What is Organic Church?
So what is organic church anyway? Is it just the latest fad, right along with organic soymilk, peas, and carrots? Is it the reaction to the mega-church that led the conversations of so many pastors and evangelists throughout the 1990’s? What is TRUE church growth? I don’t put steroids in my food, and I won’t put them in my church either.
From the 1500’s to today, the world has been impacted by what happened during the Reformation. Martin Luther, among others saw to it that the Bible be taken out of the hands of the church leaders, and given back to those it was meant for in the first place - the people. Many see what is happening in Asia, Africa, as well as Europe and North America as signs that a second Reformation is coming - one that will put the church back into the hands of the people.
Why is it that so few life-long Christians feel up to leading a bible study, or are bold enough to share their faith with a neighbor, or live a life built on the power of the Holy Spirit? Why do so many Christians leave their church buildings with little more than they entered with spiritually, all the while hungering for the true and living God?
Amos 8:11 says, “The time is surely coming,” says the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine on the land - not a famine of bread and water but of hearing the words of the Lord…” The Word of God is our food. It is the Bread of Life. Thanks to the Reformation, almost every American and still countless more around the world own a Bible in their mother tongue; yet we feast on junk food. We feast on the hollow words of our culture. Why do we neglect the organic, natural, life-giving Bread from God? Why do we not listen to his voice?
My thoughts? We don’t swallow the Word of God even when we taste it. We may have the Bible, but what good is a book in and of itself? Our communities, and churches (where the Word is made flesh) do not enable the life-giving Spirit that fills our hearts, and many of these Spirits are now beginning to starve. What would happen if the Word was properly digested throughout an entire community? Where everyone had a chance to “taste and see that the Lord is good”!
This kind of rich community is one that already exists - 10 million Chinese will affirm that living the kind of life that allows the Word of God to infiltrate a community, and for that community to infiltrate a neighborhood, spreading organically through and for the glory of God.
I will not and could not tame what some are calling “organic church” by labeling it as a “movement”. It is a discovery; a rediscovery. Not is not from man, because man is not in control of it. Churches are popping up everywhere, in places where no missionary or pastor would dare to go. It is the beginnings of a new work of God among his people. It is a chance to take a bold step and begin living the Christian life in worship and Word in the vulnerability of your own home. Scary, huh?
Last 5 posts by Mark
- God is Wholly - October 2nd, 2008
- The Great Moderation - September 30th, 2008