Can’t believe I have another post for the day. I got to spend some time in the coffee shop just reading this afternoon after another meeting was canceled. Had to share this. Reading Organic Church, Neil Cole. He writes about the parable of the seed and soil. Neil compares the good soil and some other parables of Jesus. He says that in the other parables Jesus warned us who bad soil was: Intellectuals, I Cor 1:26, Good Moral People, Luke 5:31-32, and Wealthy People, Luke 18:24-25.

He says that you can win people in these categories but, “You will be hard-pressed to find a church planting movement started among wealthy, educated people. But it is easy to find them among poor, working-class people.” That is powerful. I see guys starting great churches in the suburbs but not movements. That is a WOW realization for me. I have always wondered why you can read Garrison’s “Church Planting Movements” and not read anything about movements in America. Here it is, we are too comfortable, too intellectual, and too “good” for our own good.

I like the next page though. If you are going to start a church in the ‘burbs and you want to win people Cole lists four things you can do: 1. Ride along with the sheriff or police and see the need; 2.Search the papers for bankruptcies or foreclosures, call them and tell them you are praying for them!; 3. find out where the local 12 step programs meet (probably need to be in recovery yourself); 4. be available at a crisis pregnancy center, abortion clinic to pray and listen without your protest sign.

I don’t think I could ever “do” church the way Neil Cole does church, but this book challenges me. I encourage you to read it.

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