A friend of mine who is big into the organic/simple/house church movement was really disappointed when we started Life that we didn’t choose to go that route. “We are able to really focus on community, discipleship, and 100% of our money can go to mission. What’s not to like about that?” I still get this question a lot as I interact with potential church planters who are trying to figure out their model of ministry.
There are a lot of things about organic churches that appeal to me (who, after all, in vegetable or in church life doesn’t want to be “organic”), and I applaud those who go this route every bit as much as those who plant more typical churches. But there are some drawbacks too that I saw as I hung around with those who were planting in this way. Check out Brian Hofmeister’s article in Leadership sharing his organic church experience. In many ways it parallels the reasons why I didn’t go that direction.
