what is organic church?
I have to be honest I get a little tired of answering the question "What is organic church?" So I reckon I've come up with the solution: give people a copy of Frank Viola's answer!

Here's a bit of it:

Organic Church. I’ve been using this term for around fifteen years now. Today it’s become somewhat of a clay word, being molded and shaped to mean a variety of different things by a variety of different people.

T. Austin-Sparks is the man who deserves credit for this term. Here’s his definition:

"God's way and law of fullness is that of organic life. In the divine order, life produces it's own organism, whether it be a vegetable, animal, human or spiritual. This means that everything comes from the inside . . . function, order and fruit issue forth from this law of life within. It was solely on this principle that the New Testament came into being. Organized Christianity has entirely reversed this order."

By "organic church," I mean a non-traditional church that is born out of spiritual life instead of being constructed by human institutions and held together by religious programs. Organic church life is a grass roots experience that is marked by face-to-face community, every-member functioning, open-participatory meetings (as opposed to pastor-to-pew services), non-hierarchical leadership, and the centrality and supremacy of Jesus Christ as the functional Leader and Head of the gathering. Put another way, organic church life is the experience of the Body of Christ. In its purest form, it's the fellowship of the Triune God brought to earth and experienced by human beings...

To put it in a sentence, organic church is not a theater with a script. It’s a lifestyle—a spontaneous journey with the Lord Jesus and His disciples.

The full article is here. It forms part of Frank's April 2007 Newsleter.

Labels: Organic church

posted by alexander @ 6:12 PM    2 comments

2 Comments:

I just finished Neil Cole's "Organic Church" which is a great read. I blogged 3-4 times on things learned from this book on my own blog. If you haven't gotten a copy yet, it is a must read book!

By  GuyMuse, at 9:37 PM  

I prefer using Organic Church but have stopped because it just seems to create so much confusion including people contacting me about whether they can get their fruit and veges from me!
Since I have restarted using 'Simple Church' I have been really amazed at the excitment I see in peoples eyes especially jaded church goers.
www.everyhomeachurch.blog.co.uk

By  Philip, at 1:55 AM  

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