Finding Organic Church: A Comprehensive Guide to Starting and Sustaining Authentic Christian Communities [Paperback]

Frank Viola (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2009

From the bestselling author of Reimagining Church comes an essential guide that provides practical, effective tools for finding vibrant Christian communities.

Driven by a passion for the body of Christ, Frank Viola has written some of today's most authoritative and celebrated works on the growing home, organic, and missional church movements.  Now Viola shares practical keys to a healthy and successful church plant.

Viola contends that many congregations today are struggling to survive, not because of bad planning, but poor planting.  He presents an essential guide for starting and nourishing organic churches in any culture.  Drawing from both Scripture and a wealth of experience, Viola offers real-world tools, insights, and practical suggestions so churches won't just grow, but thrive.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The author of "Pagan Christianity?" (with George Barna), "Reimagining Church," and the bestselling "From Eternity to Here" has written a detailed manual on how to start and sustain an organic church. Everything from what to do with the children, to the developmental stages of church growth, to the diseases of an organic church and their cures are all covered in this comprehensive volume. Church planting principles for organic styled churches are packed together with the author's practical experience of living in and starting such churches. Each chapter is full of advice, outlining the unique problems that such churches will face and their solutions. Church planters of all types will benefit from this book as well as those wishing to explore an alternative way of church gathering. Christian Book Reviews, 2009 --Christian Book Reviews

A Book Long Overdue

In my opinion, this book has been long overdue. For many years we have needed a book that draws both from the New Testament and current practical experience in the areas of church planting and sustaining. Some very helpful books from the last century were Watchman Nee's "The Church and the Work" and Roland Allen's "Missionary Practices: St. Paul's or Ours'?" which are both quoted in Viola's new work. However, what has been needed is a fresh look with current real-life experience in this arena. We have needed someone to give modern day language within the context of what God is doing today. Frank Viola does just that in "Finding Organic Church." He skillfully draws from both the New Testament and over twenty-one years of experience planting and working with New Testament style churches. This piece of work will be invaluable to anyone who seeks to be involved in such churches and especially those who feel called by God to plant them. The book is divided into four main parts:

* Planting the Seed - Biblical Principles for Church Planting
* Tilling the Ground - Answers to Questions
* Cultivating the Soil - Practical Steps for Beginning
* Pulling the Weeds - Health and Development

In all of these parts, Viola takes the biological (organic) view of the church, as given in the New Testament, and weaves that theme into all of his points. Then he dives into each one of those areas that include: The need for itinerant church planters, God's way of planting churches, objections and questions, practical help for meetings and community life, the stages of an organic church, the seasons of an organic church, the diseases of an organic church, and how a worker cares for an organic church. This book thoroughly covers the topics of finding, planting, and sustaining organic expressions of the church. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is truly a treasure that is chock full of resources and helpful to anyone involved in or interested in God's way of planting and developing His church on the earth today. - Rebuilders, 2009 --Rebuilders, 2009

About the Author

FRANK VIOLA is a popular conference speaker and the bestselling author of numerous books on the deeper Christian life, including From Eternity to Here, Revise Us Again, and Jesus Manifesto (co-authored with Leonard Sweet). His blog, "Beyond Evangelical," is rated as one of the most popular in Christian circles today: frankviola.org.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: David C. Cook; New edition (September 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 143476866X
• ISBN-13: 978-1434768667
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #294,494 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

FRANK VIOLA has helped thousands of people around the world to deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ and enter into a more vibrant and authentic experience of church. He has written many books on these themes, including "From Eternity to Here," "Reimagining Church," "Pagan Christianity?," "Jesus Manifesto," "Jesus: A Theography," "Revise Us Again," and "Finding Organic Church." He blogs regularly at frankviola.org, which is rated in the top 10 of all Christian blogs on the Web today.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A new look at planting and sustaining organic church September 1, 2009

By Chad Estes

Format:Paperback

"Finding Organic Church" is Frank Viola's newest book in his growing library of resources for understanding and operating as the Body of Christ. This book builds upon the work done in the series by detailing how an organic expression of the church is started and can be sustained. It is easy enough to jump right into the discussion with this newest offering, but it will make you hungry for what has come before. Save your pennies, you will want the whole set.

