SimpleChurch Journal aka House Church Blog

Neil Cole on "Organic Church"

Following are some quotes from Neil Cole's book entitled "Organic Church" thanks to Steve who made the quotes accessible:

On Tranformation:

Church attendance, however, is not the barometer of how Christianity is doing. Ultimately, transformation is the product of the Gospel. It is not enough to fill our churches; we must transform our world. Society and culture should chance if the church has been truly effective. (Intro)

The measure of the Church’s influence is found in society-on the streets, not in the pews. (Intro)

It is not the local church that will change the world; it is Jesus. Attendance on Sundays does not transform lives; Jesus within their hearts is what changes people. (intro)

On Reaching Others:

Instead of bringing people to church so that we can then bring them to Christ, let’s bring Christ to people where they live. We may find that new church will grow out of such an enterprise, a church that is more centered in life and the workplace, where the Gospel is supposed to make a difference. What will happen if we plan the seed of the Kingdom of God in the places where life happens and where society is formed ? (intro)

If you want to win this world to Christ, you are going to have to sit in the smoking section. That is where lost people are found and if you make them put their cigarette out to hear the message they will be thinking about only one thing: “When can I get another cigarette?” (intro)

On the Core Message:

Everything about church begins and ends with the single question: Who is Jesus to you? Jesus statement about the church has a context that begins with God’s grace revealing the identity of Jesus and ends with the work of Christ on the cross and His awesome resurrection three days later. Even if we get everything else right but skip this important question, we are not truly the church. Church begins with Jesus: who he is and what He has done. It is all about Jesus, and if it begins to be about something else, then it stops being the church as Jesus mean it to be. (7)

On "The Church":

“We want to lower the bar of how church is done and raise the bar of what it means to be a disciple.” If Church is simple enough that everyone can do it and is made up of people who take up their cross and follow Jesus at any cost, the result will be church that empower the common Christian to do the uncommon works of God. (27)

The conventional church has become so complicated and difficult to pull off that only a rare person who is a professional can do it every week. Many people feel that to lower the bar of how church is done is close to blasphemous because the Church is Jesus' expression of the Kingdom on earth…This results in a passive church whose members come and act more like spectators than empowered agents of God’s kingdom. (27)

Many a church continues long after the soul of the church has departed because the building itself keeps them going. A building can become an artificial life support system that keeps a church alive even though it died long ago. (37)

When you imagine the amount of resources, energy and time invested in a service held only one day a week, it is remarkable. With all the importance placed on this event, you would expect there to be a lot of scriptural directives to make sure people get it right. But if you search all of the New Testament looking for the commands or injunctions having to do with this important weekly event, you will find them sadly missing. Instead you will find verses, chapters, and entire books that speak to how we are to live together as a spiritual family (40)

We have come to understand Church as this: the presence of Jesus among His people called out as a spiritual family to pursue His mission on this planet. (53)

Three Components of Building Relational Bridges

Harold Behr shares some thoughts on building relational bridges:

“Listening”

Many people are looking for an ear that will listen.   The do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking where they should be listening.   But he who can no longer listen to his brother will soon be no longer listening to God either; he will be doing nothing but prattle in the presence of God too…   But Christians have forgotten that the ministry of listening has been committed to them by Him who is Himself the great listener and whose work they should share.   We should listen with the ears of God that we may speak the Word of God.     Life Together, D. Bonhoeffer, Harper San Francisco, pg. 98-99

“Refusing to bring Judgement”

As George Fox says “”And this know....though the way in which people are guided seems to thee diverse, yet judge not the way, lest thou judge the Lord, and knowest not that several ways hath God to bring His people out by; yet all are one in the end”

“Practices of Inclusion”, or “Welcoming the Stranger”

Recognizing we are called to the “Ministry of Reconciliation”, and this is done by calling forth “The Good, the Right and the True” (Eph 5:9)  in all that are invited.  Refuse the “modern” concept of secular versus “Christian”.  Recognize and act upon the fact that the ground is level for all of us at the foot of the cross, note Eugene Peterson's expression “Insiders and Outsiders rejoice together (Rom15:120Rom 3:9 (Basically all of us insiders and outsiders start out in identical situations....”

