The Organic Life and Character of Each Church

Hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. Every congregation of Christ possesses an organic life distinct both from other churches and from the lives of individual members. A prevailing fault among modern Christians is the attempt to lose individuality within the mass, hoping thereby to evade responsibility and duty. Yet absorbing a Christian into a church differs little from sinking a soldier into an army—he merely passes under more rigid rules and shows more conspicuously.

Each church maintains its own organic history. Gather aged members on an anniversary, and a patient listener discovers that every congregation bears a history as striking and precious as those ancient churches of Asia Minor. One year a man's behavior or misfortune troubled the fellowship deeply; another year, a man's generosity restored it. When one failed in business, the church shook; when another grew wealthy, the church was saved.

Every established organization possesses distinct organic characteristics, derived from the social and personal lives of those who compose and manage it. As geological strata bear traces of ancient tides that shaped the stone, so the annals of congregations reveal which epochs fashioned their spiritual form. Sometimes half-dozen elders gave shape to church life; sometimes deacons drew demarcation lines; sometimes restless women or uncomfortable men set the congregation ablaze. Often the choir or sewing-society wielded formative influence.

Finally, each church possesses organic power—an ability for usefulness superadded to individual influence. Yet equally, each church bears organic mortality, capable of extinction when cast out by Yahweh.