Viola again has done his research on the topic; the chapters are full of quotes and footnotes from other authors. It makes this book an extremely valuable resource for students or potential church planters who have immersed themselves in this discussion. At the same time the writing is friendly and does not read as an academic book. It is both thorough and passionate.

Rather than build a view of church planting around theories, Viola presents principles that he finds in scripture as well as his own church planting experience. His presentation encouraged me to ask questions and to try to understand how I had previously interpreted these passages. He suggests that "most Christians are stuck in the prevailing paradigms that dominate the religious world today." I for one do not want to be a slave to paradigms, but want to be free to discover God's purposes for his beloved bride. This book is helping me in that regard.

Finding Organic Church is presented in four sections:
* Planting the seed - Biblical principles for church planting
* Tilling the ground - answers to questions
* Cultivating the soil - practical steps for beginning
* Pulling the weeds - health and development

Whether you are a student, pastor, church planter or just see yourself as the average, Joe Christian, there is value in this book for you. Even if you don't agree with all of Viola's premises you will be challenged with this discussion and will find great values to hold fast to.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Radical Church Restoration October 4, 2009

By David D. Flowers

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Radical Church Restoration
Finding Organic Church: A Comprehensive Guide to Starting and Sustaining Authentic Christian Communities by Frank Viola
A Book Review by David D. Flowers

Frank Viola says, "The church is a living organism." Many Christians would concur with Viola that the true nature of Christ's church is born out of the soil of His finished work and moves forward in the power of the Holy Spirit. However, as Viola has pointed out in his radical church restoration series, many believers have no problem speaking of the church as organism, but they are quite content to go on practicing the church as an organization.

The series begins with The Untold Story of the New Testament Church: An Extraordinary Guide to Understanding the New Testament Church. Viola relies on some of the best New Testament scholarship to vividly retell the story of the first-century church in Acts. The New Testament comes alive in one sweeping narrative to give us a clear picture of the life and nature of those first Christian communities.

Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices is the second book in the series, but the first to really capture the attention of Christians across the country. Frank Viola and George Barna team up to give their readers a critical examination of the last 1700 years of church history.

Does the institutional church have any biblical and historical right to exist? Viola asks, "Are the practices of the institutional church God-approved developments to the church that the New Testament envisions? Or are they an unhealthy departure from it?"

As I have stated in my review of PC in January 08, this book "may very well be the most important book written on the Christian church in the last two millennia." I still stand by this statement as it speaks a great challenge to the organized church. I believe we have yet to see the full impact of this book. In the coming days, I think you can expect to see it nailed to the door of an organized church near you.

Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity is the follow-up to the controversial PC. It is in this book that Viola offers a new vision, which is truthfully an old vision, of the church as organism.

RC is a proposal that the church of Jesus Christ mirror the very image of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If you agreed with PC and it left you clueless as to the alternative of the organized church, RC paints a new picture of a church that looks like the community of the Triune God and can truly be characterized as every-member functioning, familial, and organic.

It is in From Eternity to Here: Rediscovering the Ageless Purpose of God, the fourth book in the series, that Viola takes a step back to show us the bigger picture. It is in this book that he communicates the driving passion behind the work of planting organic churches.

Viola simplifies church life as an act of gathering around Jesus Christ. Yet, much of the Body of Christ has been forced into an institution and she has forgotten God's eternal purpose. She has lost sight of the grand narrative and the great landscape of God's love story. She has been preoccupied and polluted by an ecclesiology that leaves out the ageless purpose of God.

If you're more right-brained and you just can't seem to sit down to read a book on the church, then read From Eternity to Here and have your eyes opened to God's eternal purpose. This book is bound to be a favorite among many readers.

Finding Organic Church: A Comprehensive Guide to Starting and Sustaining Authentic Christian Communities is the final book, and probably the most anticipated, in the radical church restoration series. It is in this book that Viola offers up a practical guide to understanding and implementing organic church life.

