Organically grown foods are all the rage these days. God’s way also really tends to be more natural – organic. We can deduce a lot about God’s ways by observing creation. There we can quickly see that things aren’t laid out on the square, in neat parallel rows, or even straight lines. Roots grow in a tangled non-symmetrical mess. Water flows downhill in meandering, unpredictable paths. On God’s assembly line every single snowflake is unique!
So when it comes to doing church… maybe we try too hard sometimes to create something that is systemized, predictable, mechanistic. We have a formula for witnessing, A formula for baptism. A formula for discipleship. A formula for church growth, and so on. We start with a blueprint and then try to force everything to fit the blueprint. And every pastor knows how frustrating it can be when people just won’t get with the plan!
If anything the New Testament shows us that the Gospel flows more organically than strategically. Jesus’ instructions to the Seventy are revealing – knock on all the doors, go in where the door opens to you. Not – “Be sure to target the thirty-something demographic.” Not – “Break into four groups and cover the city in qaudrants.” He almost seems to prefer that they, like the water, just follow the natural path, the path of least resistance. God’s modus operendi seems a lot more relationally-oriented – as opposed to system-oriented. “Find the people who are open and just work with them.” Huh.
Even in his choice of disciples Jesus seemed to put more value on existing relationships than on academics or any other qualification, choosing (arguably) three pairs of brothers over a long line of keen and eager Hebrew scholars of the day. James and Jude were father and son. At the very least more than half of the 12 apostles already had a close relationship with each other long before meeting Jesus. Maybe… maybe that was what made him choose this otherwise non-descript bunch in the first place! All of this just underscores the importance of human relationships in the propagation of the Gospel, and therefore in the planting and development of churches. It indicates that maybe God can do more with a smaller group who have true relationship/love with each other – than with a mega-church where nobody knows anybody, and everybody knows nobody.
It would certainly explain why the Paul, greatest church planter on record, didn’t start at City Hall and work his way down when he came to town. At Philippi [Acts 16] he did no demographic research, had no mass advertsing plan, nor any systematic door-to-door campaign. Instead he just followed his nose and ended up down by the river talking to a group of women. That led to a room and board situation, which led to a small group meeting, which led to an exocism, which led to some jail time, which led to an audience with the mucky-mucks of the city, which led to a great church birthed, and finally – a great espistle added to the canon of Scripture. An unusual route by today’s standards, but who wouldn’t call Philippi a successful church plant!
Did Paul have a vision for building big churches? I’m sure he did. For changing the world? Without question! But it’s the ‘how’ we’re talking about here, not the ‘what’. Water does have an irresistable urge to keeping going downhill, you just never know the path it might take. Every hill is different. Every rock it must go around is a different shape. Even with the same rock the prevailing breeze will take it one way today and a different way tomorrow. Nature is all about context.
Maybe Paul knew something about God’s ways that we’ve lost sight of in the brave new world of the 21st century. That if new churches are plants – relationships are the roots. That the strongest plants are the ones where we allow the roots to find their own path. That in the end, the best church, the biggest church, the healthiest church, the correctest church, and certainly the easiest church to plant is – organically grown.
