May 10, 2010
Defending Organic Church (Part 1)
A diagnosis of Brian Hofmeister’s problem with organic church.
In the spring issue of Leadership journal, Brian Hofmeister wrote an article titled “The Dirt on Organic.” Hofmeister shared his experience as the pastor of a network of small, minimally structured, churches. While he celebrated the rich community and evangelistic vigor of his organic churches, Hofmeister was also honest about the struggles he faced. In the end he left his organic experiment for a more traditionally-structured church with paid fulltime pastors. Neil Cole, also a Leadership journal contributor and the author of The Organic Church, was written this response to Hofmeister’s article.
The issue Brian struggled with appears to be about finding qualified leaders in a fast growing work with conversion growth. Every missionary must face this and the solution is not to import seasoned leaders from other cultures into new works and thus create an unhealthy dependency. This will result in the establishing of a church culture rather than releasing a catalytic movement within a culture. The solution is to grow leaders from within the soil itself. Does this take time? Yes. It takes longer than a year. There are a few barriers that often prevent us from raising these leaders, and Brian apparently hit these barriers and chose not to continue.
Here is a diagnosis of the issues Hofmeister faced:
Recruitment of mature leaders. Recruitment of leaders for ministry is an epidemic problem in the Western Church. We all have more ministries than we have leaders. But recruitment is not the solution—in my opinion it is part of the problem. Recruitment is a consumer orientation that expects others to grow the leaders so we can benefit from them. When everyone is shopping for leaders and no one is farming we will soon have a serious demand and very little supply. If everyone buys bananas at the store and no one grows them at the farm, bananas will become very valuable and rare…even the lesser quality ones. This is the sort of leadership vacuum we face today in the Western Church.
In our organic church movement, we see our entire leadership farm system as starting with lost and broken people, not already saved and committed folks. We believe that many of our greatest heroes of the future woke up this morning with a hangover in the wrong person’s bed. That broken life, transformed by the power of the gospel, actually will become the energy of a movement when released to affect others. To try and coral that energy and consume it with Bible study lessons by older Christians who are far removed from a changed life is to lose all the inertia of a movement. We need mentors who will release and empower rather than hold people back and create dependency.
Expectations of what maturity looks like. The church often has a checklist approach to evaluating maturity in leaders. It is as though we have a ceiling that must be broken through before we will call someone mature and grant them permission to lead. But this is an artificial ceiling that doesn’t actually exist. Maturity is not accomplished in a day, a year, or a decade…it is a process over a lifetime. We often say in our movement that you do not graduate until there is a flatline on the screen next to your bed…prior to that you are still in process. Because we have learned leadership in an academic institution (as did our fathers and grandfathers before us), we tend to evaluate maturity based on the amount of knowledge accrued. This has created the serious problem of being educated beyond our obedience.
We must evaluate simple faith with obedience to what God is saying, not just knowledge of it. In many cultures of the world you do not really know something until you are putting it into practice and teaching it to others, prior to that you are learning something theoretically rather than actually knowing it. In our Western church culture simply agreeing with something intellectually is enough, but the result is a theoretical faith rather than an actual one. Theoretical Christians will never change a culture. As a remedy we have adopted this understanding: Do not teach a second lesson until the first one is done, and a lesson is not truly learned until it is passed on to others.
Depending upon the church to make leaders rather than the other way around. In organic church life the flow of fruitfulness is from the inside out. In an institutional approach we try to form disciples from the outside in by using conformity and behavior modification practices. This will not work.
The goal should not be to plant a church, but to plant the seed of the gospel in good soil. Instead of seeing church as the agency of change we must see it as the outcome of changed lives. The Bible doesn’t say, “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten church.” Jesus is the savior, not the church, and we must plant Jesus rather than churches. A soul transformed by the presence of Jesus will affect the lives of others around them, and the growth of their own life will ultimately bear fruit. The world is searching for Jesus not the church, but our message too often is that they must come to church to get Jesus. The results are sad indeed. We must take Jesus to the world, and stop waiting for the world to come to church. Let those with little experience have influence over those who have no experience. As we mentor people one-on-one we will find that reproduction of disciples, leaders and ultimately churches is possible.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of Neil Cole's defense of organic church.
