Finding Organic Church: A Comprehensive Guide to Starting and Sustaining Authentic Christian Communities - Softcover

Viola, Frank

Softcover

ISBN 10: 143476866X ISBN 13: 9781434768667

Publisher: David C Cook, 2009

Synopsis

From the bestselling author of Reimagining Church comes an essential guide that provides practical, effective tools for finding vibrant Christian communities.

Driven by a passion for the body of Christ, Frank Viola has written some of today's most authoritative and celebrated works on the growing home, organic, and missional church movements.  Now Viola shares practical keys to a healthy and successful church plant.

Viola contends that many congregations today are struggling to survive, not because of bad planning, but poor planting.  He presents an essential guide for starting and nourishing organic churches in any culture.  Drawing from both Scripture and a wealth of experience, Viola offers real-world tools, insights, and practical suggestions so churches won't just grow, but thrive.

About this title

About the Author

Frank Viola is an internationally renowned speaker and author. He is a leading voice of the house church movement, a group of believers that seeks to reconnect with the original model of Christian fellowship. Frank lives with his family in Gainesville, Florida.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

FINDING ORGANIC CHURCH

A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO STARTING AND SUSTAINING AUTHENTIC CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES

By Frank Viola

David C. Cook

Copyright © 2009 Frank Viola
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4347-6866-7

Contents

Preface, 
Introduction, 
Reclaiming the Biblical Narrative, 
PART ONE PLANTING THE SEED—BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES FOR CHURCH PLANTING, 
1. The Divine Pattern of Church Formation, 
2. Restoring the Itinerant Worker, 
3. The Master Plan of Church Planting, 
4. Apostolic Covering vs. Apostolic Help, 
5. The Modern House Church Movement, 
6. Restoration or Revolution?, 
PART TWO TILLING THE GROUND—ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS, 
7. Can The New Testament Example Be Applied Today?, 
8. Was Paul an Exception?, 
9. Is Church Planting Elitist?, 
10. Can't Anyone Start an Organic Church?, 
11. Wasn't Paul the Last Apostle?, 
12. Don't Apostles Perform Signs and Wonders?, 
PART THREE CULTIVATING THE SOIL—PRACTICAL STEPS FOR BEGINNING, 
13. Discovering Organic Church, 
14. Five Unmovable Principles, 
15. Learning How to Meet, 
16. Corporate Singing, 
17. Building Community, 
18. Twelve Essential Ingredients, 
PART FOUR PULLING THE WEEDS—HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT, 
19. The Growth Stages of an Organic Church, 
20. The Seasons of an Organic Church, 
21. The Diseases of an Organic Church I, 
22. The Diseases of an Organic Church Ii, 
23. How An Apostolic Worker Cares for a Church, 
24. The Journey Ahead, 
Acknowledgments, 
Bibliography, 
About The Author, 

CHAPTER 1

THE DIVINE PATTERN OF CHURCH FORMATION

We must return to the beginning, to the "genesis" of the church, to see what He said and did then. It is there we find the highest expression of His will. Acts is the "genesis" of the church's history, and the church in the time of Paul is the "genesis" of the Spirit's work. Conditions in the church today are vastly different from what they were then, but these present conditions could never be our example, or our authoritative guide; we must return to the "beginning." Only what God has set forth as our example in the beginning is the eternal will of God.

—Watchman Nee

Over the last fifty years, there have been nearly one hundred books written on the subject of church planting. Some of these books have the subject nailed down to a fine science. But what is surprising is that few of them discuss the ways in which churches were planted in the beginning.

To my mind, it's a profound mistake to ignore what we find in the book of Acts concerning the manner in which Christian communities were birthed in the first century. As Watchman Nee writes,

Never let us regard these early chapters of Acts as inapplicable today. Like the book of Genesis, the Acts of the Apostles reveals the beginnings of God's ways, and what He did then sets a pattern for His work always.

