So I have spent the last several days at an Organic Church Conference. They are a people that base their religion in fellowship and not positions or buildings. As a whole, they treat everyone with respect and kindness. They openly greet new people and talk openly about their past and present religious experiences. There is a strong appeal in what they do. They disavow a need for an authoritative structured religious leadership. The only exception to this is the Lord Jesus is their leader. They consider themselves to be of the body and the body ministers to itself. In other words, Jesus ministers to all of them via all of them. The general meeting starts off informally by people talking to each other. Afterwards, the group sings choruses based on the scripture. During the songs or in between the switching of the songs, a person will expositorily shout out a verse of scripture in exhortation or a thought based on the song or a scripture. This shouting out is never done in a spirit of disorder and it does not come off as a weird occurrence. After the singing, the saints who have something on their heart share from the scripture. The meeting normally ends in a group benediction with several people praying something.
Before I talk about their vision, I do want to be open and say that although this conference is my first face to face exposure to a large group of this sort (at a conference or large group - there were about 100 people in attendance), it is not my first brush with their ideology. In 2008, I read Frank Viola's "Pagan Christianity". In short, this book is a deconstruction of many structural practices of Protestant churches. The main problem with the outworking of that book is that it leaves the reader with no real solution. The reader is left saying "yes one does not need all of this stuff that comes with an organized church (e.g. a designated building). Now I will just meet up in a simple fashion with believers in homes or a public place". The problem even in 2008 (the hay day of the movement) was that the groups were hard to find. For about 3 years, I read many books on the subject and looked for groups. When I moved to San Antonio, I did find one group and they were nice. However, the group just seemed like a mix of kind, personable people but yet still very similar to a church service. The main difference regarding studying the scriptures between that home service and an building service was that systematic theology or categorized doctrine was never addressed in the home service. I believe this was done to avoid division. There was a similar focus in the conference. The majority of their doctrine talk was about being the body of Christ. However, there is not a group discussion of doctrines that could possibly cause division.
Much more could be said about all this, but I must get to my point of today's thought. I got a true glimpse of their vision today. They really want a gathering like was seen in the first chapters of Acts. They desire a tight knit group of people in constant fellowship around the Lord. They achieve this by putting in place the frequent fellowship aspect and by constantly focusing on Jesus. Additionally, they type this model of worship to be the true form of Christianity and type it as the true expression of the church that has always existed the last 2,000 years. I have studied a lot of Church History and this claim cannot be substantiated with historical records. They call this model of worship and life the eternal purpose of God - the forming and developing the body of Christ. While I do agree that having one person constantly speak to the group (often called the pastor) is not necessary, I do not agree their model can be equated as an absolute essential of the gospel. While this community is appealing, the constant fellowship does not seem applicable for many. They (the organic church organizers) would say a person cannot do frequent fellowship because the person does not have a single heart. I would say no. Many people have God given responsibilities (e.g. raising a family) that does not allow them to meet frequently.
Here in lies the disconnect. According to one of the principle protagonists, in order to have this flow of organic church this group must become intertwined with each other. The reasoning of this is that we are the body and the body must minister to itself. If a group is not in constant fellowship, then it is a house church and not an organic church. It appears that if a group is not in constant fellowship, then the whole flow and dependency factor does not take place. Thus, the people meeting is just a house meeting. Let me say, that I do agree Christians should not have to or need not be led by an authoritarian human system, but the Lord. But is it a togetherness alone that makes the church or is there more - like a central doctrine system. What CS Lewis called Mere Chrisitanity. I think since Jesus called the work of God to believe in Him (Jesus). Then the fact that a person believes in Jesus Christ has existed for 2,000 years, not this specific model of worship. Additionally, look at the book of Acts. The "constant fellowship model" seemed to be quickly disbanded by God himself, so that evagelization would take place. Further, when Phillip met the eunuch, he did not tell, "well now you must move from Ethiopa and come group here in Israel". No, Phillip baptized the eunuch (of course after Phillip had explained Christ to the eunuch and brought him to place of trust and belief) and straightway the Spirit of God transported Phillip away to another place (apart from eunuch). I do feel like these believers want to be and are part of the body of Christ. However, I think they err in that they place themselves as nearly the only true expression of the Lord. The goal to frequent fellowship the body is admirable, but not very feasible on a practical and historical scale. Their mindset (the one of frequent meetings) seems more appropriate for older people or singles. Nevertheless, it does not seem like it would work for many active Christians. Furthermore, I do not believe that they are the only expression of Jesus' body. They have shed the Constantine model of a bishop led church, but Jesus still saves in the institutional church. Further, one of their primary former leaders Frank Viola says as much - that although flawed God still uses the institutional church. God uses the organic church in its blessings and flaws, but the vision of them being the one true church is not valid. The Lord's vineyard is larger than this!