Posted by UrL Scaramanga on May 10, 2010
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Comments
Great article Neil. The religious church really does things backwards.
Posted by: Tom at May 10, 2010
Hello!
I love dialogue on this - when I read the article in Leadership Journal, I did find myself resonating with a lot of it as that is the experience I generally have had when exploring organic churches and following what happens with them locally.
I also agree with Neil with what the Bible doesn’t say, “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten church” in John 3:16 - but don't forget what Jesus said in John 20:21 " Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." and in Matthew 28 and Acts 1:8 - and Matthew 16 etc. about the Spirit empowering disciples to build HIS church - and be in the world. Then we read in the epistles about elders and roles and gifts being given and assigned to people in a church structure as we are on mission, not as the Savior, but to represent and share about the Savior.
I went through an "organic" and house church phase after responding to a larger church context. But now see great value in all types of churches, large, small, organic, mega - and if they ae seeing new disciples made and spiritual formation and life - I think Jesus would be pleased.
I believe all the more now do we need not to be criticizing each other in the evangelical world, as to be uniting with one another on mission. We don't have the luxury today to be fighting attractinal vs. organic etc. - let's celebrate what God does in all the various expressions of the church.
I also think that we overlook people's temperaments and how church communities even draw and are shaped by people's temperaments and personalities. That is a whole other discussion, but it shows all the more there will be a great diversity of the church - and let's unite all the more and yes, defend orthodoxy and truth, but for those especially in the evangelical world, let's unit and celebrate each other more and not spend as much energy on attacking and picking on each other.
Posted by: Dan at May 10, 2010
AMEN Neil! I whole-heartedly agree with you! THANK YOU so much for stating the truth so eloquently! I haven't read Organic Church but after reading this, I plan too! I have based much of the last 20 years of my life on all that you have stated here! I was not raised in the church and did not become a Christian until my early 20's. The church was a total turn-off to me think it actually was a stumbling block to me early on. Who knew I'd become a church planter? ...te-he...certainly not me! My number one goal has been to see lost people come to know Christ (the treasure in the field that I found!). Everything else I've done (author, writer, church planter, pastor, etc.) has simply been the means of ways that I reach people for Christ. None of them mean anything short of that. I sure wish the 'Church' had come to me or come looking for me and my family way back when.....instead of waiting for us to discover them! Keep being the voice of truth Neil! (or the rocks will cry out! :-) Peace in Christ Alone, Linda Wurzbacher
Posted by: Pastor Lin at May 11, 2010
The Holy SPirit leads people in many different ways. I know some tradition Christians who go to ligturgical traditional Churches but by the FRUITS they produce demonstrate the work of of the Holy Spirit. Church has become so Gift focussed that they forget unless the gift is unwrapped and used the fruits will never eventuate. God gives us ability in all area's but usually a special gifting in one area. That does not preclude a Apostle from Service and I see that this gift focuss has made individuals say " I don't do service as my gift is as a Prophet" OBEDIENCE is the key. The Holy SPirit WILL equip. The important aspect is connection with Christ. Relationship with Jesus and the community around us. If people are truely connected with God they will want to become disciples or be more like Jesus. If they are more like Jesus they will go out and reach out whether the church is traditional, organic or mega. The problem is discipleship needs to be taught and that cannot happen through exortations, book teaching etc it comes from mature Christians leading by example. Fruits. This is where small connect groups are invaluable but there is nothing wrong with them being connected formally or informally into large gatherings. In fact large gatherings can offer more specialised help and give people an opportunity to meet and mix particualry important for young adolescents looking for a partner in life. New Christians need to be encouraged to minister to others immediately so they do not develop the consumer mentality. Our Lord is a giver not a taker so by our divine calling so should we be. Jesus asked for the all of us, to die to self. So when we are at work, rest or play we need to be totally connected to him, constantly consistently and then the fruits are naturally produced. Remeber in Obedience we sow, in Obedience we nurture but our Lord does the calling and the growing. Our sucess or failure is not the result but the willingness to be faithfully obedient consisitently. That can happen in an environment. Applt the Standard Operating Procedure of a Christian disciple (SOP) S= Self discpline self denial
O= Obedience and P = Persistance, peserverance and patience. God Bless Gregg Bisset
Posted by: Gregg Bisset at May 11, 2010
Neil,
I appreciate your response to my article. It’s very true to the “organic way.” I suppose I’m seaking more of a hybrid model these days, a blending of the best I can find in both camps.
