Organize: arrange into a structured whole; order.
"organize lessons in a planned way"
| synonyms: | put in order, order, arrange, sort, sort out, assemble, marshal, put straight, group, dispose, classify, collocate, categorize, catalog, codify, tabulate, compile, systematize, systemize, regulate, regiment, standardize, structure, shape, mold, pigeonhole; |
"Organized religion." Does that term sound like the early church? Partly, perhaps. Some ordering happened, e.g., in caring for widows. But organizing pastoral care did not emerge out of an organization. It came from organic life. Where there is life, build structure. And prepare to discard structure when it no longer hosts life.
Real Church is not, in essence, an "organization."
It's also not an institution.
It's not a bureaucracy.
It's not a democracy.
Not a business.
Nor is it a branch of government.
Not a corporation.
Not a club.
Not an entertainment center.
What is this thing called "Church?" Read the Gospels, the book of Acts, the letters of Paul to the churches, and the 7 letters to the churches in the book of Revelation. It is a movement.
Wendell Berry writes:
"As I have read the Gospels over the years, the belief has grown in me that Christ did not come to found an organized religion but came instead to found an unorganized one. He seems to have come to carry religion out of the temples into the fields and sheep pastures, onto the roadsides and the banks of the rivers, into the houses of sinners and publicans, into the town and the wilderness, toward the membership of all that is here. Well, you can read and see what you think." (Quoted here.)
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My two books are:
Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God
Leading the Presence-Driven Church
I am writing... (because I believe God has called me to write)...
Encounters with the Holy Spirit (Co-edited with Janice Trigg - June 2019 - I submitted the manuscript this week.)
Transformation: How God Changes the Human Heart
Technology and Spiritual Formation
Linda and I will then co-write our book on Relationships.
Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God
Leading the Presence-Driven Church
I am writing... (because I believe God has called me to write)...
Encounters with the Holy Spirit (Co-edited with Janice Trigg - June 2019 - I submitted the manuscript this week.)
Transformation: How God Changes the Human Heart
Technology and Spiritual Formation
Linda and I will then co-write our book on Relationships.
