What Is Organic Church?
I think Frank Viola has said it best - "an organic expression of the church is one in which the members are learning to live by Divine LIFE together. They are learning how to live by the indwelling Christ. And out of that living emerges a particular expression. That expression, because it’s derived from LIFE, is “organic.” When the church is living true to herself . . . as an organism . . . her expression is organic. The means and end is Jesus Christ. Christ is known deeply by a group of people who are discovering His infinite riches together and are making Him visible on the planet again."
Organic church is not just a "house church" or a "simple church". It goes beyond structure. It's not a movement. Movements soon become monuments and eventually mausoleums. The goal of an organic church is not to change the world. The goal is to fulfill God's eternal purpose, that is to make sure that everything is for Him, by Him and through Him. It is to fulfill HIS ultimate desire for a family, a house, and a bride.
T. Austin-Sparks is the man who deserves credit for this term. Here’s his definition:
God’s way and law of fullness is that of organic life. In the Divine order, life produces its own organism, whether it be a vegetable, animal, human or spiritual. This means that everything comes from the inside. Function, order and fruit issue from this law of life within. It was solely on this principle that what we have in the New Testament came into being. Organized Christianity has entirely reversed this order.
Said another way, organic church is a non-traditional church that is born out of spiritual life instead of constructed by human institutions and held together by religious programs. Organic church life is a grass roots experience that is marked by face-to-face community, every-member functioning, open-participatory meetings (opposed to pastor-to-pew services), non-hierarchical leadership, and the centrality and supremacy of Jesus Christ as the functional Leader and Head of the gathering.
That's it in a nutshell. You can't really define it completely because it's 'organic'! It is expressed in whatever way that it most please Him. As it is with the Spirit that leads it, it flows like the wind, not knowing where it goes or where it comes from.
