The Church as Ecosystem

In seminary we used to ask the question if the church was an organization or an organism.  It has always seemed obvious that although it has characteristics of both, it is definitely an organism. The Biblical metaphor of the church as the Body of Christ seems to make that point clearly.  Christ is the head and we are the parts, submissive to His guidance.  The Spirit of God, which binds us together, is like the blood of the Body, giving life to every member. Without the Christ and the Spirit, we are dead.   

But this is just a metaphor, and like all metaphors, should not be taken as the whole truth.  It is a model of the truth, not the truth itself. Other metaphors are also necessary to fully understand the church.  That is why the Bible uses a variety of pictures to describe the church—kingdom, tribe, chosen race, a royal priesthood and a temple, to name just a few. 

In thinking about the church as a Body, I have more and more become convinced that it is inadequate to think of the church as just a single organism.  I would like to supplement (but not substitute) that metaphor for another.  Let me suggest that the church is not a single organism but an ecosystem, like the Garden of Eden.  The church is a gathering of organisms, not one living thing, but many, living together harmoniously, independent yet interdependent with each other. Each member of the ecosystem functions according to their nature, without any purpose but their own.  Yet each part of the system has its unique niche, and provides its own contribution to the health of the whole. 

A body moves together, fulfilling a single vision or purpose, focused on a common purpose and fulfilling a common goal. An ecosystem does not.  It remains healthy through the balance of individual creatures living in balance, fulfilling their own destiny, and producing health in all. 

The church is a Body, of sorts.  We share together the “seven unities”  Paul describes in Ephesians 4:3-6  “There is one body and one Spirit- just as you were called to one hope when you were called-  one Lord, one faith, one baptism;  one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”  But after that, the similarity ends.  We may be one Body overall, but we are still Protestants, Catholics,  Orthodox,  Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians,  Lutherans, Pentecostals,  and a thousand other sects and divisions, each seeing themselves as the whole, rather than the part, of God’s creation called the church. Within our unity there is great diversity, even contradiction.  How can we call ourselves one Body when we are so different?

We cannot recognize our true nature.  Only God can.  The creatures in an ecosystem have no concept of being an ecosystem. It takes a larger mind, standing on the outside, to identify a “forest” or “prairie”.  To the squirrel in a tree, that tree is the whole world--there is nothing beyond it.  Only God can look at the ecosystem that is the Kingdom and call it a single Body. 

For those of us living inside the Body, we are unaware of the overall purpose. Every Christian group has its own agenda. Inevitably, whenever we try to interpret what God wants His church to do, we wind up missing some important parts.  We must rely on human intellect or intuition to discern God’s will—humans who are flawed and fallible, full of vanity and pride, convinced that they alone have correctly interpreted the Will of God.  As soon as we think we have it all sorted out, we know we are wrong somewhere. Even when we work together in large groups of scholars and theologians such as in councils and synods, we really not all that bright compared to God. It is as if all the trees in the garden got together and determined that the only purpose for the garden was to grow trees, and the flowers and shrubbery were unnecessary parasites.  We forget the lesson of the Tower of Babel—that people working together for a common purpose, can mess things up so badly that God has to break them up into disharmonious communities again to accomplish what He really wants.  Disagreement is our only corrective to our tendency to think we know it all.

There is nothing more dangerous than the church united around the human perception of God’s Truth. I believe this is what Bonhoeffer meant when he wrote in Life Together that “God hates visionaries.” The church does not exist for our perceived vision but God’s.  Whatever our own personal vision of God may be, it is at best incomplete. Every time we organize the church to achieve God’s will, some part of God’s will get left out. Limited knowledge produces limited vision. No matter how much we think we understand about God’s purposes, we always fall short.

That’s why I suggest that we think of the church as an ecosystem. An ecosystem is composes of a multitude of living creatures, each with their own agenda and perspective, but who ultimately depend on each other. An ecosystem has no purpose but the flourishing of all.  Each part of the ecosystem, Predators and prey, symbiotes and parasites, scavengers and vegetation, exist for no other reason than to do what they were born to do. No one plans an ecosystem except God. An ecosystem simply grows. 

The quickest way to destroy an ecosystem is to organize it. In many parts of the world, we have tried to do this, usually with disastrous results.  We eliminate predators, and the deer overfeed.  We replace prairie grass with corn and wheat fields, and there is no room for the buffalo. Then in a few generations farmers have to spend a fortune of artificial nutrients.  We introduce kudzu into the South, and it grows too well, killing off the native trees.

Something like this happens in the church periodically. Some bright people get together and define the “true nature” of the church. It may be the transformation of society, evangelism, spiritual worship, ecclesiastical unity, or whatever.  Then they start a movement to “restore the church to its real purpose.”  At first the church--or at least their part of the church--prospers as it fills a niche that has often been left unfilled.  But then the movement sputters to a stop, the leaders pass on, and their followers settle down become staid denominationalists, convinced that they alone know the true nature of things, recounting forever the glories of their past successes and wondering when God is going to restore them to their rightful place of true leadership. 

The problem isn’t with God, it’s with the church. God is simply bigger than we imagine.  God works in all believers, not stirring every heart or mind to the same action, but encouraging us all to follow in the light He gives us. We do not see the totality of the heart and passion of God, because no human brain can possibly comprehend it.  God does not entrust the whole of the Kingdom to any one pastor, movement, or denomination.

This has an important, practical ramifications for we who are church leaders. We few should not insist that we all act alike or think alike, not even in our individual churches. We need each other in ways we don’t yet understand.  Forward thinking innovators need backward thinking traditionalists to try our patience and our ideas. Cerebral intellectuals need emotional free spirits.  Contemplatives need activists.  Big churches need the small churches and vise versa.   None of us are right all the time, and so we need our polar opposites to constantly test us.

The church is often compared to an army, marching to accomplish our version of God’s vision. Maybe we should see it more as an aquarium, where fish have no idea why they are there but must depend upon God to feed us and keep us clean. We need to keep humble about our own vision, while realizing that God’s vision is much larger than our own.

We are part of God’s garden, but we aren’t the whole Garden.  We have to know Christ and understand His will, but not all of it.  To serve Him in humility, and to let others do the same, is the best way we can help accomplish His purpose on earth. 

More about the garden later.