Tozer on Church and Organization
About two months ago, I quoted Tozer on the difference between church and organization in a post called “Tozer on Organization“. Here is his main point:
The point I am trying to make here is that while money has a proper place in the total life of the church militant, the tendency is to attach to it an importance that is far greater than is biblically sound or morally right. The average church has so established itself organizationally and financially that God is simply not necessary to it. So entrenched is its authority and so stable are the religious habits of its members that God could withdraw Himself completely from it and it could run on for years on its own momentum.
Now, Rick at “The Blind Beggar” has quoted Tozer again on the same subject in his post “A.W. Tozer Quote“:
One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do no constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. The first requisite is life, always.
I think these Tozer quotes reinforce my previous post. The church is the people, not the organization or structure or even leadership.
Alan,
Amen!
That second quote is fantastic – had not heard it before.
Mr. Tozer’s writings are making more and more sense to me, and yet he also apparently struggled with close personal relationships. Even great men do not have all the pieces to the puzzle. Formal structure or no formal structure, we still need each other.