Christ Himself being followed

The Church urgently needs to do communication research for the following reasons:

• to help the Church to do a better job at communication -within the institution, with its community of believers, with people of other faiths, and with the world at large
• to provide the Church a sound basis for dealing with matters relating to Church and society
• to help the Church discover new expressions of faith
• to help the Church promote understanding, and peace among various cultural groups and religions in society
• to help the Church improve the human condition, by promoting social justice, equality and human rights

However, after saying all that, we still need to understand that the apostle Paul was not converted by clever arguments but through a powerful encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road. We would not have had the Reformation without Martin Luther’s struggle with the question of, “How can a holy God forgive a sinner like me?”

For a suffering community that has been repeatedly reminded of Christ's preeminent role in everything--both present and future--here is the necessary concluding word. Believers in Christ are both "already" and "not yet." Already they know and own him as Lord of all; not yet have they seen all things made subject to Him. Here, then, they are reminded of who, and whose, they are: glad followers of Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords, before whom at God's final wrap-up every knee shall bow to pay Him the homage due His name.

The term “organic church” is often used as a synonym for "house church," "simple church," or "home church." But this is not correct. There are huge differences between an authentic organic church and a group of people who meet in a living room and call themselves a church.

This then is what is meant by spontaneous expansion - the expansion which follows the unexhorted and unorganized activity of individual members of the Church explaining to others the Gospel which they have found for themselves; the expansion which follows the irresistible attraction of the Christian Church for people who see its ordered life, and are drawn to it by desire to discover the secret of a life which they instinctively desire to share; and the expansion of the Church by the addition of new Churches.

From the very beginning of time, God's plan has always been multiplication. God's first command in

the Scriptures is "be fruitful and multiply..." (Gen. 1:28). Similar commands are found in Exodus

1:6,12 and 20 and were directly connected to God's blessing. All throughout the Scriptures you see

God's DNA for ministry was multiplication. The fulfillment of God's Old Testament covenants with

David and Abraham and the New Testament Great Commission commands is portrayed in

Revelations with this great picture from John's pen "After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb" (Rev. 7:9). John saw the fruition of God's plan of multiplication.

The Church's power stems from it’s inventor, who has equipped it with the most genius spiritual genetical code - a sort of heavenly DNA, which allows it to transfer and reproduce Kingdom values from Heaven to Earth, and transform not only water into wine, but atheists into fascinated apostles, policewomen into prophetesses, terrorists into teachers, plumbers into pastors, and dignified village elders into beaming evangelists in the process. It is like a spiritual family - organic, not organized, relational, not formal; it has a persecution-proof structure, matures under tears, multiplies under pressure, grows under the carpet, flourishes in the desert, sees in the dark, and thrives on chaos. A church that can multiply like two fish and five breads in the Hands of Jesus, were the fathers turn their hearts to the sons and the sons their hearts to the fathers, where it’s people are it’s resources, and which has only one name to brag about, the Lamb of God.

In a missional church Christian community must go beyond to embody a 'counter-culture,' showing the world how radically different the Kingdom of God is with regard to sex, money, and power. 

Christ came into the world with a mission (John 4:34), and when He returned to His Father, Jesus charged His followers to carry out His same mission (Man 28:19-20; Luke 24:4649; Mark 16:15-18; John 14-15; 20:21; Acts 1:8; II Cor 5:18-21). This was the passion of Paul (Rom 15:20) and is a picture of the completed church (Mat 24:14; Rev 5:9-10). The church is the body of Christ in the world. Every church will give account for how she was faithful to the mission of our Lord. To be on mission means believers are salt and light (Matt 5:13-16), pray regularly for the lost (Jer 29:4-14; I Pet 3:9); befriend persons of peace (Luke 10; John 4; Acts 16); make the most of every opportunity (Col 4:24); are prepared to answer everyone ('Pet 3:13-17); and minister in practical ways to those outside the church (1 Pet 2:12).

The major reason church reproduction has not been envisioned for Western contexts is simply because the church is still captive to the Christendom paradigm. It still considers Western society as basically “churched.” There is virtually no attempt to apply principles of group conversions, people movements and spontaneous church planting in Western cultures. The current emphasis continues

to be on building bigger and bigger institutions instead. Since organic reproduction is not valued, there is no expectation for it. “Spontaneous” church reproduction in Western contexts is almost exclusively limited to church splits.

Jesus’ nearness to the Father had a dramatic impact on the trajectory of His ministry.  While pending time with His Father, Jesus longed to spend time with people.  This is the first obvious indication of Jesus as a church planter: He was constantlly seeking out ways to connect with people. “Submerging to be with God, re--‐emerging to be with people” is the way Catholic theologian Paul Michael Zulehner puts it.

Where do we start?  Well the true social unit is the family--reduced, if necessary, to the elementary couple which forms its basis. . . families become tribes and tribes become nations.