Jossey-Bass 2005
AJM Jan 07
Foreword – Leonard Sweet
Story
– pastor Jerry Middleton, in Muttonhole, nr Edinburgh, in clerical garb. Boys
mending bike called across street: ‘Hey mister, would you stop being a minister
long enough to give us a hand?’
Neil
Cole: ‘if you want to win this world to Christ, you are going to have to sit in
the smoking section’.
Preface
The
Matrix – Neo wakes to find the real world is in fact made up. There’s a red
pill, opens our eyes to a more vivid reality, like Alice down the rabbit hole.
It’s like that for us – and the reality is the kingdom of God. The conventional
church in US is not inviting – more vision statements, more Christian concerts,
sermons, blueprints for bigger auditoriums. ‘You will be amazed what people do
for Jesus that they will not do for your vision statement’.
Introduction
We
have a problem. ‘We have reduced the gospel message so that it is inseparable
from the institution of church’. Many are leaving the church to preserve their
faith. Church attendance, though, isn’t the barometer of how the church is
doing. Transformation is the product of the gospel. We do Jesus an injustice by
reducing his life and ministry to such a sad story as church attendance and
membership rolls.
All
around the world, wherever Church follows the Western institutional pattern,
its influence is in decline. It is not the local church that will change the
world – it is Jesus. Attendance at church doesn’t change lives – Jesus in their
hearts does.
It’s
amazing how much effort and resources we expend on a single hour once a week.
We’ve made church a religious show.
What would it be like if
churches emerged organically, like small spiritual families born out of the
soil of lostness, because the seed of God’s kingdom was planted there? These
churches could reproduce just as all living and organic things do.xxvi
PART ONE: ROOTS OF THE ORGANIC CHURCH
1. Ride out with me!
Nothing is impossible for
the man who will not listen to reason – John Belushi (in the film Animal House)
Mt
16: who do people say that I am? who do you say that I am? ‘Before one
speaks about starting or growing churches, one simply must wrestle with this
question: ‘Who is Jesus to you?’. You must also find the answer from your
Father in heaven rather than a how-to book or a seminar workshop. Church is
spiritual. There is a sense of mystery and revelation about it. A church
reflects its people’s answer to that question.
Jesus
goes on – ‘you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the
gates of hades will not overpower it’.
2. Awakening to a new kind of church
His
story. Pastor of a normal church in S Californian suburbs. 8 years; planted 3
dau churches. Then darkness intruded – a man hanged himself, a friend got
depressed, a church member began a slander campaign, a moderator told him the
church needed to repent of hidden sin. His mentor said he was being prepared
for something. Everyone instantly apologised. A new leader emerged. He left to
start Awakening Chapels (new churches) among urban postmoderns. They were
small, in people’s homes (the key is: healthy and reproduce, not small/homes).
All were the result of planting the seed in good soil and watching the church
grow organically. They started going to coffee houses to talk to people;
planting seeds in each one – missional, not attractional (their original idea
was to start a coffee house of their own). Each had on average 16 members;
‘simple church’ – ordinary, new Christians going to new coffeehouses and
planting new churches there. ‘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.. The organic or simple church.. is informal, relational and
mobile’. It has no overheads, so is easily planted and spreads faster and
further. It doesn’t depend on trained clergy. Each church is made up of Life
Transformation Groups – of 2 or 3 people who meet weekly to challenge each other
to live an authentic spiritual life. They confess sin, read scripture, pray for
others.
5
years later they had 68 churches, 5 generations of church, 5 additional
networks birthed.
3. The zombie bride lives!
Vision
of the US church, sick, ill, kept alive only by God. She thinks she’s well, but
she’s deathly ill.
6
truths about church:
·
David asked to build a temple but was refused; Solomon
did build it, but said 1 Kings 8.27 that this building cannot contain God
·
Isaiah 66.1 – heaven is God’s throne, the earth
his footstool; there is no house we can build for him.
·
Acts 7.48 Stephen says God doesn’t dwell in
houses made by human hands, and quotes Isaiah. They kill him.
·
Acts 17.24-25: Paul in Athens – God does not
dwell in temples made by human hands.
·
Jesus wasn’t impressed by the temple.. The early
church had no buildings for 300 years.. a building can become an artificial
life support system.
