Organic Church Quotes

“Attendance on Sundays does not transform lives; Jesus within their hearts is what changes people.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“Instead of bringing people to church so that we can then bring them to Christ, let's bring Christ to people where they live.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“There are few character traits that stand out in this world more than a generous heart.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“We would do much better as leaders in the Church to learn at the feet of the farmer rather than study with the CEO of a corporation.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“If we cannot multiply churches, we will never see a movement. If we cannot multiply leaders we will never multiply churches. If we cannot multiply disciples, we will never multiply leaders. The way to see a true church multiplication movement is to multiply healthy disciples, then leaders, then churches, and finally movements-in that order.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“The core issue, where all this becomes most difficult, is in giving up control. We are afraid of all hell breaking loose, but our in-securities and resulting control have often kept all heaven from breaking loose.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“We all know people whose position and title are more respected than their person, and that is a tragedy.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“With a top-down exoskeleton structure of church, delegation is critical. Commands are passed down, layer to layer, and are subject to confusion, corruption, and condescension. The church is slow-moving and slow-changing.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“Leadership that rests on title is weak. Leadership that rests in a cause and inspires others to follow is strong.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“Many take Christ’s words and apply them backwards. They teach that if you have position in the Kingdom of God it is important to lead as a servant. But Jesus meant us to see that those who first serve are indeed the leaders that others will follow. Position and title are useless in such a scenario. Jesus, of course, is our prime example. He did not have any title or position in this world, yet He spoke with authority unlike any man who ever walked the earth.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“In a top-down hierarchical structure, delegation of authority is important. But there is a vast difference between delegated authority and distributed authority. All authority comes from God. True authority is recognized and granted from those who follow; however, sometimes that authority is forced by position, power, or even the threat of violent enforcement. This is how the world operates, but the Kingdom of God is not to be that way.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“I feel comfortable releasing control of disciples, leaders, churches, and movements as long as I know that each unit is connected to the Master. This is as it should be. The question we must answer is, Do we trust ourselves with the care of new believers more than we trust God?”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“We must see a new system that can emerge naturally and easily from the person of Christ and that will never be a top-down overlording system, but instead one of servanthood and grace.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“Purpose and principle, clearly understood and articulated, and commonly shared, are the genetic code of any healthy organization. To the degree that you hold purpose and principles in common among you, you can dispense with command and control. People will know how to behave in accordance with them, and they’ll do it in thousands of unimaginable, creative ways.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“The reality is that as long as we invest in human-driven efforts, we will never see what we all really want to see.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“The only time worship and service are put together in Scripture has nothing to do with sound systems, pews, sermons, or worship bands. It is a twenty-four-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week expression of Christ’s life in us. In Romans 12:1 and 2, Paul writes that we are to present our own bodies to be His temple. He writes, “I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“Church begins with Jesus: who He is and what He has done. It is all about Jesus, and if it begins
to be about something else, then it stops being the church as Jesus meant it to be.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“Can the church stop its puny, hack dreams of trying to "make a difference in the world" and start dreaming God-sized dreams of making the world different? Can the church invent and prevent, redeem and redream, this postmodern future?
-Leonard Sweet (Soul Tsunami)”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“If one-tenth of what you believe is true, you ought to be ten times as excited as you are.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“Another claims, "Every Christian is a church planter, every home is a church, and every church building is a
training center.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“One of our church networks has as its purpose statement "To have a church within walking distance of every person living in Las Vegas.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“The church is at its best in two's or three's-not in two or three hundreds or two or three thousands. "Where two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst of them.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“The true well-being of the church: when she cannot count on anything anymore but God's promises.
-Johannes Hoekendijk”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“If you want to win this world to Christ, you are going to have to sit in the smoking section. That is where lost people are found, and if you make them put their cigarette out to hear the message they will be thinking about only one thing: "When can I get another cigarette?”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

“Every church throughout history whose members were willing to surrender their lives for the sake of Christ witnessed dramatic and spontaneous growth.”
― Neil Cole, Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens