Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

“Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father," said Jesus. (John 14:12)

In my experience of being around the church for 50 years I do not think we take this verse seriously. Our mental models will not allow it. We too often see the world and all that is in it as a machine instead of as an organism.
 
Machines need oil or re-tuning and they finally just wear out. The machine model is linear, in that the concern is how to get from Point A to Point B with efficiency. The machine model leads to religious boredom. Church becomes an endless series of meetings where we listen to burnt out people who are waiting to retire from church work. This might be an exaggeration, but it contains truth based on my own observation.

But what if we think of the church as an organism instead?

Relationships are the key to a organic way of being the body of Christ living in community. The organic model tosses out highly organized strategies if they prohibit the forming of relationships. The organic model of church says that nothing is staked concrete, not even traditions (this of course does not mean that anyone advocates we abandon all traditions, merely that we worship God -- not traditions).

 

God, in the organic model, becomes even more awesome because God is the only thing that is unchangeable. The great theologian, Dr. Paul Tillich said, “God is the ground of all being.” In the organic model, there is nothing that cannot be transformed. And our unchangeable God will always bring order out of the chaos of constant transformation.

 

A place I hope to see the church practicing the organic method of ministry is this Saturday in the Extreme Community Makeover in Littleton . We will work together from 9am to 4pm. If you can make it for all or a portion of that time I hope to see you there. Click here for details on how you can get involved.  As we grow in Christ Jesus by the building up of relationships, “….in fact we will do greater works than these…."

See you Saturday and Sunday

Still in one peace,

David J Jensen