Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens is the latest and greatest book by Neil Cole. I got Steve Addison to (very kindly) bring it back with him from the States, so I don’t know if it’s available locally or not.
Anyway, it’s awesome. There is so much I’d like to say about it. It’s such a breath of fresh air to me, and helps to congeal a lot of thoughts, concepts and priorities that have been going around in me for a long long time. The difference between Cole and me is that since I was in LA with him in ‘94 he’s been doing the stuff, and I’ve not!
In this book, Cole explains in details what a church planting epidemic could look like, based on what’s happened to him and his church buddies in LA and environs. It’s contagious stuff indeed.
But then I spoke to Mark Sayers today (we’re trying to meet up regularly for chats and brainstorming), and he said that if my aim is to reach the average Australian young adult, I will need to accept that NO-ONE else is succeeding at it. No-one! Sure, there are churches out there using all the world’s trickery to get young adults to come in, but they’re not staying after the freebies stop getting dished out, or the music dies down… As for an authentic ministry to average Aussie young adults… Mark doesn’t know of one which is really reaping a harvest.
Yes, there are lots of growing young adult ministries, but they’re not growing from the harvest. Not consistently anyway. Not in any significant numbers. Ouch.
But I am on a journey, and I’m dialoguing with Cole in my mind… having these imaginary to-and-fro conversations and trying to use his book’s ideas and paradigms to challenge my own and refine my thinking.
It’s all good 
