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John Henry (YWAM's
director of the international UofN Student Mobilization Centre; he resides in Madison, WI, USA)
Organic Church-by Neill Cole
Neil Cole is founder and Executive Director of Church Multiplication Associates, which began in 1990 fostering and serving organic church movements and the network he founded called Awakening Chapels.
This book is an appeal to Christians to go where life happens to connect with the disaffected people who would not otherwise come to church. Cole presents more than a consistent organic theme as he outlines his story and the story of a movement of simple, reproducible churches, he argues that the very nature of the church is organic and must therefore contain within the smallest grouping the complete DNA for reproduction.
The core of this book is the study of the “DNA of healthy church life and reproduction” (99-140) Cole wisely shows that the practice of Modernity, seeking a universal principle or pattern, such as Thom Wolf’s “New Testament Discipleship Pattern (NTDP),” is not necessarily wrong. Cole shows how the “pattern” must be “easily passed on by both example and teaching.” Wolf called this “napkin theology…if you can’t pass it on by writing it down on a napkin at a restaurant, then it isn’t worth writing down at all.” (110-111) Cole has benefited from Roland Allen’s “Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours?” and George Patterson’s thinking about “spontaneous multiplication movements” and “obedience-oriented education” in his journey seeking the simple reproducible church model. (113)
Seeking the basic pattern of church multiplication, Cole explains how the organic church goes beyond the popular “cell churches or house churches.” Cole shows how the scriptures consistently affirm the small group of two or three, “the ideal size for effective fellowship and ministry” where reproduction is easiest and community, accountability, confidentiality, flexibility, communication, direction and leadership are strongest. (100-102)
The DNA of Christ’s Body (D-Divine Truth or Faith, N-Nurturing Relationships or Love, and A-Apostolic Mission or Hope), like a seed, which is the “contagion” of the Kingdom of God, “must be whole, intact, and in every cell…complete in its simplicity.” (117-120) Cole warns that many churches have succumbed to Modernity’s tendency to specialize, concentrating on one part of the DNA and eliminating or segmenting out the other parts, such as “excellent preaching on Sundays, which is where we have divine truth.” Those same leaders will argue that they have small groups for nurturing relationships and a mission committee for apostolic mission, however Cole argues, “To separate each part is to destroy the whole thing.” (120)
Cole defends the “beautiful…design and order” of the organic structure of church, which is of “utmost importance.” (124-125) While some church leaders may argue that an organic structure will lead to disorder and chaos, he clearly states that, “structures are needed, but they must be simple, reproducible, and internal rather than external.” (124) For internal structure, a structure based on principle and purpose, to work, we must put more faith in the DNA than in organization.
LeadershipNext
-by Eddie Gibbs
New leaders in community need to be very much more aware of culture and globalization than any previous generation, save perhaps the first century.
Our consumer driven market place drives the best and the brightest to where the money is. Then, after having made their mark in business with materialistic aims, leaders are recognized for their ideas for the Church of the Lord Jesus. On the other hand, Jesus did not turn to the religious leaders, he turned to the common working people to get the job done. Business literature, as Gibbs writes, tends to emphasize biblical Christian values including humility and servanthood.
Gibbs writes, “The Church of the 21st century needs missional thinkers and apostolic leadership.” If leaders today are to become missional readers of the Scriptures with “fresh eyes,” we need to be much more deliberate about making discipleship more than books, DVD’s, and conferences. We need to do like Jesus did; we need to take our disciples out to the streets as an integral part of training and equipping today’s leaders.
Gibbs writes, “One of the greatest tragedies in theological education has been the separation (to their mutual impoverishment) of ecclesiology from missiology. This separation has resulted, on the one hand, in a missionless church and, on the other hand, in a churchless mission.” (24)
This book has renewed my understanding that leaders go first, serve the most, take the hard knocks. They are generous with their time, but they also take the necessary time to withdraw and refocus. This picture of leadership is that of visionary – “they conceptualize rather than simply critique.” Many times comments from those who we work with are helpful, but there is a significant difference between ideas and commitment to follow through on an idea, a vision, serving and loving our neighbors even when many of the “helpful” comments would deter us from that course. When I have a strong natural leader who is not leading with their gift, but only commenting, I feel the pressure greater than ever. As Gibbs writes, “the enemy is strong natural servants who have the potential to lead but do not lead, or who choose to follow a non-servant.” (30) True servant leaders will bring their gift to the task and stay faithful to the vision they share with others on their team.
Gibbs writes, “The leaders of the future must grow and flex with a changing context…they are risk takers …committed to change precisely because they recognize the need for change within themselves.” (37) This tendency of leaders to re-examine all their established assumptions is what I’ve heard labeled a “paralysis of analysis.” If we spend too much time considering our next move, we fail to move. However, there is a healthy humility that is represented in questioning what you practice before continuing on that assumed course.
