Organic Christianity<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
 
I can recall being at the local farmers market and overhearing my wife asking one of the farmers if their produce was organic. The farmer's response was quite interesting as he replied, "I put the seed in the ground and God did the rest." That must have been organic enough for my wife because she loaded up with his produce.
 
 Our food supply is more refined and processed than ever before. However, people in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />America tend to think that organic food and farming is something unnatural and comes from third world countries. Apparently, applying farming techniques such as spraying pesticides, dumping chemical fertilizers, and applying chemicals for the quick and uniform ripening of fruits and vegetables seems to be normal. You really can't blame the farmers, because they have been conditioned to the thinking that these methods are the way to go if you want to make it in the farming world.
 
The first thing to understand is the definition of the word organic. When food is organic, it means that no preservatives, added chemicals, or other types of fertilizers and/or pesticides have been added to the food during the growing process. I think it's pretty     obvious that the key to organic food is keeping man's hands out of the growing process.  It seems that when man tries to better what God has created it always leads to difficulty.  Many believe that the modified plants and seeds we're accustomed to eating have some connection to the rise of disease in America. Much study is being done on this and it certainly gives you something to think about.
 
The modern day church is in much the same place. Men have been modifying the "seed" for decades in order to get quick growth. Churches around the country have learned how to put on great church service, provide great programs, and as a result are showing record numbers of people involved.  But, with the divorce rate being over 50%, teens leaving at an alarming rate, members admitting to hardly ever opening their bibles and the recognition that by the fruit being produced, many who are involved in church have never been born again, it seems there is an epidemic of disease.  Once again there is a cause and effect to what is happening in the church today.
 
We must go back and look critically at the processes going on in church that make it so disease prone. Where did the mutation take place?  Can we ask that question honestly and look at patterns and practices in church that have been "modified" to get us to where we are today? Can we look at the "organic" model of the church in the New Testament and learn something?
 
Much like the farmers, no one wants to put the blame on the church and its leadership for losing its focus from the biblical mandate to preach the Gospel and disciple believers. Instead, the methods that focus on attracting people are seen as just what it takes to make it in the church world. But, what we have learned is that when the church modifies its seed, it may grow a great looking plant and produce great "looking" fruit but the nutritional value is lost and it weakens all who eat there. The use of man-made methods only invites disease. When the church is driven by anything other than the Gospel it has been genetically modified.
 
With the preservatives and pesticides used in today's church it makes an unbeliever very at home at church. Do we really think that our fleshly approach to church honors God?  Would Jesus even recognize what we do on Sunday to even qualify as church? Look, when Jesus preached in John 6:53, He drove the crowd away with the truth.  He didn't try to appease anyone. He preached a message that was offensive to the masses and everyone left. Even His closest followers were uncomfortable with this preaching (John 6:60). Jesus was not trying to ruin the "field," He was making sure that the fruit produced there would be substantial and promote life and health.  In the same way, the message that we preach must not have at its core a desire to attract people, but to produce a healthy crop.  When the church becomes man-centered and begins to care more about its attractiveness, the gospel becomes compromised and it loses its organic label.
 
Pastors are trying to rush the growing process with extra biblical techniques. Not patient enough to wait on God, not trusting in the Word alone to bring forth fruit, genetically modify salvation is the rule of the day. We have come up with many modifications to the process of salvation and have forgotten it is something only the Holy Spirit can do. The process is refined and disease prone; false converts are the product. 
 
It is the depravity of man, specifically his greed that causes companies to give up the health of food for profit.  It is the depravity of man, specifically his pride that causes a pastor to lead a church just for the sake of growth.  In both cases it becomes more about the bottom line than anything else. Profit is success. Attendance is success. So, as long as man's techniques produce those two, we are content to continue the methods without question and put a label of approval on it - UGSB (Under God's Sovereign Blessing). 
 
But there is an organic movement in the church as well. It is among people who desire to return to the simplicity of the faith and the trust that the tried and true methods of preaching the Gospel and discipling believers will produce health and growth as God desires. What does an organic church look like?  It is a church that is void of all the unnecessary programs and attractions of the world.  It is pretty simple, really, much like the old farmer's response to my wife…we just need to "put the seed in the ground and God will do the rest."
 
Preach the whole Gospel like Jesus did and God will add to the church. Then those that believe will fellowship, study the word together, and go out into their world and reach those who God desires to come to Christ. And, unlike all the organic food on the market today, it will not cost you a small fortune…it will only require your life.