Organic Church

Written by Kevin Harper

Friday, 08 September 2006

Book review: Organic Church by Neil Cole

Organic Church by Neil Cole Wow. What an inspiring book. If you want a kick in the pants to start living a life on mission for Christ, this book can get you started in that direction. Cole repeatedly makes the point, though, that it's better to do it than to talk about doing it.

He even wrote about his embarrassment at one point when he realized he had spent two years talking about church planting without actually doing it. I must confess that I feel that way sometimes. Sometimes I feel I spend more time thinking, writing, and talking about Christianity than actually getting out in the community and living it openly and boldly. This book has spurred me to be more proactive in pursuing some ideas I've had for taking the gospel outside of the four walls of our church meetings.

The book is full of ideas and new twists of perspective that should have been self-evident to any Christian. Instead, modern "churchianity" has impressed upon so many of us a sense of "well, you can do that, but it's NOT church," or "you certainly can't do that because it's NOT church." Instead, we need to wake up to the notion that we are the church whereever we are, whatever we do. This is an empowering thought that should spur us on to creatively express our love and good works in many different situations where we might not otherwise think to do so.

In short, we need to put to rest the idea that our number one goal is to convince the lost to become part of our established church communities. Instead, we should make a genuine effort to infect their social circles with the truth, love, and mission of Jesus Christ. He came, not to save the healthy, but the sick. Let's find where they are, and take the gospel to them. By planting the seed of the gospel and watering it where it is, we'll be much more effective at planting churches than if we try to attract people to our ever-growing meetingplaces.

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