The New Testament presents four ways in which churches were planted in century one. These ways weren't cultural fads or the nifty ideas of intelligent mortals. I believe they originated with God Himself.

The Jerusalem Model

The first way occurred in the city of Jerusalem. Twelve apostles planted one church by the preaching of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:14—8:3). After a period of time, the church multiplied by "transplantation" or "migration."

Because this approach began first in Jerusalem, we'll call it the Jerusalem Model. According to the New Testament narrative, after four years, the seeds of the Jerusalem church were scattered and transplanted all throughout Palestine. Because of persecution, the believers in Jerusalem relocated to other locales, shared their faith, and churches sprang up as a result (Acts 8:1–8; 11:19–21). For a time, the twelve apostles remained in the city.

One of the outstanding characteristics of the Jerusalem dispersion is that all the Christians in Jerusalem had experienced organic church life before they relocated to form new churches. In other words, they brought to other regions their experience of Christ and the church. This is a vital point as we will later see.

Significantly, the newly transplanted churches in Palestine received the help of the apostles—even though they were not directly planted by them. The Twelve circulated to the new church plants, watering the seeds and pulling up weeds (Acts 9:32—11:30). While the apostles helped establish and encourage these new churches, they did not live in them, nor did they control their affairs.

The Antioch Model

The classic way in which churches were planted in the first century began in Antioch of Syria. This model of church planting is most clearly seen in Acts 13:1—20:38. Here we discover that Paul and his coworkers were sent out from Antioch to establish churches in South Galatia, Greece, and Asia Minor. This way of planting churches can be called the Antioch Model. It can also be called "fresh seed planting."

(Incidentally, Paul's journeys are best described as "church planting trips" or "apostolic journeys." The popular term missionary journey was created in the nineteenth century and is a poor fit with the nature and goal of Paul's ministry. More on that later.)

The Antioch Model can be described thusly: An apostle walks bare-handed into a city to preach Jesus Christ. He does not preach the "Four Spiritual Laws," the "Romans road," the "plan of salvation," or Christian theology. Nor does he preach himself (2 Cor. 4:5). Instead, he preaches a Person—Jesus Christ.

New converts are made as a result of the preaching of Christ. Some of them may be religious people who have a relationship with God already (the Jews). Others have never met God (the Gentiles).

After leading people into a genuine encounter with God in Christ, the apostle shows the young church how to live by the indwelling life of its newly found Lord. He discloses to the believers the eternal purpose of God, and this becomes the church's consuming vision. (Note that God's eternal purpose—His grand mission—is God-centered, not human-centered.) In short, the apostle imparts into the spirits of the believing community the same "heavenly vision" that he himself has received (Acts 26:13; Gal. 1:15–16).

The apostle also passes on to the new church the apostolic tradition that originated with Jesus (1 Cor. 11:2; 2 Thess. 2:15; 3:6). He unfolds the unsearchable riches of Christ, His greatness, and His all-sufficiency to the hearts of God's people (Eph. 3:8). This is what it means to build a church on Jesus Christ as the only foundation (Matt. 7:24ff.; 16:16–18; 1 Cor. 3:11; Eph. 2:20). Having the Lord Jesus Christ as the foundation means that the church learns to wholly depend upon, rest in, and live by Christ.

The gospel that the first-century apostles preached was one of Christ's lordship and God's pure and unfailing grace in Him. Paul of Tarsus, for example, did not forge people together with rules, religious duty, or legalism. Instead, he preached a gospel of grace so high and so powerful that it kicked down the gates of hell—setting the Jew free from religious duty and the Gentile free from immorality. His was a double-barreled, two-fisted gospel.

The aftermath of such ministry is that the newly founded church stood awash with the glories, the joys, and the freedom of Jesus Christ (Acts 13:52; 2 Cor. 1:24; 3:17). Note that the early apostles had been given a glorious, breathtaking revelation of Christ, which poured out of their spirits before they could impart that revelation to others. Consider Paul's words:

To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him. (Gal. 1:16 KJV)

The immediate and long-lasting fruit of this heavenly vision was this: God's people fell in love with their Lord and with one another.

