Why cooperate as part of an organic church network?

Whereas most Organic Churches in the world are almost totally independent from each other, an Organic Church Network cooperates with a larger fellowship to accomplish tasks, mission, and ministries that an individual Organic Church could not hope to do. In the New Testament, we see ‘churches’ that met in houses and other locations. But we also see the larger context of city-wide churches: the church of Ephesus, the church of Philippi, etc.

The networking together of organic churches is biblical and provides many benefits:

The fellowship together of a greater variety of Christians with a greater diversity of gifts

The joint support of ministries, missions, or charitable needs

Community-wide activities

Opportunity for larger celebration events

Networks can function in different ways. They may be highly informal, connected only by an occasional joint gathering or special times to share ideas with one another. Or, they may be more formally networked together as “sister” fellowships that function with many common goals and projects. We use the term “cluster” for a group of organic churches that are closely related.

Either way, it’s important that networks do not become a way to exercise centralized control. They are simply a larger context for autonomous churches to be part of.