Democracy in Organic Churches?

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Mark 11:59 am on May 9, 2006 Reply
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Democracy in Organic Churches?
Just one question on my mind today:

Is “organic church” strictly a manifestation of American democracy?

**read that sentence again, and come up with your own opinion before reading on**

My thoughts…
Much of what is meant by organic church refers to the relationship each church member has to the other, and each church as it relates to other churches. The flat leadership structure seen in simple, reproducible, families of faith suggests that every person has the same amount of credibility and potential for leadership, because every Christian has the same Spirit living and working inside him/her.

Ephesians 4 (part of the great letter on Christ and his Church) talks about this a little bit. 4:1-6 is basically the thesis of the letter, saying that we all come from the same God, and we are now all united in the same Spirit.

BUT!!! In verse 7 it says that the Spirit has given each of us our own gift to contribute to the Church to help build her up into what she will be one day, as it stands next to Christ as his Bride. Verse 15 says we will participate (using our gifts) in growing the church in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body.

What does this mean? It means we take the focus off the preachers, ministers, and pastors of our churches, and start finding ways to truly help people become dependent on CHRIST’s teaching! I’ve met several over the past couple of days who have left their church simply because the pastor left. What does that say about why they were showing up there in the first place?

In my opinion, many churches today look more like a monarchy than a theocracy. Organic churches are acephalous, at least when it comes to human leadership. There are many leaders (its not anarchy) in a network of organic churches, but there is never one, human leader who ultimately runs the show. This is what we see in the New Testament. This is what we are seeing in healthy networks today.

My thoughts are: organic church is a democracy, but it looks much different than all the political mumbo-jumbo we stick on that term here in the USA. It is led by the people, but ultimately led by Christ, who is the head of the Church.
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Mark, Jay Abels, and trey are discussing. Toggle Comments
- trey
  
  Or is American Democracy an outgrowth of an understanding of the church? Hmmmmm …..
  
  The Founding Fathers were interested in creating a system by which authority was based on principle, not on a (human) person. Which is what the church should be. The Word/Spirit/God is preeminent, not the preacher.
- Jay Abels
  
  A spirit lead body organized around the gifts that the Spirit gives is hardly a democracy. There may not be a person who is the acting “king,” who maintains control over everything. That does not make it a democracy, any more than a good basket ball team is a democracy. Each person uses his gift in the position where he finds himself. There is hardly time to stop and vote on who will take the shots. Each one does his part, and God gives the increase (I Cor 3:6).
- http://godgrown.net Mark
  
  Jay — the basketball team is a constructive and thoughtful metaphor. I would like to hear more about that from you – how would that look in practice? The metaphor of “basketball team” moving up and down the court strategically, working together to achieve a common goal is profound. How does a church arrive at that place of cooperation with the Spirit?
  
  Its funny how many “church business meetings” I’ve been to where members actually vote on the outcomes of a decision! It seems foreign to what I read about in Scripture — (anyone have a handful of straws, or a pair of dice?) It would be nice to actually learn spiritual discernment as a community – learning to listen to God’s Spirit together in humility. But what do we make of Jesus’ “Lordship” and being citizens of a “Kingdom”? Rome was a republic and certainly Jesus could have unpacked a metaphor that was more populous and democratic using images from the Roman system of Government if he wanted. But instead he drew on the Jewish system of Kingdom and King. Somehow we are participants in the Kingdom – we are the announcers or proclaimers of the Kingdom – we are in a monarchy – but our King is embedded in each of us, and yet is beyond any of us~
- Jay Abels
  
  Mark, I think that in every sports team, the players each have a role or position based on their gifts/abilities. The players do not all do the same jobs, but they work together in a united coordinated effort towards a specific goal. They accept that the coach does have his authority, they can’t control him with their votes, and they know that he can play them or bench them at his discretion. His acts aren’t dependent on their playing; he may be seeing a bigger picture from a different angle than the players. There seem to be a mountain of parallel ideas with the church.
  
  Some things don’t hold up. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, and we can convert the enemy, not just out shoot him.
- http://godgrown.net Mark
  
  Thoughtful stuff Jay – sounds like the beginnings of a book. Thanks for prodding me on this metaphor.