Most leaders have heard the concepts. They have read the books on missional community, listened to the podcasts on house church movements, and attended the conference sessions on Fresh Expressions and microchurch networks. And many have walked away with the same honest question: Is this actually working somewhere, in a real community, with real people, in a context that looks anything like mine?
The Garden in Muncie, Indiana, offers a compelling answer to that question.
What You Will See There
Scattered & Sent: A Microchurch Immersion is built around four days of on-the-ground learning at The Garden. This is not a lecture series with a field trip. The immersion experience is organized so that participants spend significant time inside the actual rhythms and relationships of The Garden community. You will meet the people who lead the microchurches. You will hear their stories and be able to ask questions about what the transition required and what it produced. You will visit the spaces where these communities gather and observe what microchurch looks like in the ordinary moments of shared life.
Church Doctor Ministries will provide teaching, facilitation, and coaching throughout the experience, connecting what you observe at The Garden to broader missiological frameworks for sent-ness, disciple multiplication, and church revitalization. The goal is not to convince you that The Garden’s model is the only right expression of church. The goal is to expand your missional imagination and give you frameworks to think clearly about what the Great Commission might look like in the specific context you serve.
You cannot just download that kind of learning. You have to show up for it. October 9-12, 2026. Muncie, Indiana. Come see it for yourself.
Dr. Tracee J. Swank serves as a nonprofit ministry coach, consultant, author, and speaker. With a Doctor of Ministry in Kingdom entrepreneurship, she coaches pastors, church leaders, and ministry entrepreneurs toward missional clarity, innovative strategy, and Kingdom impact. She brings over 25 years of experience guiding leaders and congregations through renewal, revitalization, and reimagined mission. Connect with her at tracee@churchdoctor.org.