Organic Gathering

Last week prior to our trip to Nashville I spent the day with a fantastic group of people from all over the globe committed to organic church planting. Neil Cole brought us all together to hear what was happening on the global scene from Wolfgang Simpson in Germany and Alan Hirsch in Australia. I was only able to be there for one day, but walked away with some great insights from Wolfgang that rang true to me. One thing that stood out was the idea that bricks in scripture always refer in some way to rebellion to God. Whether you look at the bricks the Israelites were forced to make for the Egyptians or the Tower of Babel. God on-the-other-hand always uses organic materials like rock, gold, etc. And of course Jesus calls us living stones. This was especially poignant as I was driving around Nashville where I saw brick after brick church buildings. I wondered in my soul as to what God thinks about our places of worship.

I also had some great connects with different people. One of the best connects was with Robert from Ohio. He is a fellow Missionary church guy who is planting house churches among the urban poor in Columbus. He has a vision for renewal and restoration with the poor of our cities. He sees the "house church" as the best hope for young African Americans who want to become pastors/leaders in the church. He finds most educational/seminary pathways too prohibitive for most men in the cities. This is an aspect of organic church I hadn't even considered before.

Unfortunately I missed Alan on Tuesday. His book with Michael Frost, The Shaping of Things To Come, is the best book on Missional Church I have read. Saying that I probably need to read it again. It's that good!

Thanks Neil, Brad, and Paul for hosting this event!