Some Food for Thought

This weekend I began rereading An Unstoppable Force by Erwin McManus, and found the following three paragraphs especially thought provoking:

"The contemporary church has chosen the same course. We have chosen standardization over uniqueness. We have chosen predictability over surprise. And without realizing it, to our own regret, we have chosen comfort and convenience over servanthood and sacrifice. But in the end, what we have chosen is organization over life, and this, perhaps, is the fundamental dilemma we face--that at best the church is seen as a healthy organization.

The church is seen as the religious equivalent of IBM or Microsoft. If the church is not running well, then the solutions clearly lie in the best business practices available. The pastor becomes the CEO, and the success of the church is in its ability to move from a mom and pop business to a conglomerate. And Robert's Rules of Order becomes the guiding text rather than the pattern of the apostolic church.

The problem is that we treat the church as an organization instead of an organism [italics are mine]. Even an elementary reading of the New Testament would make it clear that the church is the body of Christ. The church in her essence is a living system. Whenever we relate to the church as an organism, we begin to awaken an apostolic ethos, which unleashes the movement of God. The power and life of God's Spirit working in his people result in nothing less than cultural transformation."

What do you think?