4. A dangerous question
Waitress
wearing fish ring. ‘Are you a Christian?’ ‘No, I’m a pisces’.
Most
people ask the wrong questions about church. What is church? We define it by
our own experience. Most definitions leave Jesus out… A Korean pastor visited
the US and summarised his observations by commenting ‘it’s amazing what you
people can do without the Holy Spirit!’. Tozer once remarked that if the HS
were removed from the churches in America on Saturday, most would go on next
day as if nothing had happened. Jesus told the disciples to wait till the HS
came; even after 3 years of training they weren’t equipped without him. We
should do the same… Leading a meeting of church leaders in Japan (no growth in
100 years) with no agenda (risky, Japanese like agendas). They began to pray.
The HS came.
Organic
church understands church as ‘the presence of Jesus among his people called out
as a spiritual family to pursue his mission on this planet’. 53. Not specific
enough? The scriptures give no precise definition of church.
In
many W churches, ministry is done for Jesus rather than by him. We should
evaluate our churches not by attendance or buildings but by how recognizable
Jesus is in our midst. Do teams leave their superstar watching on the bench? We
should expect transformed lives.
It
was to a church that Jesus said, I stand at the door and knock. He’s still
knocking.
PART TWO: THE ORGANIC NATURE OF THE KINGDOM OF God
Mark
4 – 3 parables demonstrate the organic nature of the kingdom.
5. Kingdom 101: you reap what you sow..
and you eat what you reap
You Christians look after a
document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilization to pieces, turn
the world upside down, and bring peace to a battle-torn planet. But you treat
it as though it is nothing more than a piece of good literature – Mohandas
(sic) Gandhi.
We
can be brilliant at fertilizing, watering, cultivating, harvesting – but if we
don’t sow we will never have a harvest. Gal 6.7 we sow what we reap – if we sow
the word of God, we reap the kingdom of God.
Story
of a man who bought seeds from a travelling salesman – potatoes, beet,
tomatoes, corn. All the plants came up the same – corn. We mustn’t believe the
promise of every package we can buy to make our ministry grow and our life
become fruitful. We reap what we sow.
The
parable of the sower.
We
need good seed. We need good soil. The seed is the word of God; it’s God’s
message that changes lives. Not messages about
the word of God. He recommends that people read entire books of the Bible
repetitively – 30 chapters a week. Then good soil. The soil is the people. If 2
out of 10 who accept the gospel bear fruit, he invests his time in those 2, and
refuses to babysit the unfruitful 8. Our churches are full of bad soil – which
is why surveys show no sig moral difference between those who attend church and
those who don’t in the US. This affects the way we do ministry – we must regain
the art of wiping dust (bad soil) off our feet. ‘Sean, perhaps we should both
find something better to do with our time’.
Good
soil is often found in the following places:
·
Bad people – Lk 5.32 not the righteous but
sinners
·
Poor people – James 2.5 – the poor are chosen
·
Young people – Matt 18 like this child
·
Those searching for God, perhaps in the wrong
places – Mt 7.7, seek and you shall find
·
Uneducated and powerless people – 1 Cor 1.27,
God has chosen the foolish to shame the wise
·
The insignificant – 1 Cor 1.28-29, the things
that are not, so that no man should boast
Bad
soil is often found in the following places:
·
Intellectuals, people of status and consequence –
1 Cor 1.26 not many were wise, noble, mighty
·
Good moral people – Lk 5.31-32, those who are
sick
·
Wealthy people – Lk 18.24-5, camel through the
eye of a needle
But
cp Joseph of Arimathea, Barnabas, Saul, Count Zinzendorf, Wesley. Some respond
from these sectors; but not many.
How
to find good soil? Ask the police where the problems are. Look in the paper for
bankruptcies. Find the local 12 step recovery groups. Go to the crisis
pregnancy centre or the abortion clinic.
6. An enchanted kingdom with magic seeds,
fast growing trees, and a beautiful bride to rescue
Don’t judge each day by the
harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant – Robert Louis Stevenson
Mark
4.26-27
like a man who sows seed, goes to bed, and it grows, and he knows not how. It
grows all by itself. He puts the work into the sowing, not into the growing.
Often we get it the other way round. The church invests few resources just in
sowing. 1 Cor 3.6-7 it’s God who makes things grow.
