I’m hoping to write a book this year on the organic church… as a step in that direction, I want to begin sussing out the concepts in our weekly email and in this space. Feel free to help shape the project by commenting questioning or just plain cheering 
Entry one, containing no major revelations is this:
Over the next few weeks, in this space we’re going to be laying out some thoughts on doing church organically.
No, we’re not talking about a church with only natural ingredients, though that’s a really good metaphor now that I think about it…
When we say “organic church” what we mean is this: we want our community to be an expression of who we are as a people, not a program we “borrow” from another church in another context. Though we share much in common with followers of Christ all around the world, our search for relationship with God is just that, our search. And it behooves us to express that in what we do as a church community.
So, while we want to respect those who have come before us (“history” is one of our core values, after all…), sometimes you really do have to reinvent the wheel.
When we were still in the dream phase of this thing people would ask “What will it look like?” I grew to love answering “I have no earthly idea.” All I could say was that if a bunch of cloggers and bluegrass musicians showed up, well… we’d be the clogging church. If a bunch of skate punks showed up, we’d be the skate church. I wasn’t out to niche target-market our community, and so felt great freedom to just sit back and watch what happened. I still feel that freedom…
This means- as a community, we have both the privilege and the responsibility to shape this community. More and more, we are singing our own songs. More and more, the art on our walls comes from our own artists. If we have a children’s ministry, we won’t be buying it pre-packaged from a large church somewhere, not that there’s anything wrong with that… but the fact is, when we create it, we’ll own it emotionally.
What we make, we nurture. What we buy, we merely consume.
While we may take inspiration and ideas from others, we have the freedom to make this church thing a unique expression of our search for God and our relationship with one another.
You just need to ask yourself- What’s my contribution to what evergreen is becoming?
Hi Bob, Are you still thinking about writing that book? You are gifted with words and obviously passionate about what you believe in. I would buy a book you wrote!
I have just been asking these questions lately about the meaning of “organic community”. These are words and phrases that are new to me. I’ve wondered what they meant. This post here is helping define it for me.
At the GO conf up north last month one of the workshop presenters, a guy named Joe Myers, has a book coming out in the spring called Organic Community. I think it’s listed on Amazon already.
Thanks again for meeting with me earlier this year for the interview. I believe God used you to provoke some thinking in my life.
Next week I’m interviewing the Loyd’s for an article I’m writing about tattooed pastors.