Preface

Before you read these thoughts, there is one central thought which rises above all other thoughts:

"I have a question I've been wanting to ask you for four years," I said to Charles Brock, author of Practicing Principles of Indigenous Church Planting, when I met in the Philippines a few years ago. "You go into the poor areas of Manila, you plant churches rapidly, they always produce their own leadership, they are never dependent on outside funds and they always reproduce.

"I know two other brothers who plant churches in the same areas and it takes them six or seven years. They are always dependent, they never reproduce and they never can produce their own leadership. They say poverty has destroyed the psyche of the people and they are not leadership quality.

Is structure a bad word in organic church? Can systems be organic or are they only institutional? How do you organize a decentralized, rapidly expanding, spontaneous multiplication movement without killing it in the process?

Perhaps the real question is this: can we be out of control and still have order? I believe the answer is yes. We can have order in chaos and structure without control, but it must come in a different pattern than what we are accustomed to and emerge from a very different foundation.

Here is a simple approach to begin a new organic church. This simple approach is not 'easy' but if you follow these steps, a church will emerge. If you apply these principles, please write us and let us know about your experience. You can This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it me( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) with your experiences.

The following steps are NOT meant to be followed in a prescribed order. These are principles that will more often be layered on top of another. The key is that all of these principles need to be practiced with various people all the time.

The focus needs to change from "our house" to "their house" Much of the present house church movement is still an attempt to contain and control the meetings in their own camp. The full gains that are available will not be realised until we can begin to let the movement flow into THEIR HOUSES.

The created world has natural boundaries held in place by gravity. The oceans are held in place by the shores. The atmosphere is contained by the weight of earth's gravity. Gravity keeps the solar system contained in orbit around the sun. In a similar way people have natural boundaries in the way that we function best. We are pulled into social groupings of certain sizes by a spiritual gravity inherent with the function of the group.

Ancient Principles for a Postmodern World.

Word on the street is that people out there are tired of organized religion. Rather, they are longing for a genuine connection with "the supernatural" and with a community of friends.