But
we have to trust him. Often that means we have to take risks. We have to be in
dangerous places where we need him to show up and deliver us. We don’t need God
to deliver us from arguments about the colour of the church carpet.
A
question: what is it that you
intentionally do not do that fuels your success?
His
team chucks out innumerable resources, often because they depend on the
expertise of professional leaders. They resist dependency on money, programs,
and paid professionals.
We
call it Acts of the Apostles – but really it was Acts of the HS. The HS is referred
to at least 57 times in 28 chapters. If we want to experience Acts today, we
must yield control to the HS. WE have to believe again, like children, in magic
seeds and fast growing seeds.
7. We all began as zygotes
Imagine
a situation in which we discovered 96% of women were no longer fertile and
couldn’t have babies. That’s the case with the church in the US. No
multiplication. But reproduction is natural.
What
makes a good church? People tend to say things like good preaching, good
children’s work; and that bigger is better. But Schwarz (Natural Church
Development) finds that smaller churches are healthier. We are entering the day
of the small. We can’t compete with the secular world – entertainment,
buildings.
EM
Bounds – men are looking for better
methods. God is looking for better men.
All
reproduction begins small, at the molecular level.
Mark
4.30-32 the parable of the mustard seed.
The
Bible never instructs us to start churches. We are on the other hand told to
make disciples who make disciples. The basic unit of kingdom life is a follower
of Christ in relationship with another follower of Christ. 2 or 3 is the best
number – cp Eccl 4.9-12 (cord which cannot be broken); 1 Tim 5.19 (2 or 3
witnesses); Matt 18.15-17 (reproving a brother); Matt 18.20 (where 2 or 3 are
gathered; it’s easier to coordinate 2 or 3 diaries); 1 Cor 14.26-33
(communication is easier); 1 Cor 13.1 (direction is stronger); 1 Cor 14.29
(leadership is stronger). And growth is easier – just add one more.
PART THREE: FROM THE MICROSCOPE
TO THE TELESCOPE
8. Mapping the DNA of Christ’s body
The
kingdom was always meant to spread spontaneously – like seeds, or yeast (Mt
13).
Roland
Allen suggests Paul had a strategy, a pattern he’d introduce everywhere when
planting churches. Present author suggests the New Testament Discipleship
Patter (NTDP) is the DNA of the church. It’s a pattern that must be:
It
should start orally, not with written materials. You should be able to write it
on a paper napkin at a lunch appointment. Jesus gave us baptism and communion –
simple, and not intended to be passed to professionals. He gave us the LP.
Paul’s
pattern was
·
incarnational – Phil 3.17, follow my example
·
viral – 2 Tim 2.2 the things you heard from me→ faithful men→ others also
·
transformational – Rom 6.17, you were slaves to
sin
·
universal – 1 Cor 4.16-17, in every church
This
can be simplified into 3 elements:
1. Divine truth – embodied in Jesus, John
1 → this is Faith
2. Nurturing relationships – love one
another, Jn 15 → this is Love
3. Apostolic mission – go therefore…, Matt
28 → this is Hope
9. Epidemic expansion starts in the
genes
Ivan Illich was once asked,
‘What is the most revolutionary way to change society: Is it violent revolution
or is it gradual reform?’ He gave a careful answer: ‘Neither. If you want to
change society, then you must tell an alternative story’, he concluded.
In
chaos theory, chaordic is a term used to describe chaotic order – somewhere
between chaos and order. Hock, the founder of VISA, says an organisation can
dispense with command and control if it holds common purpose and principles.
People will behave creatively in accordance with them.
This
is how we find the created order of God’s universe working.
It’s
also what we find in Acts. Can you be out of control and still have order? Yes.
The church can be chaordic.
As
in nature, DNA in the church provides the code necessary for control, order and
form.
The
body of Christ needs an endoskeleton (growing with the body) not an exoskeleton
(providing safety and protection). As someone said, ‘Our current systems are
perfectly designed to produce the results we are now seeing’. Church structures
and models (we love models) are like water pipes, designed to deliver water. But
the water is the main thing. We should create structure only when necessary.
Diagrams – a hierarchical chart of boxes; or an organic flow chart of
interlinked circles.
