Organic Church

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What is the church?

In Organic Church Neil Cole writes, “In our organic church movement 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.”

Most people will agree with this definition, but the difference that Neil Cole presents is how this is accomplished. Cole argues that God’s people need to get away from the mindset of doing church focused on a location, namely a church building.

Cole also sees the other side of it. He brilliantly states, “Recognize, once again, the beauty of the New Covenant: a decentralized nation of priests bringing the presence of Christ all over the world. All of us who are children of God have been set free and empowered in order to spread His glory all over the place. We are not all called to go overseas, but we are all called to take His presence into the dark pockets of lost people in our world. Whether to your neighborhood or the nations, Christ in you is the hope of glory. Freely you have received; now freely give.”

In some cases, the people of God can be dependent on the resources such as the building, programs, pastors, and missionaries. I recall Pastor Ellis Orozco often saying, “Every member is a minister.” Unfortunately, some members of churches are spectators or supporters. Sometimes people are so busy doing things that we are not really loving people, and really representing Christ as His ambassadors.

Christians can get so focused on the work of the denomination and the local church ministry that God’s Kingdom and interests are unintentionally secondary. I recently heard of a local pastor telling another pastor, “I am not interested in [my church agenda], I am interested in God’s Kingdom.” That is the right mentality, yet we don’t always act as though God’s King is the priority.

Cole is a bit hard on the way church is often done these days, but he is not too far off. If anything, let Cole get you thinking about how church is done. Maybe some things can changes to a more Kingdom focus.

This is a challenge to get out of our comfort zone and into a hazard zone of ministry. We do need to depend on God’s spirit to get the work done, and not only our modern and cutting edge ideas for reaching out.

Not all people will respond to the way your church does things, maybe a different approach is called for.

The Church is God’s people, a living organism that needs to be alive in the world, not just in a church location.