Viola writes this book for three different audiences. First, for those who desire to meet organically and would like some practical help. Second, it is written for all those already involved in alternatives to the traditional church (missional, emerging, house church movements, etc.). Third, it has been written for everyone interested in planting churches.

What is an organic church? Viola says,

"By organic church, I mean a church that is born out of spiritual life instead of being constructed by human institutions and held together by religious programs. Organic church life is a grassroots experience that is marked by face-to-face community, every-member functioning, open-participatory meetings (as opposed to pastor-to-pew services), nonhierarchical leadership, and the centrality and supremacy of Jesus Christ as the functional Leader and Head of the gathering" (p. 20).

There are four models of church planting in the New Testament. Viola begins by discussing these models and also addresses the spontaneous expressions of church life that spring up without the work of a church-planter. Viola thoroughly covers the New Testament pattern of church planting and church growth in the first half of the book.

There are four parts to this book. Throughout the first two parts of the book, Viola helps us to rediscover the purpose and function of the itinerant worker. He deals with questions concerning this largely discarded and often controversial role of the itinerant worker. He has even devoted a chapter to the book entitled "Wasn't Paul the Last Apostle?"

He skillfully presents his case for the restoration of traveling church planters (i.e. apostles) and their task in empowering and equipping the church to function organically by the indwelling Christ. Can the New Testament model work today? Viola believes so. And he testifies to experiencing it personally over the last 20 years.

In the third part of the book, Viola discusses how to gather and gives practical steps for beginning to meet organically. Maybe you are presently meeting in an organized church but would like to begin meeting organically. It could be that you have left the institutional church and would like to begin meeting with others who are interested. And there are those who are already meeting in homes but are in need of some guidance. You will find this book a great help in moving forward.

How do you sing without a "leader" to direct you? What about teaching? What about giving? What about evangelism? What does it all look like in this new paradigm? And the most often asked question of all, "What about the children?" Viola addresses these concerns and so much more. He gives practical exercises and suggestions in getting started.

In the final part of the book, Viola discusses the seasons and stages of growth within organic church life. He also mentions the diseases and pitfalls of gathering around Christ. His descriptions of these periods no doubt come from his own personal experiences.

Finally, Viola gives a call out to his readers.

"I believe the need of the hour is for Christian who are called by God to raise up the church as a living, breathing experience. Christians who are broken and tested. Christians who refuse to take shortcuts but who have first lived in an organic expression of body life as brothers and sisters before they ever dare plant a church."

He continues...

"The need of the hour is for such a people to wait on God until they are properly prepared and then sent. And once sent, to plant the church in the same way that all first-century workers did: by equipping it and then abandoning it to the Holy Spirit" (p. 306).

And to those pastors who wish to make the transition, Viola writes...

"As I have said elsewhere, transitioning from an institutional church to an organic church is not cosmetic surgery. It's a complete overhaul" (p. 311).

For pastors, he closes with three steps to take in moving your church to functioning organically. But you're gonna have to get the book to see what those steps call for.

Are you satisfied with shoulder-to-shoulder religion or are you looking for face-to-face community? It's not for those that aren't willing to endure the cross. Are you ready to dive in to an exciting journey of experiencing the indwelling Christ in familial community?

Then take a bold step outside the walls of institutionalized religion and recline at the table with others who hunger for more of Jesus.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Practical Answers You've Been Waiting For September 1, 2009

By Derek Mooney

Format:Paperback

If you've read Viola's other books, you've likely had a ton of questions about what to do next. This book shares Frank Viola's insights and experience into discovering church as an organic expression of Christ rather than as a religious institution. This book is helpful for those curious about organic church, but also for those looking to plant or care for an organic church. It includes a lot of perspective into the New Testament approach to church planting and care, specifically relating to Paul's ministry in Ephesus, Rome and other cities, how that was a natural extension of Christ's ministry, and how that ministry continues today in an organic way.