In an emergent simple church gathering a leader might say something like “I'm more convinced then ever that we don't have a clue about Christianity.  I'm not an orthodox Christian anymore, I'm not a protestant,  the kinds of questions we are asking are very different from the questions asked at other times and venues.  Is christianity necessary?  Whose religion is it anyway?  What does it mean to incarnate Christ, to live redemptively in a materialistic world?   Dwight Frieson, Quest, Seattle, from the new book  “Emerging Churches” Gibbs & Bolger  page 117.

The Participatory Gathering

I recently received an email that led to a discussion of how to "re-train" Christians to experience participatory, Spirit-led gatherings.  Of course, it is always easier to avoid the re-training process altogether by gathering with brand new believers who are able to naturally enter into a participatory environment.  Nevertheless, we often find ourselves trying to re-program ourselves and others who have been trained well in presentation church services.

There seems to be a two-fold paradigm shift that has to really take hold in our hearts:

1. God's Word, by His Spirit, is capable of instructing people, and
2. People are transformed when they discover that they have the ability, and primary responsibility, to hear from God directly and learn truth from His Word.

If people can catch the vision of this, then working toward a 1 Cor. 14.26 type gathering becomes very exciting and motivitating.

Having come from a "presentation service" background (in which I was doing much of the presenting), I LOVE participatory gatherings in which every person engages in the process of digging into Scripture and drawing out of God’s word His teaching and His living message for the moment.  I so enjoy seeing people recognize that he/she is fully capable of going to Scripture, encountering God and truth, and sharing that truth with others.  I love seeing this process take place within community and am constantly in awe of the way in which God’s word is expressed through every person present.

In discussions about participatory gatherings, the question is often raised about the need for "trained" teachers in order to avoid "error."  In responding to this issue I recently wrote this emai:

Some would argue that we need “trained” Christians to do the teaching or believers will not learn what is needed, at best, or fall into error, at worst.  However, there is much evidence that when God’s Word is preeminent and the Holy Spirit is present that God is able to work quite well.  There are a couple of books that are very helpful in describing rapid church planting movements that have actually taken place (or are taking place) around the world: The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church, by Roland Allen, and Church Planting Movements, by David Garrison.  Both books reference the ability of new believers to gather around the Word of God, learn accurately, and pass truth along to others who, in the same manner, pass it on to still others.  The beauty of this is that it elevates the individual believer to the true role of priest and also allows God to rapidly pass His truth and life from one oikos to another.  In other words, it works!  There is an "oversight" that takes place via relationship from one believer to the next, but the heart of disipleship is the ability of every believer to hear and learn truth from His Word.

Re-Connecting With Non-Christians

Dan Kimball provides an excellent diagram of a typical reality: the longer we are Christians the fewer non-Christians we are around:

Kimball says: "The irony is that we are on a mission for Jesus, but the more older and mature we become as Christians (and hopefully wiser), the less non-Christians then get to see and experience Jesus in us. I am talking about actual relationships and friendships where trust and dialogue are built with people who get to know us personally, not just street witnessing type of a thing to strangers.

Instead of only circling in closer with all Christians as we get older and more mature in our faith, shouldn't it almost be the opposite as we grow older? Of course, provided we maintain Christian community in the midst of being on a mission for Jesus, as we all need Christian community. But it seems ironic that when we mature and know Scripture better, and Jesus better and are transformed all the more by the Spirit - that less and less non-Christians get to really experience that through relationships with us since we are more and more entrenched in the Christian sub-culture."

This is incredibly true... and incredibly sad... and incredibly upside down.

Neil Cole, Organic Church, suggests that, like any missionary, we need to identify a pocket of people who do not have a vital Kingdom witness and then enter into relationship with those people.  Thus, we intentionally develop new oikos connections with non-Christians.  I know this sounds easier then it is, but it has been my own personal prayer-longing to do just that over the past year or so.  I am not trying to "target" people and go after them.   Rather, it's about deliberately reversing the trend in my own life, of over 20 years, of self-entrenchment into the Christian sub-culture "compound" and attempt to "come out" and live life fully and relationally in the world.

How is this going for others?