THE MUSTARD SEED REVOLUTION

I was responding to a comment that seemed to assume that small churches = inadequate resources to advance the kingdom. It seems to imply that the church must become institutional in order to advance the kingdom...my argument is that it is the unnecessary or unbalanced institutionalization of the church that keeps the church from advancing.

You may not believe me, but I have nothing against institutions per se... I believe institutions are simply social necessities, especially in the modern world. They are not bad in themselves...for example, a friend of mine leads a effective organization that reaches out to street kids...it is a good institution...it is a good tool for their work, even though their work is organic, dynamic and relational.

There is nothing inherently wrong with owning a building, or incorporating for IRS tax purposes, which then requires a board of directors, officers, etc, etc. IOM is a very good and useful institution. In my mind, ACM is a very good and useful institution that serves our relationships with an annual meeting.

My problem comes when we 'institutionalize' the church and then confuse the institution with the ekklesia, thinking that the institutional forms are a necessary part of the church.

I am all for the study of church history, in fact, I am paying big bucks to study it. I draw a lot of the points that I am attempting to make about the ekklesia from my study of church history.

I think the record is pretty clear that the Christian movement grew exponentially until the conversion of Constantine and the legalization of Christianity (see Michael Green). From the mid-300s on, the growth of Christianity slooooooooowed waaay down, with the exceptions of the Celtic missionary planting movement, and latter the Franciscan, Dominican and Jesuit orders began to push out in cross-cultural missions again. The Celtic church sent out missionary church planting cells of 12 men... the Jesuits also sent out small teams of missionaries. There has been no discovery of any church "buildings" other than private homes used for worship before 280 AD... As Michael Green puts it in Evangelism in the Early Church, the early Jesus' movement "gossiped" the good news from house to house (small, and very little institutional structure).

The Wesleyan movement transformed English society (and the American colonies), not primarily with public preaching, but with small groups -- the class structure of 12 or less. A good example of a virus movement that eventually enabled the end of slavery (Wilberforce was influenced by Wesley) and might have prevented a bloody English Revolution similar to the French (George Hunter has a good book on Methodist small groups – I believe Howard Snyder also does).

The Moravians went out to the nations two-by-two, or in small bands, one of the greatest missionary movements of Protestantism. And finally, to come back to where we stared in another blog and in a previous thread....the Chinese church. Shut down the buildings, kill the pastors and expel the Western missionaries, forbid meetings of more than 12 to 15 people, and what do you get? One of the greatest explosions of the growth of the kingdom of all time (See Alan Hirsch).

To give another, more secular communist example, Fidel Castro barely escaped Batista’s attack in December 1956 and lost all but 12 men out of 80. The 12 escaped to the mountains and regrouped sufficiently to eventually take over the whole island and carry out the Cuban Revolution (ZEC 4:10 "For who has despised the day of small things?)

Neil Cole, in the Organic Church, makes a convincing case that complex systems (think of a fully mature elephant) do not multiply easily, and certainly not rapidly. An elephant's gestation period is over 2 years. All effective multiplication in nature takes place at the cellular level. Multiplication of churches can only happen when there is effective multiplication of leaders. Leaders can only be produced when there is effective multiplication of disciples. Disciples are best multiplied at the “where 2 or 3 are gathered” level.

I heartily endorse the study of the history of the Christian movement in all of its forms: the good, the bad and the ugly (and there is that too). We can learn from the heroic victories, and the dismal failures, and there are plenty of both. I think the overwhelming evidence is the kingdom of God is always like a mustard seed...and grows like a vine. And that the New Wineskin almost inevitably becomes a Old Wineskin that must be renewed or will be torn and the New Wine spilled.