Organic Church

If you are at all disenfranchised with the Western notion of "Church", you need to read this book. It's about a movement of 'organic churches' that began in California and have been multiplying in numbers since their inception (notice I did not say addition but multiplication...for those of you who are pondering this, it goes 2, 4 16, and then whatever 16x16 is, rather than 2, 4, 6, 8, etc.)

Here are just a few excerpts from the first section of the book.

"It is time we see that the Church starts in the fields, not in the barns (Prov. 24:27). We spend so much time building nice barns with padded pews, air-conditioned halls, and state of the art sound systems, yet we have neglected the fields. We are as foolish as the farmer who builds a barn and then stands in the doorway calling all the crops to come in and make themselves at home. It is time for the Church to get her hands dirty in the soil of lost people's lives" (p 35)

"Christendom has done away with Christianity without quite being aware of it." Soren Kierkegaard (p 47)

"What is the difference between the groups in chapter 1 and chapter 2 in Acts? God came upon them with the presence of the Holy Spirit filling the believers, and what a difference that made. Without Jesus in the very core of our understanding of church, we are no different from any other religious group, Kiwanis Club, or Moose Lodge." (p 53).

"In many of the churches in the West, ministry is done for Jesus, but not by Jesus-and therein lies a big difference. If we evaluated our churches not by attendance or buildings but by how recognizable Jesus is in our midst, our influence would be more far-reaching and our strategies would be far more dynamic." (p. 54)

I'm off to try to read section two of this book at the local coffee shop. Peace.