Every once in a while I pick up a book that I really like.
This was not one of those times.
Organic Community – for me – can be summed up in this excerpt from the book.
“A theology of God as creator of organic order, however, allows for collaboration with him…He gives up a measure of control to facilitate relationship with us and to demonstrate his love.”
I never in my wildest dreams would think I would be saying this, but I think the influence of Reformed Theology has led me to be hypersensitive to anything that “resembles” Open Theism. I am not one who likes getting into theological debates – in fact, I disdain them. This is not an attempt to debate, so if you start it, don’t expect me to jump in.
The reason I bring this is up is that I believe that your theology of God directly affects your philosophy of ministry and more specifically, your ecclesiology. With that said, it’s obvious that – even before I got to page 130 where the above quote is found – there were many parts of the book that I just couldn’t connect with.
I am a firm believer that there are always things to learn, and sometimes the biggest lessons in life happen when you let someone who you disagree with in life speak to you so you can wrestle with the Lord in prayer and through God’s Word as to whether it is something that God is trying to teach you.
So here are a few things that I did resonate with, or at a minimum, challenged my thinking:
- Sometimes we focus so much on building a “healthy church” that we forget to tend to the health of the people.
- There is a difference between being organic and seeking organic order. It is the difference between an infant’s response to her body’s need to release waste and her father’s need to do the same. If her father were to respond to this need in a strictly organic way, he too would need diapers.
- At their best, small groups supply an organic-ordered environment form some people in some seasons of their lives to grow their sense of healthy community and belonging. At their worst, small groups deliver a manufactured environment that is promoted for all people and for every season.
- …we cross a line when we attempt to prescribe small groups as the answer for everyone and for every season of a person’s life.
- We need to bear in mind that the most accurate word to describe the process of forcing intimate connection is rape.
- Do we use a master plan to prescribe the way people should belong? Or do we – with relaxed intentionality – create environments that validates the patterns people naturally use to connect?
- …measurement has these properties:
- We measure that which we perceive to be important
- That which we measure will become important and will guide our process
- That which we do not measure wil become less important
- Story is the measure of community
So would I recommend this book for creating a philosophy and/or theology of how to build community in the context of a local church? No…it wouldn’t be one I would recommend if it was the only one you picked up, but it is a good one to pick up for perspective.