Organic Church

For decades, some Christians have been leaving traditional church settings.  Not all see themselves as leaving Christianity, but are instead choosing different expressions of their faith.  Many different people report many different reasons for leaving, not the least of which are misgivings of some sort.  Others cite a biblical basis for their choice.  Some go to small groups and house churches in addition to large, corporate worship in a church building.  Others have completely abandoned anything that resembles a typical church in the USA and other western, English-speaking nations.

Why are they leaving?  When they leave, where are they going?  While the percentage of Christians in the USA who are worshiping in individual family homes instead of corporately owned structures may be small, it is still a significant number.  Based on a review of extant literature on the subject—paltry though it may be—it can be seen that, much like the New Atheist movement, the house church movement1 in the English-speaking world is predominately a movement of rejection and departure, rather than one of attraction and embracing.

The Great Commission states that all believers are to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:16-20, NIV). Luke writes in the book of Acts 1:8 that the believer will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (NIV). Ed Stetzer stated, “Making disciples is the essence of the Great Commission.”  Dave Early and Rod Dempsey start their book, Disciple Making Is…How to Live the Great Commission with Passion and Confidence, with the following quote from Bill Hull in his book, The Disciple-Making Pastor, “The Great Commission has been worshipped, but not obeyed. The church has tried to get world evangelization without disciple making.”  The concept of making disciples is not something we have to do it is something we get to do and in that process the church becomes the physical aspect of Jesus by reaching out, meeting the spiritual need and inspiring others to reciprocate, to go out and make disciples themselves

作者法蘭克.威歐拉(Frank Viola) 因著深愛教會，心中渴望經歷在新約裡讀到的那種教會。因為他參加過的任何一間教會似乎都不曾出現過這個樣式，所以希望看到基督的身體展現她自己的方式，符合其心目中上帝起初為她所定的旨意。故他試圖站在聖經、屬靈與神學的基礎上，腳踏實地尋找早期教會 的樣貌，企圖重塑基督教會應有的模樣。不過當他越讀聖經，就越相信當代教會已經遠離其聖經根基 。

本書《參雜異教的基督信仰？》(Pagan Christianity) 則是從歷史角度證明當代教會已經偏離其原始根基。教會目前彰顯耶穌基督的方式，已經從活潑、生動、朝氣蓬勃的有機演進（或者更準確的說，退化）為頭重腳輕的階層式組織，因其基本架構是模仿古羅馬帝國，所以他要藉著《參雜異教的基督信仰？》來指出現代多數教會固守的這種架構其實是不符聖經的，也是不符早期教會的聚會型態，而是經過許多異教的參雜及污染。

【書籍背景資料介紹】
《參雜異教的基督信仰？》 Pagan Christianity ?
作者：法蘭克．威歐拉(Frank Viola)、喬治．巴拿(George Barna)著
譯者：顧華德　語言：中文繁體　　規格：平裝
ISBN：9789868910621  開數：15.5*22.5cm　頁數：311
出版社：台中，  中國佈道會  出版：2014.10初版

茲就本書第四章證道及第九章洗禮與主餐之論述重點摘要及評論如下。
對本書此二章論述的評論...
筆者認為作者的強處在於：以極具張力的手法來丟下了「制度化教會不符聖經原意」這一顆石頭，激盪起了當代教會界一波波漣漪般的省思。促使現代的基督教會不得不正視此一嚴肅議題，在作者精心布局的文脈思路引導中去思考 「敬拜是群體性的基督徒生活型態」，及「靈性成長的根基在於群體互相學習基督、培養基督般性格、可以在日常中活出基督的這種真正的門徒訓練」...最終要導向「合神心意的教會必須去體制化」的目標。

然而筆者認為有待質疑及不同意之處主要有以下二點：
1. 神學方法論：我們的「真理」到底有多真？關鍵在於不同的神學風格/取向/進路，畢竟每個人都戴著他的一幅眼鏡來解釋所看到的事物，以及所閱讀的「真理」。也就是說既與詮釋有關，就離不開處境，而處境也離不開語言(文)。然而作者卻多處以「未記載於聖經的作法就是『不符聖經』，就不應採用」。可是問題來了，初代教會的發展倒底是「處境化」問題，還是「適應」(accommodation)的問題？是很難以現代的我們去下定論的。而我們所認知、所理解的「真理」到底有多真？
所以，沒有人能完全脫離自身處境的框架來詮釋聖經的，只是趨近絕對真理的程度不同而已

2.作者過於（或者是故意）簡化所觀察到問題的成因，有簡化主義及強烈的基督教原始主義之嫌。
教會歷史是聖靈工作的歷史是無庸置疑的，教義史也是聖靈光照神話語的歷史。若加上教會是有機體的成長觀點而言，很明顯的，教會的發展並非只停留在第一世紀的模式 。也就是說將第一世紀教會的模式當成是教會的典範及標竿，事實上是有待商榷的，因為近代詮釋學的探討，使人更加意識到，教會生存於世界之中就會受到歷史、地理、語言以及社會意識的限制及影響。

