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Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens
written by Neil Cole
Studio : Jossey-Bass
by Jossey-Bass
Publisher : Jossey-Bass
Released : 2005-09-08
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780787981297
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 46 reviews)
List Price : $23.95
Our Price : $12.56
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ISBN13: 9780787981297
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Condition: New
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Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
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Product Description |
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Churches have tried all kinds of ways to attract new and younger members - revised vision statements, hipper worship, contemporary music, livelier sermons, bigger and better auditoriums. But there are still so many people who aren't being reached, who don't want to come to church. And the truth is that attendance at church on Sundays does not necessarily transform lives; God's presence in our hearts is what changes us. Leaders and laypeople everywhere are realizing that they need new and more powerful ways to help them spread God's Word. According to international church starter and pastor Neil Cole, if we want to connect with young people and those who are not coming to church, we must go where people congregate. Cole shows readers how to plant the seeds of the Kingdom of God in the places where life happens and where culture is formed - restaurants, bars, coffeehouses, parks, locker rooms,and neighborhoods. Organic Church offers a hands-on guide for demystifying this new model of church and shows the practical aspects of implementing it. |
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Insightful Ideas and Perspectives |
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Well written, full of stories, and insightful ideas about what church is really about by boiling down Western traditional church to its lowest denominator. Not a slam on the larger church nor denominations, but encouragements and truth that any church can strive for and accomplish no matter the size or people group! |
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Lowering the bar on church, raising the bar on discipleship |
Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005)
Review by Darren Cronshaw
Neil Cole is a hero of mine for his simple evangelism, disciple-making, leadership and church planting principles. He is a church starter and pastor who has started hundreds of churches through Church Multiplication Associates. If you share my excitement for the responses of delegates at the dinner, then I encourage you to get hold of his book and put it into practice.
Churches try all sorts of ways to attract people, especially with what we do on Sunday mornings. Cole tells his story and unpacks principles for taking a fresh approach - taking Jesus to people rather than relying on them coming to us. When he went to plant his first church his team wanted to start a coffee shop, but felt led instead to go to existing coffee shops where lost people are already. He urges planting seeds of the Kingdom in places where life happens and where society is formed - coffeeshops, neighbourhoods, restaurants, schools, campuses, homes and workplaces. Their vision is "Every Christian is a church planter, every home is a church, and every church building is a training center."
Cole urges investing heavily in making disciples and abandoning anything that does not multiple healthy disciples, leaders, churches and movements. One of his reproducible patterns for church are Life Transformation Groups (LTGs). Two or three people meet weekly for accountability, mutual confession, reading Scripture and praying for lost friends. He wants to simplify church but prioritise discipleship. One of his maxims is to "lower the bar of how church is done and raise the bar of what it means to be a disciple".
He does not criticise larger churches, but his philosophy is to grow mainly through church multiplication. It is not about building a large regional church but making Jesus available to a region. His book does not help much with vision statements and building blueprints, but reminds us of the essence of church.
Cole asks basic questions worth pondering:
* Who is Jesus to you?
* Where is Jesus at work?
* What will happen if we plant seeds of the Kingdom in places where life happens?
* What difference would it make if Jesus was in the room on our leadership team?
* What is church?
In answer to the last question, he proposes the DNA of the church is three simple things:
* Divine truth, with revelation of God seen in Jesus and Scripture
* Nurturing relationships, as we are not meant to be alone
* Apostolic mission, recognising we are on earth with a purpose - making disciples.
Churches need all three together, not one in isolation and not adding other extra "stuff" as essential. A common commitment to truth, common familial relationships and common sense of mission will hold our churches and our denominational tribe together and keep us true to our purpose.
Organic Church freshly inspired in me a longing for Jesus' presence and a love for people. My imagination was freshly captured with the power of the gospel in changing people's lives. The book is full of great stories of people coming to faith, being transformed and being unleashed to start new churches with their networks of friends and neighbours. Cole declares hopefully: "I believe we are leaving the day of the ordained and ushering in the day of the ordinary. It is a time when common Christians will do uncommon deeds." (p.215)
See also Neil Cole's recent book Search & Rescue: Becoming a Disciple Who Makes a Difference (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2008), which outlines the simple and transferable genius of Life Transformation Groups.
(A version of this review was previously published in Witness: The Voice of Victorian Baptists, Vol.89, No.6 (July 2009), p.20) |
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A Great Introduction to Organic Missional Church |
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This book is a great introduction to what it means to be a part of the organic missional church focused on reaching the lost. For far too long the church has been focused on gathering Christians together to go through religious motions, many of which are not found anywhere in the Scriptures. Neil Cole does a great job of showing how the Gospel of Jesus is all that is needed to reach the lost, change lives and start Organic Churches everywhere, Churches that are simple enough to be reproduced with real multiplication. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in "church planting" or anyone who wants to reach the lost in their community. |
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Hard Evidence the Young Adult Emergent Church Movement is Spontaneously Growing Beyond the UK---In the US, and Elsewhere. |
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This is the perfect prescription for North American church leaders addicted to programs and gimmicks. The next generation of Christianity looks more like a movement and Neil Cole and his far-stretching, flat "organization" (read organism) is doing it. Cole helps the reader think in the movement paradigm, reflecting the Book of Acts type of viral movement, where Christianity becomes contagious. One of the strengths of Organic Church is that it breathes missional posturing--from sensitively selecting people groups by strategy to positioning institutionalism as a low priority. The Christian Movement that is coming is not about buildings and budgets, but about authentic relationships meeting in marketplace venues. This book is a prenatal look at the Movement not yet born, but coming into your consciousness soon. |
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Excellent Resource |
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This book took ideas i have thought and put them into concepts and principles i could understand and act on. It was easy to read, moving through the concepts without drudging through theology. I have already recommended it to several friends. |
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