I got a message Sunday from Frank Viola saying he was following my twitter account. I had heard the name but hadn’t known much about him. To my surprise he has some great ideas that are very similar to my own development of discipleship.

Frank understands the process of discipleship. He has a background in organic church, which seems similar to a house church. There are no paid leaders in the organic church as Frank describes. Instead, they focus on a shared life experience. Read about how he frames organic discipleship here. I really like his thoughts. I’ll try to summarize my highlights.

Organic Disicpleship is:

• Formation happens with others – it is informed by and flows out of close relationships that focus on Christ, instead of rote lessons and practices.
• Established through participation – when everyone is a part of the work of the Kingdom, everyone grows and benefits from individual and corporate growth.
• Indwelling is more important than behavior – As Christ if formed in people and indwells them, they are transformed from the inside out, rather than legalistic, programmatic behavior modification.

These are just some of my observations. I’m sure I’m just scratching the surface here, but I like what I am seeing. It leaves me with one question though. Why does this have to happen in an organic church? Couldn’t Shouldn’t this be happening in all churches?

For more on Organic Churches check here.

Update: Apparently Frank Viola is very popular. Also, I live in a jar.