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This new series of posts will explore the next critical element in mDNA, the inner structures and systems that embody Apostolic Genius and thus enable metabolic growth (growth that takes place exponentially and organically.) In this series we will probe as to how the church in its most phenomenal form (when it genuinely manifests Apostolic Genius) organizes itself as a living organism that reflects more how God has structured life itself, as opposed to that of a machine which is the artificial inorganic alterative to a living system. And here we are on fertile Biblical ground because organic images of the church and the Kingdom abound in the Scriptures: images like body, field, yeast, seeds, trees, living temples, vines, animals, etc.. These images are not just verbal metaphors that help us describe the theological nature of God’s people, but are actually go to issues of essence. Therefore they will need to be re-discovered, re-embraced, and re-lived in order to position us as Jesus’ people for the challenges and complexities facing us in the 21st Century. We must find a new way to experience ourselves beyond the static, mechanistic, and institutional paradigm that predominates over our ecclesial life.
It should not surprise us that organic images of the church should draw their primary theological funding from the Biblical doctrine of creation, (cosmology) from an ecological, and an intrinsically spiritual view of the world rather than from any of the other disciplines that have conventionally informed leadership and the development of organizations. Cosmology must guide us into a deeper understanding of ourselves and our function in the world.
And why would we not look to creation itself for clues as to how God Himself has intended for authentic human life and community to manifest? All of life bears God’s creative fingerprints and He has filled every aspect of it with intrinsic vitality and intelligence. The cosmos itself seems to operate in a profoundly intelligent way, the more we find out about it from science, from the structures of atoms, patterns of weather, the migration of birds, the human psyche, the more stunningly ingenious it all seems. From quarks to supernovas, the universe seems to vibrate with living potency that causes us to be filled with wonder and awe at the sheer omnipotence and omniscience of the Creator-God.
This Cosmic Creator should be no stranger to us. The Scriptures clearly teach that is was the Trinity that was fully involved in the inception of the cosmos and in the maintenance all life. God the Father speaks the cosmos into being with creative words (Gen.1). As Father, He is the genesis, the source, of all life. Christ is portrayed in the Scriptures as the instrument of creation (“by him all things were created”) and is its organizing principle (“in him all things holds together”) (Col.1:15-20, John 1:1-3
, Heb.1:2-3.) The Holy Spirit is described as the essence of life/spirit: it was He who brooded over the chaos of the pre-formed universe and brought forth form, and it was He who has filled every atom of it with design and vivacity. From atoms to stars, every aspect of creation points to an unbelievably intelligent and utterly powerful Being and looks to him for its ongoing reality and existence (called continuing creation by theologians.) The universe declares the glory of God and is a constant stream of knowledge of, and revelation about, God (Ps.19:1-4.)
Furthermore, this triune Creator-God cannot be divided. God’s presence is found in every part of his universe. As J.V. Taylor, in his remarkable book, The Christlike God points out that…
“Wherever God exists he exists wholly. In his infinitude he cradles the universe, yet he knows every atom of its structure from within (italics mine). The truth of God transcendent and of God immanent, his mystery and his availability, must be held together as a single reality, dialectical to human thought but indivisible in itself. The God who is within things is not secondary or less than the God who is beyond. his unfathomable otherness addresses each of us with an intimacy surpassing all other relationships.”
The doctrine of God’s transcendence informs us that God is beyond his creation…He is far greater than it and that it exists in Him. But the related doctrine of God’s immanence reveals to us that He is also fully present in even the smallest atom. He fills the universe as well as transcends it. This means that the whole cosmos, and life itself, is directly connected to God and is therefore filled with the sacred mystery of divine life. As a means of revelation, Creation can teach us much of the mind of God as to how life ought to be lived. And because it is the Trinity who creates this world, this does not distract one iota from the truth of God and his redemption as revealed in the Scriptures. And it is from both creation and Scripture that an organic understanding of the God’s people is gleaned.
All this is to say that an organic image of church and mission is theologically richer by far than any mechanistic and institutional conceptions of church that we might devise. This is because it is funded by a sense of God’s intimate relation and investment in his creation. Followers of Jesus who seek to base their communal life in organic ways find in Scripture, as well as Creation, a rich theological resource to fund and sustain it. To find a pattern of church closer to life is to move closer to what God intended in creation in the first place. For instance, it turns out that the seemingly obscure and insignificant yeast has much to teach us about working of God’s Kingdom (Matt.13:33.)
. - , The Christlike God, (London: SCM, 1992), 117
