Organic Church

Neil Cole Organic Church:Growing Faith Where Life Happens Jossey-Bass (September 8, 2005)

"Nós falamos mais sobre o estilo e o modelo de nosssa igreja que sobre o Senhor dos senhores que reina nela. Nós falamos ao povo por quê nossa igreja é diferente da outra ou melhor que as outras da cidade, pensando que o povo vai ser atraído por isto, mas ao invés disso, eles estão desinteressados. Se unicamente nós retornarmos ao primeiro amor e deixar Jesus ser o nosso focus, então muitas coisas se aproximarão disto. Eles serão compelidos a buscar a Cristo e não um serviço religioso melhor". (pág. 7)

Trecho da entrevista para o E-zine The Next Wave

Next-Wave: So what is the Organic Church?
NC: Some people call it simple church, with the planting of the seed of the Kingdom in soil where there is lost-ness, allowing transformed lives to be the momentum for building God’s church

Next-Wave: In Organic Church you talk about replicating DNA. The D stands for “Divine Truth.” With postmodern people truth is relative, how does “Divine Truth” go over?
NC: In an evangelistic context we wouldn’t approach someone and start talking about “DNA.” It just wouldn’t be helpful. We would just live the “DNA.” Typically in a postmodern context I don’t want to introduce people to propositional truth, I want to introduce them to the person of truth, Jesus, and let him deal with the propositional.

Next-Wave: “D” stands for “Divine Truth” what do the “N” and the “A” of the Organic Church represent?
NC: The “N” is nurturing relationships. Each new follower is adopted into a spiritual family, a brotherhood, based on a love relationship with our Father and his son Jesus. That’s the “one-anothers.” The “A” is apostolic mission. Even the Nicene Creed says the church is holy and apostolic. It’s meant to be sent. It’s more like Jesus said, “The Father has sent me, so send I you.” So apostolic means that the church is a “sent” agency not a “sending agency.” We are ourselves going on mission.
Most churches in the West set up shop in a location and they tell the world to come to them, that’s not being apostolic. So we want to be decentralized. We don’t want to be bound to a location. We want to be planting the seeds of the Kingdom among the lost people. We are sent.