83—WS#9
My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.
We have been looking at German writer Wolfgang Simson’s 15 Theses towards a Re-Incarnation of Church. Today, we look at Thesis #9, Return from organized to organic forms of Christianity. On this idea, Simson writes, “The ‘Body of Christ’ is a vivid description of an organic being, not an organized mechanism. Church consists, at the local level, of a multitude of extended spiritual families, which are organically related to each other as a network. The way these communities function together is an integral part of the message of the whole. What has become a maximum of organization with a minimum of organism has to be changed into a minimum of organization to allow a maximum of organism. Too much organization has, like a straightjacket, often choked the organism for fear that something might go wrong. Fear is the opposite of faith, and not exactly a Christian virtue. Fear wants to control; faith can trust. Control, therefore, may be good, but trust is better. The body of Christ is entrusted by God into the hands of steward-minded people with a special charismatic gift to believe that God is still in control, even if they are not. Today we need to develop regional and national networks based on trust, not a new arrangement of political ecumenism, for organic forms of Christianity to re-emerge. (Unquote)
In another place, Simson wrote that if nothing can go wrong, nothing much can go right either. Personally, I’ve seen that not only does it take letting go of the agenda for the Holy Spirit to work most powerfully, but when something does go wrong, that recognition, and how mature believers deal with it is used by the Spirit to bring everyone to greater maturity.
You can examine these 15 ideas at your own pace, on the web, at www.simsonwolfgang.de. You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com. For more info on house churches, visit http://www.simplechurch.com/ or with regards to the local area at (local website).
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