Myth #1 – Organic Church is a New Method for Doing Church

My co-workers and I sometimes hold organic church conferences throughout the country. These events are designed to do several things. One is to equip believers to be prepared to live “body life”. Another is to connect people together who are like-minded concerning organic church in their geographical area. These events are training and equipping events, they are not meant to be organic church meetings.

Most people come to these events planning on filling up their notebooks with all of the “how-to’s” of organic church. They are looking for the “method” of doing organic church. They are looking for a “system” whereby they can implement starting an organic church when they get home. They are expecting information that will help them to construct organic church life. All of those folks are surprised by the fact that they never receive anything like that at these events. Some go away very frustrated and even angry that this kind of content was never given to them. Others go away startled by something that shakes them to their very core.

What is the difference? Let me put it this way:

Some come as Nicodemus and leave as Nicodemus.

Others come as Nicodemus and leave as the Samaritan woman at the well!

The Difference Between Knowledge and Life

These two people (stories) show us the difference in approaches that people can take towards the Lord.

Nicodemus

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.’” John 3:1,2

We see here that Nicodemus came to Jesus on the level of a great teacher and miracle worker. Nicodemus was himself a well respected teacher among the Jews and was a Pharisee. He came to Jesus for knowledge. “Rabbi, we KNOW …”. He thought that he knew where Jesus was coming from and so he was looking for more knowledge so that he could implement a better “method” in his work. His heart was in the right place, in a sense. He wanted to help people. But he was still approaching the Lord on a totally irrelevant playing field. But before another word could come out of his mouth, the Lord totally switches the playing field. Nicodemus was approaching the Lord intellectually and in the realm of the soul-life. The Lord refuses to engage him on that level. So what does Jesus do?

He tells Nicodemus that he needs a NEW LIFE!

He (in essence) is telling Nic that it’s not about knowledge, it’s all about life. God’s life, eternal life, divine life, uncreated life. And that he will never understand anything that He is doing or saying until he has this life of God within him.

The Samaritan Woman

“Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’” John 4:10

Here, the Lord again approaches this woman on the basis of life, His Life. She was definitely very thirsty. She had tried to quench her thirst by many other things such as her many husbands. We can see by reading the story that she was also very religious and traditional (by her referring to Jacob and the mountain). But none of those things had quenched her thirst. She needed Life! She needed the Living Water!

Why is it that we don’t come seeking life instead of more information and knowledge? Why don’t we come seeking Christ instead of other things? Organic church is really only about one thing – the Lord Jesus Christ Himself! It’s about His life and living by His life with a group of believers. How could it be about anything else?

Jesus Christ IS the Church!

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