In effect, Paul and his coworkers instructed the new Christians on how to live by the Christ who indwelt them. They showed them how to fellowship with the Lord together and individually. They equipped God's people to function corporately under the Lord's direct headship without any human officiation. The apostles also prepared the believers for the trials that they were bound to face in the future (Acts 14:22; 20:31; 1 Thess. 3:4). Consequently, the apostolic ministry was not only spiritual; it was intensely practical.

After saturating the new believers with a revelation of Christ, Paul did the unthinkable. He abandoned the church into the Lord's hands. He gently pushed the believers out of their nest and left them on their own. And he did so without hiring a pastor, a clergyman, or appointing elders to supervise them. What is more, he left the church on its own in its infancy and in the face of imminent persecution.

According to the Antioch Model, the apostle typically spent anywhere from three to six months laying the ground floor of a church before leaving it. This means that Paul and his coworkers would abandon a church when it was just beginning to crawl. Elders eventually emerged within many of the assemblies and were publicly recognized. But this came later. And the elders' task was never that of governing or controlling the church. Nor was it to monopolize the church's ministry. (I've discussed this in depth elsewhere.)

Notwithstanding, once leaving, the apostle didn't return to the church for a long period of time, anywhere from six months to two years.

This is the pattern of church planting as shown to us by Paul after he was sent out from Antioch. What a mighty, fireproof gospel Paul must have delivered to these new converts. What confidence in the risen Christ he must have had to do such a startling thing as to leave a church on its own while it was still in diapers. Roland Allen astutely observes,

The facts are these: St. Paul preached in a place for five or six months and then left behind him a church, not indeed free from the need of guidance, but capable of growth and expansion.... The question before us is, how he could so train his converts as to be able to leave them after so short a time with any security that they would be able to stand and grow. It seems at first sight almost incredible.... What could he have taught them in five or six months?

The net effect is that the apostle's gospel was tested to its core. If the gospel he preached was indeed Christ, or as Paul put it—if it was made of "gold, silver, and precious stones"—the church would stand through crisis (1 Cor. 3:6– 15). On the other hand, if the gospel that the apostle brought was made of combustible materials—"wood, hay, and stubble"—it would burn to the ground when any heat came to try it.

If an apostle plants the church using imperishable materials and it is nurtured properly, all it needs will spontaneously develop from within. In time, prophets, shepherds, evangelists, overseers, etc. will naturally and organically emerge—just as naturally and organically as the physical members develop on an infant as it matures. T. Austin-Sparks speaks of this experience, saying,

Thus, having set aside all the former system of organised Christianity, we committed ourselves to the principle of the organic. No "order" was "set up," no officers or ministries were appointed. We left it with the Lord to make manifest by "gift" and anointing who were chosen of Him for oversight and ministry. The one-man ministry has never emerged. The "overseers" have never been chosen by vote or selection, and certainly not by the expressed desire of any leader. No committees or official bodies have ever existed in any part of the work. Things in the main have issued from prayer.

Such organic development is basic to all life-forms. A rose seed has within its germ a stem, leaves, and a budding flower. If the seed is planted and properly nurtured, these features will naturally manifest themselves in time. In the same way, the requisite gifts and ministries of the church of Jesus Christ will naturally develop if it's planted and nurtured properly—for they are built into her very DNA.

Biblically speaking, a church is a spiritual organism, not a human organization. It's a biological entity. As such, it develops naturally when the agent who planted it leaves it on its own. Of course, church planters should return periodically to water it, fertilize it, and pull up the weeds that seek to choke its life. Hence, a large part of an apostle's task is to keep foreign elements out of the church so that it can grow naturally and organically. (More on that later.)

