The Church Is. Does. Organizes. But what is it? | to tell the truth



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The church is.

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The church does what it is.

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The church organizes what it does.

"Organization 
betrays definition, for better or worse."

The Church Is. Does. Organizes. But what is it? | to tell the truth: Take out any of the three and you land with something less than the church. Gospel plus mission minus community equals a parachurch ministry. Mission plus community minus the gospel equals a social club. And gospel plus community minus mission equals nothing more than a holy huddle or Pharisaism.

Inevitably the church must organize its life together, which is where we get worship services, prayer meetings, small groups, youth programs, service initiatives, liturgies, Sunday school classes, retreats, and the like. If you work for a church, much of your time is spent organizing the church. And it’s fairly obvious that what we are organizing are the differing things we actually do (worship, serve, study, convert, pray, celebrate, confess our sins, play, take communion, etc). But what this formula unveils is this: how we organize our churches reveals what we believe the church is. Organization betrays definition, for better or worse.