Vision and Movement

Organic vs. Institutional

In talking about organic church, I am borrowing terminology from Neil Cole's wonderful book, The Organic Church. Cole talks about his experiences as a church planter, and proliferation of house churches and third place churches that result from a very organic approach to faith. This is a very oversimplified summary, and I would really encourage you to read the book if you haven't already.

For my part, I'm basically using the term to describe the church as it existed before it was an institution. It was a movement then, a seat of your pants, often persecuted movement, that could only exist if its proponents kept a clear focus on the vision of their leader, Jesus Christ. For centuries, it had no buildings, very little hierarchy, and no corporate identity.

I won't take the time to go through all of the history here, but in summary, there were various leaders in early Christianity who sought to control the church, but none were broadly successful until the conversion of Roman Emperor Constantine. While Constantine is often credited with bringing Christianity into mainline credibility, he also gave himself the authority to restructure the church. He gave it a hierarchy based on Roman governmental systems. He constructed elaborate church buildings. He contributed to the formation of various church policies. His reforms led to a distinct clergy-member separation, a divorce of the church from its Hebrew roots, and the institutionalization of what had been an organic, spiritual, community based movement.

The main problem with institutions is that they can continue to exist even after everyone involved has lost sight of what is really important. In other words, a movement can only exist so long as it maintains a vision. But incorporate that same movement into an institution, and the institution will continue to exist regardless of vision. This is, sadly, often the case in organized religion.

Organization and institutions have their place. But they are meant to be the tools of the church, not the church itself. The church is to be, very simply, a collection of disciples. And disciples are, quite simply, those who have devoted their lives to following a Rabbi. In this case, the Rabbi is Jesus.

The organic church accomplishes its purposes in an organic way. It grows, not by expanding its structures, but through disciples who build relationships and community connections. It is relational, like a family. It plants seeds of truth, and watches to see what happens. The original church was the result of a way of life, rooted in discipleship and faith in Jesus. The institutional church may use the language of discipleship and faith, but it has become invested in perpetuating its own structure and identity along with the Gospel.

Oddly enough, we've lived so long with the institutional church that many Christians think we can't live without it. At times, I'm not sure we can live with it.

Blessings,
Doug