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What is a micro-formation?
Author: Canon Dr. Josh R. Ritter
Most of the time as formation leaders, we are teaching, offering, and leading macro-formational activities, practices, lessons, retreats, and events. In particular, we tend to rely heavily on programs and events for our “formation” in our churches, which we assume are allowing us to form disciples in meaningful ways.
Now, it is true that programs and events – these macro-formations – can aid in formation and discipleship, but they can never be the only thing we do. Programs and events are never enough.
Meaningful, intentional discipleship happens through genuine expressions of warmth and friendship, relationships and companionship, within ongoing learning communities. Often, these types of discipleship relationships form through micro-formations.
A micro-formation is any small reflective or intentional teaching on an aspect of Christian formation that connects directly to someone’s daily life and Christian practice.
It might be related to the Creeds, to Eucharistic practice, to prayer, to theology, to discernment, to scripture, to liturgy or worship, to our Baptismal Covenant, etc.
A micro-formation might be noticing a gift or set of skills someone has that we comment on – “You are so good at teaching and seem passionate about it. Your teaching is a real gift. Thank you for all you do.” This simple statement is a mico-formation. It is a statement of gratitude and generosity, and it is a statement of discernment.
Perhaps this person you offered these words to did not realize they were gifted at teaching. Perhaps no one had ever taken the time to thank them for their skill. Perhaps your comment made them take a deeper look at their passion for teaching that might lead to making some larger life choices. Perhaps this generates a sense of care, warmth, and belonging in their lives.
More powerful than programs, retreats, or events, we significantly undervalue the simple, intentional gestures of communication we offer to ourselves and to others. In fact, we often fail to realize that the small micro-formations we sow can have some of the biggest impacts in people’s lives.
A micro-formation might be offered in gratitude to someone in the altar guild, thanking them for their beautiful and contemplative acts of care and worship as their hands clean, polish, and fold with the same gentleness and prayerful intentionality as the hands preparing the Eucharist.
Perhaps this gratitude serves as a reminder to them of the vital and meaningful work they do, which is also an offering of worship to God and to the community. Perhaps they have forgotten the meaningfulness and purposefulness of what they do, and your comment reminded them that their hands are the hands of Christ when their work is done with open-heartedness to God.
Or, a micro-formation might be more intentionally instructive as when we might remind folks what liturgical colors mean and why they are significant for us within the life of the church. Perhaps we might gently reflect with others on the differences between our embedded theology (what we grew up with) and our espoused theology (what we say we believe today) and how these influence our actions and decisions.
Micro-formations are invitations into seeing our actions and our Christian life differently, which means they are inherently theological. They are small but significant invitations for us all to wake up and come alive.
They are invitations into deeper meaning and purpose. They are invitations for us to open our hearts to God in new ways. They are the small seeds we plant in people’s lives that make a big impact, or harvest, later on down the road. They are invitations into the heartbeat of God.
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