Viral Church

[Sid]

There have been two well-thought out posts recently with good insights. I find myself agreeing with most of the content, but I find a need to defend the terminology of independence. After waiting to see if someone else would respond, I've decided to defend independence myself - a concept central to Jesus' methodology and to the New Testament church.

First - what we do NOT mean by independence - we do not mean that one person can be an island carrying out the mission all by themselves, nor do we mean by this that people should have no accountability to the church or church leadership. Interdependence is entirely consistent with a proper understanding of independence, although it creates tension. As always, the power is in the tension.

What we DO mean is that there is no master seed - that there is no one person or small class of persons who are uniquely qualified to lead a new church. While not every person has the giftings and temperament to start a large church service, the reality is that God has given each of us what it takes to invite people into our lives, show them Jesus and build a community around us. That's what starting a church really means and why inside each of us lies the seed of a church.

In this sense, I believe of the 12 original disciples, 11 of them planted churches - as did Paul and others.