Organic Church Network
About the Network...
Welcome to the Organic Church Network!
The Organic Church Network (OCN) actually began out of an international study done by New Church Specialties on church planting movements. Through friendships with Dr. Louie Bustle and Dr. Daniel Ketchum, key global mission leaders, NCS began studying the explosive growth of organic or simple (house) churches in countries such as Sudan, Ethiopia, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Mozambique, Angola, Brazil, and China. Reading in the field of church planting movements led us to the conclusion that a massive change was needed in the United States if the dynamics of a stateside church planting movement were ever to occur.
We are very excited about the emergence of Organic Churches throughout the United States and Canada. They dream for something more than the conventional church they have always known. New vision statements, more Christian concerts, more sermons and blueprints for a bigger auditorium does not motivate them. Down deep inside they know that Jesus did not die and rise from the dead so that America can have better church bulletins and more comfortable pews.
The Organic Church Network (OCN) is a voluntary association of individuals, churches, and districts who embrace the DNA of launching Organic Churches throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada. Organic churches are led by people who are willing to risk it all to move out of the comfort of an established church and take the church back into the world, into the community, into the homes down the block.
In a post-Christian culture like the United States, many people outside the church do not believe the church has anything to offer until we stop doing church the way we've been doing it and get involved in their lives, in their neighborhood. We have come to believe that the church is at its best when it is outside its four walls and engaging people we care about, we pray for and we have built relationships with.
Organic churches have learned that the gospel always travels the lines of human relationships. They have learned that the authentic church is at its best, not in two or three hundred, but in groups of 10-12. When two or three are present, there Jesus said he would be present (Matthew 18:20). And where He is present, he will help us make disciples who we baptize and teach to obey what he said (Matthew 28:19). In the Organic Church Network, we aim to "lower the bar of how church is done and raise the bar of what it means to be a disciple."
The focus of the Organic Church Network is very narrow:
1. disciple-making
2. nurture of authentic relationships
3. outreach to local neighborhoods
4. leadership multiplication