早期使徒教會真是成熟到可以做為後代教會的標竿和典範嗎？嬰兒的生活型態及表現可以作為青少年、或成人的生活典範嗎？至少使徒保羅對於恩賜出眾但屬靈不成熟的哥林多教會就不是這樣認為的（林前3:1-3）。但作者卻一再地高舉第一世紀初代教會應做為後代教會的典範。所以與其說：一旦基督教回歸到早期使徒教會（apostolic early church）/第一世紀初代教會的源流上，便可以達到更純正、更符合聖經的信仰形態。筆者的認知是，這倒不如說：作者是希望以初代教會作為典範，來糾正教會在歷代所積習下來的人為錯謬和組織在體制化後的缺陷。

What role did eating play in the NT church? While that may not seem like a particularly interesting question, my growing conviction is that theology should emphasize what the Bible emphasizes, and there are at least eight important connections between eating and a healthy NT church life. This article will survey eight ways that the otherwise common act of eating ought to be a part of that life.

We need to develop a theology of space for our time. The church both views and uses space differently than we did even a generation ago. The Church of the Nazarene, for example, recently changed its official definition of “a church” to be less bound to a particular physical time and place. At the same time, we should affirm Jesus’ assurance that “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them” (Matt 18:20 NRSV). Yet, as John Wesley observed in the sermon “Causes of the Inefficacy of Christianity” (1789): “Does it not seem (and yet this cannot be!) that Christianity, true scriptural Christianity, has a tendency in process of time to undermine and destroy itself? For wherever true Christianity spreads . . . [and] wherever it generally prevails, it saps its own foundation. But is there no way to prevent this?” (para. 17–18, emphasis added). Wesley reiterates his answer through the individual and corporate practices of ‘gaining, saving, and giving’ all one can (para. 19). For us today, however, we must not only assess the attitudes and motives behind these practices, but also the places and spaces where we actually—and more routinely—put them in to practice. Of particular and growing interest is the shifting urban environment. To be sure, cities have been home to diverse expressions of the church as long as Christians have inhabited them. Recent decades, however, have experienced an increased presence of new church plants as well as non-edifice-based worshiping communities, language groups, and outreach prototypes ranging from house congregations to multisite megachurches. This paper seeks to give special attention to such alternative, or third spaces, which have come to be associated with the so-called missional movement and organic church and the place that such communities and their peculiar postures toward space may hold in the development of a more coherent theology of the gathered church.

Ukraine’s religious landscape has changed to include many new churches over the last few decades. Although Eastern Orthodoxy and Eastern-rite Catholicism are the main Christian influences, Protestant churches, while present for centuries, have grown recently in number and variety. Among them is a network of simple, organic churches that emphasize relational disciple-making, the priesthood of all believers, incarnational evangelism, authentic sincerity, and freedom in worship. Where Eastern Orthodoxy is known for its reverence of appropriate forms and rituals, Western Evangelical worship can appear informal and even irreverent by comparison. As a reform movement within the evangelical stream, simple church emphasizes worship services even less, while framing worship more holistically as obedience to Christ. This dissertation is the first academic study on simple church in Ukraine. It sought to understand and explain worship in the simple church context from the perspective of its adherents. Using a grounded theory approach, the researcher interviewed 23 members from 11 different simple church congregations. The central understanding to emerge from the collected data is that in Ukrainian simple churches, true worship is the Spirit-enabled daily life of the church, lived out in love and obedience to God, care for one another, and witness and service in the world. In gatherings, communal worship is practiced through participatory Bible discussion, prayer, fellowship, the sacraments, and songs of praise. Their core simple church values are the primary influence on their perception and practice of worship.

Ukraine’s religious landscape has changed to include many new churches over the last few decades. Although Eastern Orthodoxy and Eastern-rite Catholicism are the main Christian influences, Protestant churches, while present for centuries, have grown recently in number and variety. Among them is a network of simple, organic churches that emphasize relational disciple-making, the priesthood of all believers, incarnational evangelism, authentic sincerity, and freedom in worship.

Where Eastern Orthodoxy is known for its reverence of appropriate forms and rituals, Western Evangelical worship can appear informal and even irreverent by comparison. As a reform movement within the evangelical stream, simple church emphasizes worship services even less, while framing worship more holistically as obedience to Christ.

This dissertation is the first academic study on simple church in Ukraine. It sought to understand and explain worship in the simple church context from the perspective of its adherents. Using a grounded theory approach, the researcher interviewed 23 members from 11 different simple church congregations. The central understanding to emerge from the collected data is that in Ukrainian simple churches, true worship is the Spirit-enabled daily life of the church, lived out in love and obedience to God, care for one another, and witness and service in the world. In gatherings, communal worship is practiced through participatory Bible discussion, prayer, fellowship, the sacraments, and songs of praise. Their core simple church values are the primary influence on their perception and practice of worship.