A new apostolic surge requires that we “recognize that ministry in the surrounding community is increasingly cross-cultural and Christians need appropriate insights and training for it.” (49) Today’s leaders must be “students of cultural movements.” (55) We should not only be aware of present trends, we should also understand the impact of Modernity on our culture and the Boomer generation, many of whom are in major cultural leadership roles in Western society. In the context of the postmodern generation, it is important to recognize the prevailing view of the world as it is seen by much this generation. Gibbs describes this postmodern time of flux and fluidity in Dominic Crossan’s words:
“There is no lighthouse keeper.
There is no lighthouse.
There is no dry land.
There is only people living on rafts made from their own imaginations.
And there is the sea.” (62)
While the world sees no purpose in seed planting and harvesting, the Church leaders should once again live the life-style which illustrates that of God as gardener. God is calling a new generation of leaders, not of programs or projects, but those who cultivate the garden, those who are connected in relationship.
The most valuable lessons for me in Gibb’s book is found in the instructions for team building. We need to cultivate our team identity through stories. We need to create the context from which stories may be told and shared and heard. We need to create the trust level to have open affirmation and critique of what we are doing right and wrong. Only then will we have a learning organization and culture.
Everything
Must Change Jesus, Global Crises and a Revolution of Hope-by Brian McLaren.
McLaren may be the most widely known proponent for the Emerging Church in the twenty-first century. A prolific writer articulating the journey out of the modern trappings of the Western Church, McLaren is an associate in Emergent Village. He now travels, speaks, writes, and learns especially from friends in Latin America and Africa, how to change our “inner ecology” (294) and therefore help create a community freed from the dominant framing story through the viral message of Jesus.
This book is framed with McLaren’s two important questions: What are the biggest problems in the world today? and What do the life and teachings of Jesus have to say about these global problems? (45) McLaren’s underlying thesis is that we are beholden to a destructive framing story and that in the gospel of Jesus Christ, “a message purporting to be the best news in the world should be doing better than this.” (34) The biggest problem in the world is a “Suicide Machine,” an invisible killer, feeding off of and destroying all life and corrupting the Earth’s ecosystem.
This book begins with our two questions, considers the “frame” of the conventional gospel story, and reintroduces us to Jesus. The first chapters introduce us to an alternative voice, a health care worker from South Africa, who pointed out the “nonsense” of the conventional gospel, how pastors are preoccupied with divine healing, being born again, and tithing. (27) McLaren relates how this kind of “dissatisfaction” with the current circumstance, coupled with a “shared imagination and hope, combine to form an emerging consensus that is spreading across the Global South,” the new Majority Church, and emerging Christian leaders are realizing that “if their message isn’t good news for the poor…it isn’t the same message that Jesus proclaimed.” (30) By including the voices of the Global South, McLaren broadens the emerging church discussion, showing the “two sided coin,” the “postmodern” side, which is a perspective from the West, and “postcolonial” side, which is the perspective of those formerly dominated by the West. (44) The “way out” of the West’s ugly, excessively confident, dominating, and exploitative narrative and the non-West’s formerly colonized and oppressed people, is face-to-face meeting, dialogue, and community formation around the kingdom message of Jesus.
The second half of this book penetrates deeper, examining in graphic detail the ugliness of the “Suicide Machine” as if he were recruiting members to join a modern insurgency to overthrow, well…everything. While he appears very much like he is presenting an argument for Ideological Pacificism, he steps away from that polarizing position to call for “a new dialogue” (176) replacing our craving for security with a passion for justice through “vibrant, reconciled communities”. (182)
McLaren calls for a “New Global Love Economy” in the image of “God’s sacred ecosystem.” (128-131) He calls us to join the “Divine Peace Insurgency” to rebuild our societal system “as a beloved community.” (151) He presents an economic plan of the kingdom of God with sustainable development and fruitfulness as the goal, not consumption. (207-9) Rather than completely abandon organized religion, he calls for “Organizing Religion” to strengthen families and communities through “celebrating virtue and training people to practice it.” (264) Rather than call for political involvement, which tends to quickly polarize even the least partisan leaders, he calls for a radical believing, “believing the alternative and transforming framing story.” (270) Rather than change the political system (not to mention the business, military, and even religious systems), which tends to attract those who change with the political wind, he repeats what Jim Wallis recommends: “Change the wind.” This book is a call to activism with resurrection faith. This “insurgency,” McLaren argues, will not be defeated, but will “move quietly, at the margins, where all revolutions begin.” (272) This is the Emerging Church, the maturing upward spiral of God’s people with vision (276), those who are disbelieving a “covert curriculum, a curriculum that must be unlearned.” (284)
The implication of this book for the global Church and for my ministry is an invitation to change personally and corporately, to partner with Christians from the West and the global South and East. McLaren is calling for a new ecosystem that nourishes, blesses, and sustains God’s kind of life. For those trapped in the destructive ecosystem of liberalism and conservatism, there is a way out. However, McLaren’s way is frightfully simple; “BELIEVE.” Like Paul the apostle, who ruthlessly examined all his presumptions as a Pharisee, about God, right and wrong, and the Messiah, we need to ruthlessly examine those bonds that tie us to the “Suicide Machine.” Something needs to change and I believe it begins with me.”
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