hey guys! I am back in Miami. Thanks to all of your kind and encouraging responses, and your thoughtful feedback on this issue of organic church planting, I decided not to delete my document, erase my blog, burn all of the jump drive back-ups, use the "F" word, and get a job as a truck driver for UPS. Instead, I am going to change the name of my paper: from "Organic Church Planting" to ....something like.... "Multiplying Communities of Faith" or "Planting and Nourishing Kingdom Communites Through Biotic Principles" or ..... feel free to offer me a suggestion...maybe... "99 ways to beat your head against the wall while you grow old and senile" (Just kidding -- maybe I should have posted this on my humor blog).
I am most definitely going to permanently drop the word "organic." -- too much baggage. I'll probably also drop the English word "church" for the same reason...although I still like the word "planting."
My thinking has continued to evolve rather radically since I wrote the "Organic Church Planting" paper in 2003, so, why keep pressing for something that I no longer exactly believe in myself the same way as I did in 2003?
On another note, I have been thinking, and I have decided that I am not terribly interested in ecclesiology apart from a clear connection to missional mindset (misiology if you will). It seems a little static to me without mission (especially mission in the U.S.A.). Or to put it another way, without living reproduction and multiplication, what is the point in keeping the body preserved and healthy? Mere survival?
By-the-way, if you have not read the passage below by Watchman Nee from The Normal Christian Church Life, I highly encourage you to take a few moments and read through it, even if for no other reason to better argue with me in the blogs and email. I think it is quite profound, and I regret that I did not follow his advice more closely over my last 20 years of church planting.
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Although I agree in general terms with your comments about ecclessiology needing to take second place behind missiology (or third place behind Christology and missiology) I still think there is a role for body life "without living reproduction and multiplication, what is the point in keeping the body preserved and healthy? Mere survival?"
ReplyDeleteA human body is only able to reproduce for about half it's life. Most people only reproduce a couple or three times in their entire life (more in other cultures perhaps). Are you advocating we euthanize all those who are not able to reproduce or have chosen not to?
I think that there is a role and a purpose for a healthy congregation to continue to exist even though they do not reproduce numerically. I think it still provides salt and light to the world even if there is no reproductive growth.