Organic Church?

: Models and Methods of Planting

craig van gelder There are a variety of models for church planting that have proven effective. Church Planting Village lists five main models:

Program-driven Purpose-driven Relationship-based Seeker-sensitive inistry-based.

!d Stet"er includes all but the Program-driven model# but notes that only $%& of planters 'among (aptists) actually identify themselves *ith a model. y guess is that this lo* percentage is a product of post-modern scorn of models# as *ell as ignorance regarding models. +hether you like it or not# your church plant methodology *ill put you in the orbit of some kind of model. Relationship-driven Models Relationship-driven models are on the rise and include ,ouse# Cell# and issional Community churches. (ecause of their relational emphasis# these churches are typically dra*n to the more -rganic method of church planting. !arly in our core team phase# .ustin City /ife *as thinking organically but still held onto 0the /aunch1 as a part of our methodology. ost -rganic churches 2ettison 0the launch1 in favor of a people-focused ecclesiology. +e did 2ust that# but the reason *as more Spirit-led than 0organic1. 34ll take a stab an e5plaining *hat 3 see as the difference bet*een -rganic and Spirit-led church. Organic Church .s 3 see it# there are t*o main types of Organic Churches: $. Unintentional Organic: clueless organic church planting because you like stuff that is different. . kind of 0*herever it gro*s1 attitude. 6. Intentionally Organic: informed organic church planting that builds structural lattice for the plant of church to gro* on. Relies on gospel soil# relational stalk# and thoughtful structure.

.lthough *e certainly appreciate 76 more than 7$# *e have sought to cultivate a Spirit-led organic church# *hich fosters slightly different gro*th. 34m not saying that the Spirit is absent from the approaches above# so bear *ith me. The piritled church places its emphasis on relationship!community underneath its reliance on the "oly pirit to gro# and mature a missional church$ Spirit first# community second# not community first# Spirit as an holy nod. pirit-led Church The more 3 learn about being a Spirit-led community# the more 3 reali"e 3 have to learn about *hat it means to follo* the Spirit# not 2ust the organic gro*th of spiritual disciples. Craig Van 8elder defines the church as: a people of God who are created by the Spirit to live as a missionary community. For Van Gelder and for us, Spirit-led is more than a nod; it animates decision-making, structure, organization, community, and mission. Van Gelder lays out his theoretical ecclesiology in Essence of the Church and a functional ecclesiology in The Ministry of the Missional Church. -ne of the strengths of being a pirit-led church is the emphasis on church as our identity# not our responsibility9 its nature over its function. +e need to plant and gro* churches based# not on function 'organic or other*ise)# but on nature :Spirit-led missionary communities. -n this Van 8elder *rites: 0;ailing to understand the nature of the church can lead to a number of problems. <efining the church functionally:in terms of *hat it does:can shift our perspective a*ay from understanding the church as a uni=ue community of 8od4s people.1 Our models and methods should %e determined from our ecclesiology& not form our ecclesiology$ This is *hy 3 make a distinction bet*een theoretical and functional ecclesiology. -thers *ould call the latter a Philosophy of inistry. +hatever you call it# you models and methods should be primarily governed by the ,oly Spirit and a biblical understanding of the nature of the church. 3n my ne5t post# 34ll try to unpack and illustrate this from our o*n e5periences.