The essence of the organic church movement is this acronym: DNA. D - divine truth, N - nurturing relationships, and A - apostolic mission. Neil has been planting churches for many years, and his passion is for spontaneous multiplication. "Organic" is not a model, it's a mindset. It is a way of relating to God, each other, and the world. Neil has seen tens of thousands of churches planted with the organic mindset - so much so, that he and his team have lost count of how many churches have been started!
Take-aways
- The church is not a building or an institution. "It is the presence of Jesus among His people called out as a spiritual family to pursue His mission on this planet." - Neil
- The key to multiplication is to decentralize.
- There are 4 walls that keep the church from movement and multiplication - "Lies from Hell"
- Clergy vs Laity: In truth, there is no distinction between the saints. We are all a royal priesthood.
- Secular vs Sacred: In truth, all things are pure to those who are pure. Any work is holy as long as it is Godly. Being a pastor is no better or more holy than any other job.
- Church is an event with an address: In truth, the church is the people of God doing life together and living on mission together.
- Church vs Parachurch ministries: In truth, there is no such thing as "parachurch,"
- True movement happens when it is led by the people and not led by the leaders/staff.
- Staff tend to be a ceiling/hindrance to movement because the people look at the staff as if they are the ones who are supposed to do the work. Vocational ministers are to equip the saints to do the work, not simply do it themselves.
- People must be internally motivated. You can not insert motivation. Motivation only comes from remembering Jesus.
- We evaluate the success of our churches in unbiblical ways. We tend to evaluate by seating capacity. We should evaluate not by seating, but by sending. "Not how many we have in the seats, but how many we have in the streets." - Neil
- What you win people with is what you win them to. If you win them with a model, you win them to the model.
- Models are centralized and have walls. For every wall you build, the difficulty of reproducing increases.
- Don't plant a church, plant Jesus.
- Always remember that the call is to make disciples, not plant churches. We must be about planting Jesus in people's lives.
- We must stop accommodating "bad soil" in our churches. The idea that we should close our back door, is not a biblical idea. Most churches work hard on closing their back door, when they need to open it wide. When Jesus taught the parable of the soil, He clearly taught us that only 1 type of soil is good. The one that reproduces. "You can't know the soil until you sow the seed". Neil
Below is a picture into the life of an "Organic Church". (Remember the organic church is not a model, so it will look differently everywhere.)
12-15 people meeting in a home weekly for prayer, worship, encouragement, and good old fashion hang out time.
The church comes together and begins to pray. This goes on for a time until someone begins to sing. The song's are not planned or rehearsed, but spontaneous. This moves into the church going through the Alphabet. Every letter is used as a tool to speak about the character and nature of God. (A - Awesome)
No one teaches a sermon, instead the church encourages each other with scripture that they have been reading, memorizing, and learning from Holy Spirit. After everyone is satisfied they move on to dinner. Through the breaking of bread they have a time of remembering the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus.
When everyone is finished they turn on the TV and watch a basketball game.
I truly loved Neil's heart for making disciples, and am still working through many of the things that he taught. I continued to repeat "Neil is messing me up", during the time he was with us. In fact, I am still saying that today.
Blessings Friends,
Josh
Note: I am still wrestling with some of the things Neil said. This is not because they were unbliblical, but because if implemented, they will truly change the way I make disciples, plant churches, and do life. Several of the principles that he teaches and lives are opposite of what we see in most churches. You don't have to agree with everything Neil says(I hope you don't, because he is not Jesus), but his method of discipleship has become a movement.
Here are a few questions we must ask ourselves:
Are we willing to die to self in order to be used of God mightily?
Are we willing to give up our status, pay check, position of authority, lifestyle, _____________ in order to make disciples?
What are the things that are keeping us from experiencing a movement of God resulting in thousands of new disciples?
No comments:
Post a Comment