Connections Organic Church Network

Living Simply So Others May Simply Live

Connecting a passionate love for God with a practical love for others

About Us

 Identifying a Need

We live in a world plagued by isolation and individualism.  We have moved toward the “American Dream” and away from the “Community Life”.  We have been described as the “loneliest nation on earth”.  We live in “Crowded loneliness”.  This pursuit of the “American Dream” has pulled us out of relationships where life transformation happens to a busy, consumed life where we look like the world around us and have no time left for the people around us.  Even in the church we have “conformed to the patterns of this world” and have moved away from the environments where we are transformed by the “renewing of our minds”.

 We live in a culture where little difference is seen between the world and the “Christian Community”.  Barna has written extensively on the lack of noticeable difference between the “church” and the world.  Statistically it would seem that life transformation never truly occurred in many who name the name of Christ.

Larry Crabb writes,

“Without a community where we know, explore, discover, and touch one another, we experience isolation and despair that drive us in wrong directions, that corrupt our efforts to live meaningfully and to love well. The future of the church depends on whether it develops true community.  We can get by for a while on size, skilled communication, and programs to meet every need, but unless we sense that we belong to each other, with masks off, the vibrant church of today will become the powerless church of tomorrow.  Stale, irrelevant, a place of pretense where sufferers suffer alone, where pressure generates conformity rather than the Spirit creating life – that is where the church is headed unless it focuses on community.” (Larry Crabb The connecting Church pg. 13) 

Unfortunately, the emphasis in most of today’s churches is on the Sunday morning event.  Typically Sunday morning is the time when most American churches gather.  Therefore a leaders time, energy and resource are given to prepare for Sunday gatherings.  And all though we have produced excellent and inspiring worship services it seems to fall short of producing life transformation.  Thus the common phrase “Sunday morning Christian”.  Because we live and operate in a production oriented culture our lives our consumed.  We only have so much time, energy, and resources to give.  When we give ourselves to the Sunday morning event we steal time from the rest of the week of ministry and relationships.  Thus weakening the community life of the church for the sake of the worship service and in the end producing Christians whose Spiritual life is about a holy Sunday not a holy life.

Addressing The Need:   

We believe life transformation happens best in Authentic Community.  An authentic Community could be described as an environment where God’s word is explored together, where there is freedom to ask tough life questions, where each others needs are cared for, where you live out your faith together throughout the week and in life.  It is an environment were the spiritual, mental, physical, social, and emotional needs of individuals are met through regular connected Christ centered activities.

 Since we believe that this is the most effective environment for genuine life transformation to occur, we believe that this is the most important environment to invest our time, effort, energy and resources into.  By de-emphasizing the Sunday morning environment and re-emphasizing the weekly community environment we believe we will be more effective in seeing authentic transformed disciples living a life noticeably different from the culture in which we live.  We believe that the marks of a disciple will be evident in the lives of those who live in this kind of community.  Disciples who passionately love God and practically love others.  Disciples who live and love like Christ in their world.  Disciples who are growing and maturing in their faith.  Disciples who are living a holy life on the job not just in the sanctuary.  Disciples who are living in such a way that “there is not a needy person among them”.  Disciples who are transferring things from their kingdom to the kingdom of God.  Disciples who are grounded in the Word of God.  Disciples whose worship is marked by the sacrifice of their life not the harmony of their voice. Disciples who are making a difference in their community.  Disciples who are making a difference around the world.  Disciples who are “daily Christians” not “Sunday Christians”.  Disciples making disciples making disciples…..

 We believe that this will happen more effectively in authentic community than on one Sunday morning per week.  This does not mean that we do not believe in what happens on Sunday morning.  The elements of Sunday morning, preaching, singing, teaching, offering, are important and will be a part of the life of every participant and community.