Rick Warren on Organizational Structure

Actually Rick's talking about "renewal", but points number 5 and 6, in fact all of them, relate to my recent piece on ISKCON Constitution.com

Here are Rick's points, via Dave Ferguson:

When God wants to renew a church, a country, a movement he always takes you through five moves:

1. PERSONAL RENEWAL
It is suddenly not about religion, but it's about a relationship. You realize that God is fond of you and you fall in love with Jesus.

2. RELATIONAL RENEWAL
After I end the war with God, I end the war with others. These first two renewals are all about loving God and loving others. There are two tell-tale signs of relational renewal: First, the singing gets better. Secondly, people hang around longer after church is over.

3. MISSIONAL RENEWAL
The church rediscovers that it has a cause and we get all the purposes of the church in alignment.

4. CULTURAL RENEWAL
You can not bring cultural renewal unless there is already personal, relational and missional renewal. Once that has happened then you are ready to bring cultural renewal in your church. The preaching will change the culture of your church more than anything else.

5. STRUCTURAL RENEWAL
There is no perfect structure for a church, that is why the Bible doesn't give us a structure.

6. INSTITUTIONAL RENEWAL
(This is an extra) Institutions are there to preserve the change of the previous generation. So this will be the last to change.
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A key harmony between Rick's points and my piece: Larger organizational structures arise from the interactions of individuals. Change starts with you.