These notes are from Joseph Myers seminar “Organic Community” given at Northern Seminary, May 2008. They are rough. I’ll post a session each day (6 total).
Organic. Patterns.
You don’t get to choose who belongs to you. They choose.
Give up patterns of who you choose.
You don’t get to choose how they give, when they attend, how they serve.
If God is omnipresent, isn’t everything sacred?
Treat everyone like they are family – regardless if they are sheep or goats, weeds or wheat
How do we do church in a way that allows people to choose?
Moving from Master Plan (programmer) to Organic Order (environmentalist) – handout
Talking about an organic order. Organic has a pattern, an order (ex Sun always rise in same place)
Still need vision, goals, etc – but still being organically ordered
Be as intentional about connecting people as you are about going to sleep.
Can’t make yourself go to sleep. I can intend (make it cold, dark, etc). Can create an environment that raises the likelihood that I would go to sleep.
CREATE ENVIRONMENTS INSTEAD OF FORCING PEOPLE
Master plans are great for building airplanes, but maybe not for human life
Patterns.
Everything in nature has a pattern. Nothing is random. Even waves of ocean have a pattern (even with weather, ships, moon, etc)
Drawing a face on paper with grid (divided on 4ths and 5th). It has a pattern. None look the same.
There are patterns that people use to connect, but hardly any of them will connect the same. My kids don’t connect the same way, neither will our congregation.
We imply that if people don’t connect to Church in the same way, they will not experience the fullness of community or God.
All of us collect small groups of people around us.
35% of people need help with a connection at some season in their life
Common myths of belonging:
More time = more belonging
More commitment = more belonging
More purpose = more belonging
More personality = more belonging
My ?: what, if we took it away from you, would cripple your sense of belonging?