Bob Whitesel, Inside the Organic Church: Learning from 12 Emerging Congregations. Abingdon Press, 2006.
Referenced in: Missional Communties – Organic Church
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
This book was chosen by Outreach Magazine as a finalist for Resource of the Year in Postmodern Outreach. Whitesel is an academic, and brings responsible scholarship to the issues of postmodernity, emergent church, and a specific genre of emergent, “organic.” Whitesel looks at “organic” through a church growth lens. Some emergents may chafe at this, but the even-handedness of Whitesel’s study makes this a very useful text.
Whitesel begins by discussing 16 postmodern patterns and the 16 ways organic churches reflect postmodernity. He then provides an in-depth look at twelve organic communities:
- St. Thomas Church, Sheffield UK
- The Sole Café, Edmonton, Alberta Canada
- Mars Hill, Grandville, Michigan
- The Bridge, Phoenix and Tempe, Arizona
- Vintage Faith Church, Santa Cruz, California
- Freeway, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Church of the Apostles, Seattle, Washington
- One Place, Phoenix, Arizona
- Scum of the Earth Church, Denver, Colorado
- Bluer, The Vineyard Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Tribe of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
- Solomon’s Porch, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Each chapter includes a narrative of Whitesel’s experience with the church, interviews with key leaders, complete contact information, and extensive footnotes. He extracts three general principles of organic churches from each individual community, resulting in accumulation of 36 “transferrable” strategies shared by most organic churches. Not all are transferrable (e.g. renting unused mall space), and some are a bit strained, but overall this is a useful feature. He also offers a beginning framework (3 stages) for growing an organic church.
From the Publisher
A new generation of churches is emerging, calling new disciples to the way of Jesus by proclaiming the Good News and seeking the transformation of culture. Bob Whitesel takes us inside congregations that draw upon ancient traditions and modern technologies to create a spiritual community and shows how the practices of the “organic church” can be instructive for all those wishing to reach today’s world with the gospel of Christ.
About the Author
Bob Whitesel is a speaker, professor and award-winning writer on the organic church, missional leadership and church growth; who has been called by a national magazine: “the key spokesperson on change theory in the church today.” He holds two doctorates (D.Min. and Ph.D.) from Fuller Theological Seminary where he was awarded the Donald McGavran Award for “Outstanding Scholarship in Church Growth.” He is the author of nine books. He serves as Professor of Missional Leadership at Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University and is a sought-after speaker and consultant (see http://www.BobWhitesel.com).
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