christian believer a missionary, inflamed by the love of Christ to convert his fellow-men.”
Our Vision: To see gospel saturation in Baltimore and the metro region through cross-cultural disciple-makers in multiplying micro-churches planted in every community so that every person would know the healing, hope, and good news of Jesus.
Acts tells us that the basic ecclesiastical unit for worship, spiritual nurture, care, instruction, and missional advancement was the church meeting in homes. These micro or cell churches were also the key means where Christian community was experienced and developed (Acts 2:46; 5:42; 8:3; 12:12,17; 16:14; 17:5; 20:20). This simple, highly reproducible micro/cell church was the key form of the church in the first several centuries, and it resulted in the rapid expansion of the gospel in the world.
The micro-church is the principal form of disciple-making and church growth in the majority world today, especially in nations hostile to Christianity. While God uses many models of church planting and growth (small, medium, large, mega, multi, micro) in His disciple-making movement, the micro/cell church is an underutilized model in the USA that holds many strengths for healthy disciple-making.
BALM’s Discipleship Pathway training equips ordinary believers to become everyday missionaries where they live, work, and play. This is an excellent way to reach the 60% of Americans who will not enter an existing church (but who might come to your living room for a spiritual discussion). Learn practical ways to gather friends and neighbors for simple yet highly effective Discovery Bible Studies where the Holy Spirit speaks through the Word. The disciple-making principles in this training can and are also being used to bring renewal and revitalization to many existing-prevailing churches.