I understand where you’re coming from on the leadership issue. Using recruitment instead of development of leaders is a cop-out if consistanly turned to as the answer.
There are few reasons however for being more opent to leadership recruitment than you seem to represent: 1) Jesus always sent people in pairs, so it seems we’d always do well to recruit at least one leader join us, 2) leaders of the first century church are recorded transferring to where the evangelism fruit was to offer support (Barnabas to Antioch), 3) Paul regularily recruited a leadership entourage (Timothy, Silas, John Mark, etc…).
As much as I loved your book Organic Church, and grew from it immensely, I was unsettled on your willingness to throw young believers into leadership. I Tim 3:6 tells us not to allow new converts into leadership. The organic church I was a part of, as discussed in my article, needed new leaders to continue on. Faced with the choice of either recruiting leaders elsewhere, or bending God’s standards for leadership, I feel I sought the lesser of two evils in suggesting recruitment.
Posted by: brian hofmeister at May 16, 2010
While I agree to these points on a basic level, I think you make a potentially dangerous over-generalization, as though all contexts fit these convictions equally. As a church planter in an inner city context, recruitment is not necessarily a consumerist response to a problem, but a recognition of unique dynamics. Be it the challenge of discipleship & leadership development in the face of a community with significant (meaning the norm) of addiction, mental illness, abuse, etc or the lack of necessary cultural & socio-economic diversity, finding leaders outside of the community can be a helpful, even necessary option.
Again, I affirm the intent of this post as it applies to many (perhaps even most) contexts. However, I worry that they are communicated almost as absolutes. I have seen communities buckle and collapse in their attempt to try and adhere to these kinds of ideals when, in their cases, they should have done otherwise.
Peace,
Jamie
Posted by: Jamie Arpin-Ricci at May 17, 2010
I believe that the idea of going out in pairs as well as recruiting leaders for the intercity efforts, fits in what Niel said. There is a difference in sharing the simple gospel to people and taking on the circumstances of the marginalized society (Drug abuse, prostitution etc.
I fact Jesus did precisely what Niel says about "Planting Jesus" he first spent his time with able members of society, who were working and contributing secularly. He shared Himself. Planted Himself; and then told them freely you have received, freely give. it was before they were mature that he empowered them to cast out demons and heal the sick (remember when coming back from the transfiguration they were spare in their prayer and fasting).
What I believe Niel is trying to say, and I agree, is to recruit, you make disciples. Obviously this does not mean that if someone from an existing church shares the vision you are living (remember Paul an Barnabas departed because they differed on crucial aspects of their vision) there is no reason to reject them. that wouldn't be actively recruiting, that would be a joyous occasion of God bringing good company.
In my limited experience, I have found it easier to teach the simplicity of the Gospel to a non-believer than to tear away the religious calluses from the seasoned parishioners. The latter being something that is inevitable, only not with the pretense of finding quick help for the service of the Gospel.
Last thing: of the two examples in my previous lines, the converted non-believer will show the life and enthusiasm of a new born, and the one retrieved, the restful whew of the weary. (I do not mean to consider him the lesser - only considering the fact we are talking about recruiting, this is an important thing to ponder)
His Peace
James - Organic church in Brazil
Posted by: James at May 26, 2010