Organism

The church is an organism. (referring to the whole church not a specific location or denomination)

We have often referred to the church as a "body", a body of believers, the body of Christ. However a body does not have to be alive, a body can simply be a mass, something that takes up space ie: a body of water. Water is not alive. It can also be an action or something perceived ie: body language. body language is not alive.

However, organisms are capable in some form or another of: response to stimuli, reproduction, growth & development & maintenance of homeostasis as a stable whole. Without ONE of these things an organism will die.

Response to stimuli - The church must respond to the Spirit (stimuli) without a response overtime the Spirit will stop making itself present.

Reproduction - In order for an organism to continue to exist it must reproduce. The church must continue to "reproduce" I kind of like the word produce better in this case. We must be a tool to bring more people to know Christ. We must adopt (not in the sense of a legal adoption), it is not enough to bring your own family to church but we need to bring others. If we are never to bring anyone to church but ourselves then how is it supposed to grow (reproduce?) If we do not continue to bring people into the church, the church will die over time.

Growth & Development - The church must continue to grow & develop. If it were to stop growing & developing it would remain stagnant & eventually die out. Organisms continue to grow & develop in order to advance & stay alive. Think of it this way if I made it so Oliver stopped growing & developing right now he would live & not just a couple days either BUT his life would be cut short & never lived to the fullest ability that he would have had I not halted his growth. We must each individually continue to grow & develop in our relationship with God the Father but we must also push the church towards growth & development.

Homeostasis - The church must remain stable. It cannot flip flop. It cannot change the definition of sin. Drunkenness is a sin, adultery is sin, acting on homosexuality is sin, when these things stop being considered sin like in some churches (we will say cells of the organism) it weakens the whole church (the organism) and does NOT create a stable environment. It creates confusion for those babes in the church ie: one church has a openly homosexual minister & another church says that, that is sin. And it creates a thought of hypocrisy to those not affiliated with the church ie: They are all talk. The church must remain stable & hold fast to the Word of God for the truth because we all know that the "slippery slope theory/idea/whatever" is a reality & when the church starts to lose stability it is hard to get back. Help promote a stable environment for the church to live!

That is all. I hope this made sense, I was laying bed last night thinking about this & for me it took the idea of the church to a different level by thinking of it as an actual living organism.