Some practical differences between most traditional churches and simple/organic churches
Felicity continues to write about her experiences with simple/organic churches at “Simply Church.” One of her latest posts is called “The journey from legacy church to simple/organic/house church.”
In the post, Felicity is talking about struggles that many people have when moving from a traditional (“legacy”) church context into a simple/organic/house church context. As she says, many find the differences (especially what they must “give up”) to be too much, so they end up having a smaller version of the traditional church.
What kinds of things do people struggle with giving up? Here are the things she lists:
- Professionally led worship–in simple church you are lucky to have an out-of-tune guitar.
- Well prepared talks–there’s no pastor who can spend hours preparing a stimulating sermon. Everyone takes part in an interactive discussion.
- Children and teens ministry–you can’t just drop your kids off at Sunday School to have an hour free from distractions.
- Someone else to make all the decisions–in simple/organic church, everyone is involved.
In her post, Felicity also spells out some of the advantages (or benefits) of giving up these kinds of things that are associated with most traditional churches.
Do you know of other practical differences between most traditional churches and simple/organic churches?
Hopefully the simple/organic communities of faith are Christ centered…..vs Institutional—> human needs centered…
You give up anonymity and being able to present a glossy-smiley picture of yourself and your lifestyle behind a few minutes pleasantries once a week.
People aren’t going to just greet you politely (“Hi, how are you doing” and your response, “Fine”) before the “preaching and worshiping service” shuts off any real personal interaction.
You will spend hours in open conversation together once a week, plus getting together several times during the week with one or more families for one thing or another.
Eric,
How does that affect practical aspects of church? I think that was the point of Felicity’s post… and how people moving from more traditional church practices toward more simple/organic/house church practices deal with those differences.
Art,
Good additions. Thanks!
-Alan