In
nature there are fractals, simple repeated designs found in the structures of
life. Each unit has similar patterns and purposes. Eg a fern leaf – the same
pattern repeats at plant level, leaf level, frond level.
Another
way – we should copy from the master, not from a copy. Or, we should imprint on
Jesus, not on other believers (Fly Away Home); but we get them taught and
helped, rather than getting them into Jesus-style action. New believers should
be deployed immediately in ministry. Paul accused the Corinthians of being
imprinted on their leaders – Paul, Apollos, Cephas, Christ (1 Cor 1.12-17).
Leadership
in an organic church doesn’t prescribe the work, it describes it. There is
order but not control. Authority is not delegated by the leader but distributed
by him – it’s Christ’s authority. The strongest authority we can have is spiritual.
A
church movement should be self-organized, self-governing, self-perpetuating.
CMA (Church Multiplication Associates), his movt, works this way. Giving up
control is the hardest part.
PART FOUR: THE EPIDEMIC KINGDOM AND HOW IT SPREADS
Mk
10 and Lk 10 give Jesus’ plan – he gave the principles, he sent them out.
10. It takes guts to care for people
Schindler’s
List. We all need to be set free by Christ. ‘All around us is the urgency of a
moment of crisis, a moment in which we can rise to a task nobler than
ourselves- or not’.
Jesus
was travelling round an area the size of Puerto Rico, with 3m inhabitants and
200 places. He would have been busy… And yet ‘he felt compassion for them’ –Mt
9.36. Do we have this compassion when we meet lost people??
We
must not separate the convert form the worker; they differ in maturity but not
in spiritual empowerment. Jesus talks about sending workers into the fields for
the harvest; and uses ‘ecballo’ – the same word used for the casting out of
demons. It’s a battle. New converts can be more effective; and yet we protect
them from the task.
11. Me and Osama are close
You
are only 5 or so links away from anyone. God knows all the links. Most people
accept Christ through a relationship with someone they know. The NT uses the
word oikos to describe our relational communities – eg the household of
Cornelius, Acts 10. Paul had one in prison; it reached to Caesar, and members
of Nero’s family became Christians – Phil 4.22. Jesus used the word oikos in Lk
10.5-7 – when you enter an oikos…
A
relational community is the best place for the gospel to spread. Within an
oikos, the keys to being a strong witness are:
·
Time and availability
·
A transformed life
·
Hospitality
·
Spiritual intuition
·
Generosity
12. The how-to of spreading the epidemic
What lies behind us and what
lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us – Ralph Waldo
Emerson
Perspective
changes the way we see our surroundings – eg 2 wolf bounty hunters, waking to
see their camp surrounded by a pack of hungry wolves, eyes glittering in the
firelight – wake up Jerry, we’re rich!!
We
are sheep amongst wolves – we have a shepherd. Lk 10 and Mt 10 – Jesus gives 5
principles which help us start churches that will reproduce:
You
can ask the non Christians who in the community needs the message of Jesus, and
they will tell you – the family down the street, go there; I felt I should pray
for you? He responds. You start a church in his house. Egs – Alexander in his
care home. Kevin on campus at his college.
PART FIVE: THE CALL TO ORGANIC CHURCH
13. Falling with style
Success is how high you
bounce when you hit bottom – Gen George Patton
Failure is only the
opportunity to begin intelligently again – Henry Ford
He
failed his first church planter assessment.. His first go was a glossy brochure
high impact launch with baseball clinics, inaugural services, good leaders. It
failed within a year. The next was a cell church under the guidance of Ralph
Neighbour. It was fine – it became a network of small organic churches. Then he
got stuck – no potential churchplanting leaders. He did one himself, in his home. It went from
there. Lessons learned in the early days:
·
Start small and begin in the harvest, not with a team of Christians
·
Allow God to build round others
·
Empower others from the start
·
Let scripture, not your assumptions, lead
·
Rethink leadership – you don’t need maturity, just empowerment
·
Create immediate obedience in baptism and let the one doing the
evangelizing do the baptism
·
Settle your ownership issues…
14. Tales that really mattered
20 years form now you will
be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did
do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade
winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – Mark Twain.
Stories.
‘I
believe we are leaving the day of the ordained
and ushering in the day of the ordinary.’