For anyone who is looking for the real, authentic, first-century church:
We both became Christians via the same denomination and became dissatisfied because that group did not follow the Scriptures as a whole, although--like so many others--they claimed they did.
Since baptism, both of us actively sought to meet with a group of people likewise devoted to the Bible and to working together in the cause of Christ. Until recently, we became increasingly frustrated with "institutional church."
We learned of and began reading Frank Viola's books "Reimagining Church" and "Pagan Christianity" in early 2009. Nicole connected to Mr. Viola on Facebook and learned of a conference in Orlando, Florida for the eastern half of the U.S. on the subject of what Mr. Viola calls "organic Christianity," because it flows naturally from our experience of the Trinity's indwelling us.
We attended this conference on July 16-19, 2009 and learned a great deal. We are currently working with some others in the Chicago area to develop an organic church in our immediate areas. This means looking at our spiritual lives completely differently than "mainstream" Christianity. We are all parts of a corporate body, the body of Christ, and we can no more disconnect one part from the other than we can slice off parts of our physical bodies.
We are barely beginning to understand the concept of organic church ourselves. If you would like to learn more, there is much about this issue on Frank Viola's own blog, http://frankviola.wordpress.com. If you live in the Chicago area, please let us know whether and when you would like to get together.
Your fellow servants,
John and Nicole