This understanding of church development is in stark contrast to the prevalent model of trying to appoint various ministries and gifts (like elders, prophets, and teachers) on the basis of a pro forma adherence to a "New Testament pattern." Such a mechanical method of church formation will only produce a pathetic, paper-thin image of the church. It's like trying to create a mature rose by locating stem, leaves, and petals, then stringing them together with nylon thread. It is a violation of the organic, innate nature of the church, and it defies the biblical reality that the ekklesia is, in fact, a living organism.

All told, the Antioch Model rests on the suppositions that the church is organic, it's born by a presentation of Jesus Christ, and it organically grows in the absence of the founding apostle after he leaves it on its own. Yet it requires his return to oversee the church's growth and keep foreign elements from choking and corrupting its life (Acts 13—20). As Howard Snyder says, "Church growth is a matter of removing the hindrances to growth. The church will naturally grow if not limited by unbiblical barriers."

The Antioch Model, or "fresh seed planting," is the classic way in which churches were raised up in the first century. Again, Roland Allen candidly observes,

In a very few years, he [Paul] built the church on so firm a basis that it could live and grow in faith and in practice, that it could work out its own problems, and overcome all dangers and hindrances both from within and without.

So in the Jerusalem Model, the church leaves the apostolic worker. But in the Antioch Model, the apostolic worker leaves the church. But the end result is the same: Once the foundation of a church is laid by an apostolic worker, God's people are left on their own without any extralocal help. Comparing the Antioch and Jerusalem Models, Watchman Nee writes,

We find there are two ways of preaching the gospel and of establishing churches—two distinct methods illustrated respectively by Jerusalem and Antioch. From Antioch apostles go forth; from Jerusalem scattered saints go forth. In the one case, bands of apostles move out—it may be Paul and Barnabas, or Paul and Silas, or Paul and Timothy—to preach the gospel from place to place, to form churches, and to return. In the other case, those who believe emigrate to new cities and new lands, preaching and telling of the Lord Jesus wherever they go; and wherever these who migrate are found, churches spring up.

The Ephesian Model

A third type of church planting began in the city of Ephesus. Therefore, we'll call it the Ephesian Model. In his later years, Paul traveled to Ephesus. Before he descended on that city, however, he had planted approximately eight churches over a period of seven years.

What Paul accomplished in Ephesus was as unique as it was brilliant. He made Ephesus a training center from which the gospel would go forth and where young men could be trained to plant churches. Paul rented a meeting place called the "Hall of Tyrannus" where he preached and taught every day from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. This part of the training went on for two solid years. The men who Paul trained were:

* Titus from Antioch.

* Timothy from Lystra.

* Gaius from Derbe.

* Aristarchus from Thessalonica.

* Secundus from Thessalonica.

* Sopator from Berea.

* Tychicus from Ephesus.

* Trophimus from Ephesus.

Epaphras from Colosse could also be added to the list. It appears that Paul led him to the Lord while he was in Ephesus. Sometime afterward, Epaphras planted three churches in the Lycus valley of Asia Minor: one in Colosse, one in Laodicea, and one in Hierapolis (Col. 1:7; 4:12–13). New Testament scholar Donald Guthrie observes,

It must have been during this period, for instance, that the churches at Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis, all in the Lycus valley, were established, although Paul himself did not visit them. Men like Epaphras and Philemon, who were known to the apostle, possibly came under his influence in the hall of Tyrannus.

In the same vein, F. F. Bruce writes,

To this great city, then, Paul came ... and stayed there for the best part of three years, directing the evangelization of Ephesus itself and of the province as a whole. Plainly he was assisted in this work by a number of colleagues—like Epaphras, who evangelized the Phyrgian cities of the Lycus valley (Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis)—and so effectively did they work that, as Luke puts it, "all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks."

(Continues...)

Excerpted from FINDING ORGANIC CHURCH by Frank Viola. Copyright © 2009 Frank Viola. Excerpted by permission of David C. Cook.
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Edition details

• Publisher: David C Cook
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 143476866X
• ISBN 13: 9781434768667
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 319