But for real, I’m an aspiring, but not very good gardener, but one thing about trying to stay an organic church is that planting is more organic and natural then splitting. If you think about the plants that grow in a garden, like Joel said, they all have some way of propagating themselves to make more of the same kind of plant. That’s natural and organic. However, when my hostas get really huge I have to go in there and artificially separate them and give them a new home. It looks nice, but it wasn’t organic or natural process, and it’s a lot more work for me!

The point with this is that the organic planting model seems to make a lot of sense. It seems to be the “natural” way that the church grows and propagates itself. It is happening this way all over the world where people don’t have the unfortunate confusion of whether or not they should “do church” like the institutional church. The underground churches in China and the rest of the world follow what seems to make the most sense which is planting new home churches all over the place. It seems to me that this is what they did in the New Testament church as well. The splitting model seems cool, but the planting model seems much more organic and self-perpetuating.

I still do not understand why someone would want to live in Arizona though. Living in the desert was considered punishment from the beginning of time until around the 1960s when people wanted to get away and the only land left in the country was desert.

I just love that movie - good ol’Joel pressing forward wounded yet full of the vision of mission accomplished.

My favorite is “A Bridge Too Far” … left me weeping.

I can just see Joel, Kat and Dar - wearing their ninja black attire - black of course - slipping behind enemy lines with stealth and purpose.

I just spent the Memorial Day watching a plethora of battles movies - these movies demonstrated the reality of battle - planning, equipping, training, moral building, deploying, executing the plan, assessing the field, reevaluating plans in the heat of battle, retreating, and the sacrifice.

But what stood out most to me was what happened to those who returned home from battle. They were forever changed. They saw the world differently than those who never entered the battle. Those who fought were forever soldiers - that is what this plan brings to mind.

This paradigm makes each one of us a soldier - interdependent and vital to the forward movement of the battleline.

What will happen with this daring campaign? I believe that if we fight under the Lord JC’s standard (banner) - under his authority and might - then victory will go to Him and His people will be victorious.

You bring up the interesting point about planting as opposed to splitting. I believe the “splitting” mindset has deep roots in the idea of multiplication as discussed in the Master Plan of Evangelism. But while discipleship does result in multiplication, but it certainly doesn’t necessitate splitting. Clearly Paul’s approach was the “planting” model.

It’ll be interesting to see how this FEBA develops. I think the incoming college dudes group liked it.

True, and it seems you gain a lot. This idea seems to fit in well with pruning, only you’re talking about pruning branches and planting them, while others are then able to grow up into their places.

I wonder what people will think of this viral idea. As you said, a comfortable church is what most people want. Then again, if people are truly searching for something meaningful in their hearts, then Christ will really work through this model. When I received Christ there was about 20 people in my HC and I couldn’t believe there wasn’t 1000 college kids like me there.

Being uncomfortable in church I think is the idea God had too. We don’t want to be able to sit back and watch someone else do the work, or else we grow chubby and lazy. The viral model accomplishes “keeping us out of our comfort zone” and as people get won into the body of Christ they never have the chance to sit back. They come right into the game and start playing. Everyone is on over their heads - therefore, the whole body of Christ has to depend on the Lord.