"The Christian faith spread to the early generations of believers through viral movements. There was limited organization and structure in the pre-Constantine church, although the church fathers did have bishops over cities and regions. By the best estimates, there were 20,000 disciples of Christ at 100AD. By 300AD this number had exploded to 20 million. The Christian faith had been embraced by about one third of the Roman Empire when Constantine stopped the Diocletianic persecution and placed Christians under the umbrella of the state protection (control). How could this phenomenal growth happen without the infrastructure of church buildings, seminaries, and denominations to ensure that doctrinal positions were secured and tithing Christians in place to fund missional initiatives?
 

Movements That Move, as in the early church, movements, by definition, can be chaotic and disorganized, as they are driven along relational networks and not by highly orchestrated efforts led by command and control organizations. Over a half century ago, Dr. Donald McGavran's research, articulated in "The Bridges of God (1954) revealed that 'people movements' c ould have a holistic impact on communities, cultures and nations. Furthermore, they were not driven by the Western individualistic worldview, but rather by a community worldview in which 'men of peace' were key players. McGavran disrupted the dominant missionary strategy of the 19th and early 20th century, the 'mission station approach', with his insights into cultural highways that the Gospel could race along, thereby producing mass conversions to the Christian faith. It is interesting to note that during the decades that McGavran wrote his books and established the Fuller School of World Missions, Mao took over China and proclaimed that 'Christianity would eventually only be found in museums'. 

 

However, the Holy Spirit had different plans for China. The church in China exploded from 3 million Christians in 1949 to current estimates of between 80-120 million disciples of Chris. It is well known that this historical event has occurred without the institutional structures of Christendom. One might conclude from a comparison between the Chinese church of today and the early church, that the institutional model of doing Christianity is a hindrance, rather than a support to the fulfillment of Christ's clear mandate to the generations. In fact, the institutional model of doing church formulated in the fourth century spawned over a millennium of politicized infighting over position and power, the values that Jesus Christ said he came to remove from the religious scene of his day....