Book Description 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.
Item Specifications...
ISBN 078798129X EAN 9780787981297 UPC 000000870553
Pages 272
Dimensions: Length: 9.06" Width: 6.14" Height: 1.02" Weight: 1 lbs.
Binding Cloth Text
Release Date Sep 8, 2005
PublisherJOHN WILEY & SONS INC #378
Availability 18 units. Availability accurate as of Mar 20, 2010 11:39.
Usually ships within one to two business days from New Kensington, PA.
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Categories
1
Books > Subjects > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Christian Living > General [31520 similar products]
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Books > Subjects > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Clergy > Church Institutions & Organizations [1650 similar products]
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Books > Subjects > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Evangelism > General [2161 similar products]
Over 10 years ago I attended a "Superconference" in Reno, NV where a young pastor named Neil Cole shared a revolutionary concept called Life Transformation Groups (LTG's). I was so impressed with his simple concept that I began to use them in my own church and my own life and have been in one nearly continuously for all of the intervening years. I have watched it transform my life and that of every person I discipled that remained committed to it for any length of time.
Some 5 years ago I had a professor in seminary named Dr. Thom Wolfe. Just as Neil Cole describes in his book, Thom shared the Universal Disciple/ Church on a napkin in Starbucks (his favorite place).
At the time I met him Neil was pastoring a growing church in Southern California and his commitment to scripture and the priesthood of all believers showed in every way. At the time I met him Thom Wolfe was Chair of the Kim School of Intercultural Studies at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. Today both men are successfully planting churches and making disciples in large numbers. Neil is in the USA and Thom is Central Asia.
Some have written reviews critical of the methods described in the book or written as if Cole is attacking the way church is done in general. This is a point, but it is not his primary point. The proof is in the doing. The methods described in this book are solidly biblical, coming primarily from Paul's model of church as found in Colossians 3-4 and in other places. Unfortunately, Cole does not share Wolfe's actual drawing (I will email it to anyone who asks). I have often wondered how Paul could go into Thessalonica for two weeks and leave a thriving church behind. That question is answered in these pages.
Though I dearly love Neil, I have to drop this review to four stars because I think that his message about how to do church in a way that reproduces rapidly and easily gets lost in his sometime polemic against the established church. This is clear in so many reviews that have missed the main point of the book. Yet, every Christian can still benefit by reading this book with an open mind. I strongly encourage you to do so.
Radicle and Honest Mar 8, 2007
This guy has said what many ministers have been saying for years. The church needs to read this and open our eyes to a different way of doing church. I don't necessarily agree that the church needs to be focused on home communities (we do need larger corporate worship) but this is an excellent tool for small group/home community ministries.
Organic Church Feb 20, 2007
THE BEST book I've read in a long time! Neil Cole will really challenge your perceptions and understanding of what church is and should be. It communicates the necessity of having Jesus at the center of all we are as the body of Christ while letting Jesus do through us what we've been trying to do for him. I've began teaching my Sunday school class from many of the concepts in this text. It puts into writing what I have felt as an undercurrent in my life for a long time and explains why many feel frustrations in the modern day "church" as we understand it--because it's not exactly how Christ intended it to be.
Devour it, but Prepare for Inevitable Change Feb 1, 2007
This book has caused more good in my life than many other works. It is intense, and if you are drawn to movies, like most men are, then you will love his illustrations and allusions to the spiritual life and church.
Be prepared for change in your own life and church experience. As Neil says so well, "We want to lower the bar of how we 'do church,' and raise the bar on being a disciple." Wow. Get this book! Devour it! Email me if you have questions!
I am leaving my career of over 13 years full-time ministry in institutional churches to follow Jesus in this vein--house/simple/organic church. Scary, but this book has given much help to clarify the journey, give some direction, and ease some fears, while limiting the sense of "Here's how you must do it" approach that this genre's predecessors have done in the past.
Particularly useful is Neil's eposition on DNA. Divine truth, Nurturing relationships, and Apostolic mission. Again, Wow. Get this book! Devour it! Email me if you have questions!
Supplemental reference book Jan 16, 2007
This is a good book as part of a basic home-church library. While written from the point of view of a person whose income comes from the home-church movement, it was most helpful in gaining deeper insight, more varied perspective, and a global viewpoint.
