Organic Church - Throwing Down a Gauntlet

Recently there was an article written in Christianity Today about ‘organic’ or ’simple’ churches.  Frank Viola, Alan Hirsch, and others have written about it already and my point here is not to respond to the article in the same manner.  The author makes some good points about the nature of movements and how they can quickly dissolve (or self-destruct) when outcomes don’t measure up to expectations.  Viola and Hirsch pick up on a few glaring generalizations and assumptions made by the author.  But that’s to be expected in a short article written in the flagship magazine of mainstream evangelicalism.

What I wish to challenge is the idea that organic church is populated by a bunch of young (or young at heart) idealists whose dreams will soon come crashing down under unrealized expectations.  The underlying sentiment is that eventually these idealists will face reality and return to the status quo.  After all, “Churches time and again, in culture after culture, look like they are composed of nothing but sinners. We are kidding ourselves if we think, finally, our generation will turn things around.”

Well, that’s true, we won’t be the ones to turn things around.  People will still sin and the church will never be what Jesus intends it to be until glory.  But, at least in my experience, that’s not why people are turning to organic forms of church.  Those with idealized visions of community will be quickly disappointed; Bonhoeffer taught us that.  No, organic church is giving us the chance to be human beings again.  Instead of churchgoers, or religious professionals, or ecclesial innovators, or theological radicals…we just get to be Sam or Joe or Amy.  Within our community, I’m Mike - father, husband, engineer, coffee snob - along with the ways I express the Spirit’s giftings within me as a thinker, writer, provoker, musician, pastor, and friend.  As a former religious professional, let me tell you that this reality is both incredibly freeing and the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.

It’s easy to dismiss a movement of idealists and reformers.  ”World-Changers” as the author puts it.  They will repeat history and fail.  But what if there is a whole group of people that simply refuse to play by the rules any more?  Not that they ignore the commands of Jesus or diminish the witness of Scripture.  They just stop playing the game.  Those people become a little more difficult to categorize or dismiss.  The organic churches I know of mostly fit this profile.  They don’t play by the rules of evangelical expectations or try to justify their existence with the status quo.  They just go about the business of doing life as friends of Jesus.

This ‘movement’ (which Frank Viola is right…it’s not a movement in the traditional sense, but rather more like a phenomenon) will not transform evangelicalism because evangelicalism doesn’t want to be transformed.  As the author of the CT article puts it, “…look at the ongoing, normal, everyday life of the local church, century after century. It is not a bright example of evil, but merely good intentions in a coma. Institutional. Programmatic. And full of people whose lives look anything but transformed.” That’s it, that’s normal.  That will not change and no reformation movement would or could change it.  What can change is people - what we dream about and hope for, how we live and love, where we spend our time and resources, who we choose to live our lives with.  Organic church is about waking us up from the coma.  It’s about re-prioritizing the church’s values around what God is doing in the world through us, not what God is doing because our church is getting bigger or we are recognized for our theology or innovation.

‘Organic’ implies life, but it also implies death.  Perhaps the greatest death that will be necessary for some is the dream of status within evangelicalism.  Even if numerically organic churches become significant, they will always be looked at as insignificant and evanescent.  For me, that is no matter, because I no longer care about my status.  But for someone who is wanting to leaving a position of power within the established church, there is indeed a cost worth considering.

Here is the gauntlet I wish to throw down in regards to organic church - this experience can be incredibly rewarding and free you to use your gifts in ways you never thought possible.  But it will cost you everything that church has defined as ’success’ in the process.  In my opinion, that’s great news!  But like the rich man in the gospel story, many will go away sad.