Organic Church Problems
All organic churches as well as house churches will have problems.
In the NT every church was authentically organic.
Each of those churches had problems. Disgruntled people who tried to smear Paul, the man who planted the church.
The assemblies in in Greece, Galatia, Roman Asia all had struggles, issues, and challenges.
The letters written in the New Testament were attempts to address these problems, most of them.
Organic churches and house churches still have many problems today.
Sometimes a person who is mentally ill will take offense and try to smear the church and the members and its leaders. This has happened many times throughout history.
Sometimes a person’s feelings are hurt in an organic church, so they will start a slander campaign trashing the church and those associated with it.
Usually, bitter person who is bitter totally misrepresents the situation, so it’s always wise to go to the people being attacked to hear their side of the story. In every case like this, the story isn’t what the embittered person presented.
This same thing happened in the New Testament. Paul was constantly lied about by disgruntled people who didn’t like him or blamed him for their own problems or the problems of others. He was called a deceiver, a manipulator, someone who just wanted money, a liar, and worse. In our time, he would have been called a cult leader.
Jesus had the same issue. Vicious rumors spread about him everywhere by people who were offended with him or were threatened by him.
Jesus taught us on the sermon on the mount to treat others the same way you want to be treated. That means going to people who are being rumored about instead of spreading a rumor about them. It also means trying to talk to the persons who you were offended by.
Problems will always happen in organic churches. There was no perfect church in the first century (and they were all organic), and there has been no perfect church since.
If you are involved in a problem, God is calling you to treat it in a Christlike way. With grace and love.
Recommended Books.
How to Prevent a Church Split by Gene Edwards
Finding Organic Church by Frank Viola
The Normal Christian Church Life by Watchman Nee
58 to 0 by Jon Zens