Last night and the majority of today, I attended an organic (house) church conference. I signed up to attend a couple weeks ago because there's a good possibility that I'll start a house church in the future. I don't feel called to it now, but God likes to mess with me so I prepare myself. Anyway, while it wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be, I learned a few things and got reminded of others.
I haven't fully processed all the information and experiences yet, but my main take-away right now is this: I'm not done with tradition church yet. I actually had a short talk about this with a friend who was there. A lot of the people at the conference, including the speakers, realized sometime in the past that the traditional church is broken and so they left. On the other hand, I realized that the church is broken and decided to try and fix it from the inside.
The bottom line is that it takes all kinds. We need the people who leave the institutional church and serve as a voice of challenge from the outside, attracting people that would never darken the doors of a normal church. But we also need the people that serve as a voice from within, making sure that the church doesn't lose sight of its purpose. No one side has the corner on how church is to be done correctly. Church is something that is supposed to be contextual. Just remember, we're all ultimately on the same team, working for the same purpose.
2 comments:
Hey Lindsay,
It was interesting at today's brunch, and I wish you could have been there because we spent a long time dialoging about. Many of our friends from the south who had journeyed up for the conference were feeling the same way as you. It was a really, really good conversation. We should get together and I will try to share some of the things that came out of it.
And please be careful not to lump organic with house church. The gathering is meant to be an outflow of disciples being made...the focus being on making disciples. I have met many, many house church groups/leaders who have nothing more organic in them than any traditional church.
We have also found that trying to create an organic gathering without disciples is really hard too. You have to start with the one-on-one, life being shared disciple making. If your focus is on the gathering or getting people to the gathering, you will never reach your desired result.
Organic--something that will naturally reproduce in the right environment because it is built into it's DNA. eg. a plant, an animal, a human...a disciple. :-)
Our hope was not that people's "take away" was to focus on the church structure, but more on making disciples. And while it is harder to do in a traditional setting, it still happens the same way...one person at a time. I will admit that this often got lost in the training, which is something I hope will be changed as they work to update it.
Anyway, let's keep talking. And it was great to have you there. :-)
~Kim
Post a Comment