Life is too short, time too precious, responsibilities too many for us to read all the books we want to. So I plowed through Neil Cole’s Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens over the weekend and extracted some of the best stuff—stuff that helps you do his book and not just believe it.

When it comes to church leadership at the level of men who are elders, there’s a lot in this book I don’t agree with, but we should know enough to eat the watermelon and spit the seeds. The watermelon is good!

Here’s my takeaway:

The first eleven chapters sell the idea, survey the need, and defend the big idea of organic church. But the useable advice starts in chapter 12, “The How-To of Spreading the Epidemic,” pp. 171-192:

•    Daily beg God for souls and workers for the harvest (173-174). Jesus commanded it, God wants it, results will happen if we do it.

•    Find pockets of people and bring the kingdom of God to them (175-177). For example, frequent a coffeehouse and build relationships and talk. Lead people to Jesus (175-177). “In searching for a fertile pocket of people, look for a strong sense of community and social cohesiveness. Just like the bar Cheers in the TV show of the same name, look for a place ‘where everybody knows your name’” (176-177). “Jesus’ plan is for us to identify a pocket of people who do not have a vital Kingdom witness. Then we enter into relationship with those people. We inject the Kingdom virus right into the darkness, and a church is born there from the changed lives. If they are not receptive (which happens frequently), we simply wipe the dust (bad soil) off our feet and move on to the next pocket of people” (177). “We are looking for the places where His Spirit is telling us that Jesus is going to come. Like Moses, I made a commitment when I first set off in this church planting adventure that I would not go where He himself was not going” (177).

•    Believe that the power of Jesus is within you (177-181). Jesus announced to His disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” and then said to His disciples “I am with you” (Mat 28:18-20). Implication? Jesus’ power goes with you wherever you go (178). Believe this when you meet people. Believe this when you talk about God and Jesus and ask penetrating questions.

•    When someone comes to know Jesus, assume that this is a person of peace who will reach others (181-184). When He sent them out to preach and heal, Jesus told His disciples to find someone who would be receptive to our message of peace (Luke 10:6-7). Through her conversion, an entire connection of people are attached and many more will come to know Jesus (just like the Samaritan woman and Cornelius ). A person of peace will usually have three traits: 1) open to the message of Jesus Christ, 2) has many relational connections, 3) and has a reputation, good or bad (182). The Samaritan woman had a bad reputation (John 4) and Cornelius had a good reputation (Acts 11), yet God used both to bring many more to Jesus (183). No wonder Jesus kept telling new believers, “Go home to your people and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you!” (Mark 5:19-20).

•    Let the new convert reach his own connections with the gospel unitl it grows into an entire people of purpose (184-186). When a person of peace reaches his entire community with the gospel a church is naturally born. “A church that starts this way is unique in that it is born out of the harvest, is found among the harvest, and is bent on a mission to continue to reach the lost” (185). “Churches that start this way are unhindered by cultural Christianity, because they are born in the harvest. There is a simple purity to them that doesn’t have the stain of the more placid and established Christendom. These people learn how to reach their friends from the start and don’t know any better than to follow Jesus and expect Him to save their family, friends, and ultimately nations. They become a people of purpose, a spiritual family called out by God on a mission” (185).

After planting hundreds of churches, Coleman closes his thirteenth chapter, “Falling with Style,” with seven things he would have done differently if he could start over:

First, he would begin in the harvest and start small. “Don’t start with a team of already-saved Christians,” he writes. “We think that having a bigger and better team will accelerate the work, but it doesn’t. In fact, it has the opposite effect. It is better to have a team of two, since the right two makes the work even better: an apostle and prophet together will lay the foundation of a movement. The churches birthed out of transformed lives are healthier, reproductive, and growing faster. It is about this: a life changed, not about the model. Never forget that” (pp. 204-205).

Second, he would allow God to build around others. “Don’t start in your own home; find a person of peace and start in that home” (205).

Third, he would empower others from the start. “Don’t lead too much. Let the new believers doe the work of the ministry without your imposed control. Let the excitement of a new life carry the movement rather than your intelligence and persuasiveness” (205).

Fourth, he would let Scripture, not his assumptions, lead. “Question all your ministry assumptions in light of Scripture, with courage and faith” (205).

Fifth, he would rethink leadership. “The Christian life is a process. There is not a ceiling of maturity that people need to break through to lead. Set them loose immediately, and walk with them through the process for a while. Leadership recruitment is a dead end. We are all recruiting form the same pond, and it is getting shallower and shallower. Leadership farming is what is needed. Any leadership development that doesn’t start with the lost is starting in the wrong place. Start at the beginning, and being with the end in mind. Mentor life on life and walk with them through their growth in being, doing, and knowing. The end is not accumulated knowledge but a life of obedience that will be willing to die for Jesus. The process isn’t over until there is a flat line on the screen next to the bed” (205).

Sixth, he would create immediate obedience in baptism. “Baptize quickly and publicly and let the one doing the evangelizing do the baptizing. The Bible doesn’t command us to be baptized, but to be baptizers. It is absolutely foolish the way we hold the Great Commission over our people and then exclude them from obeying it at the same time” (205).

Seventh and last, he would settle his ownership issues. “Stop being concerned about whether ‘your’ church plant will succeed or not. It isn’t yours in the first place. Your reputation is not the one on the line; Jesus’ is. He will do a good job if we let him. If we have our own identity and reputation at stake in the work, we will tend to take command. Big mistake. Let Jesus get the glory and put his reputation on the line; He can take care of Himself without your help” (206).

Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens. SanFrancisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005. 237 pp.