Church Growth - No, Really

Barry Cox is a church planter - literally.

On his property near Cambridge, New Zealand, Cox has created a sanctuary that consists of living trees that grow on an iron framework and create a house of worship that is truly alive. Cut leaf alders form the roof. Copper sheen forms the walls. A camellia hedge creates a surrounding courtyard. Once the young plants grow strong enough to support the structure, caretakers plan to disassemble the iron skeleton.

We use a lot of organic language to talk about the church: Churches are either "alive" or "dead," either "growing" or "dying." Cox's building provides a physical embodiment of many of the Scripture's images regarding the Body of Christ: Peter compares us toliving stones. . .built into a spiritual house (1 Peter 2.5.) John hears the risen Christ promise the church the congregation in ancient Philadelphia that if you conquer, I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God; you will never go out of it. (Rev 3.12).  rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Paul exhorts the Colossians to be  rooted and built up in him (Col 2.7), and sees himself and other pastors as gardeners: I planted, Apollos watered (1 Cor 3.6). And, of course, we have the master metaphor from the Master himself: I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15.5)

Baptists love to remind each other that the building is not the church; the church is the community of saints. We might realize this metaphor more fully if we pondered Cox's planted parable. If I see my fellow-believers organically rather than organizationally, I might care for the in a different, perhaps even in a better, way. I might think less about hectoring them to go forward, and work harder at helping them go deep. I might still see the need to prune them back, but feel less compulsion to pluck them up. I might view them less as resources and more as responsibilities. I might even realize that although they needed a guiding framework in their youth (Be imitators of me), the goal is that they outgrow the guide (just as I also am of Christ. - 1 Cor. 11.1).

For more information on the Tree Church, see Tree Church and A One Hundred Seat Church Constructed From Living Trees.