I just finished reading The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom. It’s a challenging book because it looks at the value of decentralized organizations. For churches, that’s essentially unchartered territory. Here are some of the highlights that challenged me:
- “It’s not that open systems necessarily make better decisions. It’s just that they’re able to respond more quickly because each member has access to knowledge and the ability to make direct use of it.”
- “Because the decentralized organization mutates so quickly, it can also grow incredibly quickly.”
- “Centralized organizations depend more on structure, and that tends to make them more rigid.”
- “Ideology is the glue that holds decentralized organizations together.”
- “A catalyst…is someone who every time they have a conversation with someone they’re actively thinking, How can I help this person? Who can I introduce this person to? I just want to help this person, I just want to make this person better.“
- “When confronted with an aggressive push, most people shut down and become even less likely to change.”
- “You don’t follow a catalyst because you have to–you follow a catalyst because he understands you.”
- “In a command-and-control environment, you can closely track what everyone is doing, but being watched and monitored makes employees less likely to take risks and innovate.”
- “Great ideas come from people who are closest to the ideas.”
- “The more the network grows, the more useful it becomes, and the more likely it is that customers will stay put.”
- “Each manager was empowered to make critical decisions while the executive team took on more of a catalyst role. The executive team primarily made suggestions about strategy and gently coaxed the division leaders.”
- The “sweet spot?” Create “enough decentralization for creativity, but sufficient structure and controls to ensure consistency.”
- “It’s important to realize that when the rules of the game suddenly change…it’s easy to be left behind. We’re used to having things operate in a certain way. We learn the rules and don’t anticipate radical change.”
- “Institute order and rigid structure, and while you may achieve standardization, you’ll also squelch creativity. Where creativity is valuable, learning to accept chaos is a must.”
- “Catalysts connect people and maintain the drumbeat of the ideology.”
I’m wondering if there’s a balance somewhere that allows us to acknowledge Truth, one God and ordained leaders while at the same time embracing the “priesthood of believers” and the power of a more decentralized model. Personally, I think the first church to get this right will become the largest church in the country. What might it look like:
- Leaders probably won’t be appointed, they’ll be identified.
- People won’t be assigned to teams and groups, they’ll gather and serve around existing relational connections.
- Churches or campuses won’t be planted, they’ll birth on their own when one person grabs the mission, vision and values of the church and that spawns a new community.
- Making disciples won’t be the church’s responsibility, it’ll be the believer’s responsibility.
What would happen if we stopped thinking in terms of growing a church and started thinking in terms of launching a movement? How would our structures and strategies change?
I was wondering if you’re get around to reading this. I loved it.
I agree with “I think the first church to get this right will become the largest church in the country” simply because the current hierarchical/orgchart models don’t scale. Too few people are making all the decisions (what an untenable calling!) instead of the leadership making the big ones and then giving freedom for everyone else to make the small ones.
We’re called and commanded to live and work under authority and willfully submit to it, but we’re also human and need to learn to let go more often, or the work we do will only grow as much as our individual capacity to manage it. And for me, that just ain’t much.
I love this book. I say: If churches are like spiders, then Off with their Heads!!
When you think about it, the Starfish regenerating itself is not unlike the Diaspora or church plants or multi-sites.
Your conclusions are strong. This is why we have given up on “assigning” people to small groups. If people have what it takes to start a group, then, guess what, they also have friends. The more organic we can get, the better the groups will be and the longer they will last. The only structure they really need is a coach in their corner and someone to recommend curriculum (at first). The fact of the matter is whether you over-structure or under-structure, the Holy Spirit is still doing His thing.
If you think about it, the Church has never had a single human leader. Of course, we have local pastors (can’t avoid that) and denominational leaders (which tend to lack relevance — I’m saying that nicely), but when you get down to it, we don’t have a Pope. The Church is lead by the Divine translated through flawed humanity. Whatever centralized, intrusive, bureaucratic structure we have HAS BEEN IMPOSED BY….US!! and more than likely stems from our own insecurity and lack of confidence in what God can do through His people.
Okay, I’m all fired up now. I might have to terminate an employee today just to decentralize more (just kidding).
P.S. We prayed for you guys on Opening Day in G’vegas. Welcome to town. May God prosper your work here.
An excellent…thought-provoking post. My mind will be racing all day with the the ideas you just proposed.
I think the church you just described is Mosaic in L.A.
“Personally, I think the first church to get this right will become the largest church in the country.”
1) Have you heard of China?
2) Have you read Acts?
This stuff is happening and has happened…
Q: “What would happen if we stopped thinking in terms of growing a church and started thinking in terms of launching a movement? How would our structures and strategies change?”
A: CHURCH PLANTING…New Thing Network (Dave Ferguson), Ron Sylvia (Next), Acts 29 (Mark Driscoll), Bob Roberts (Glocal), etc.
I love that you are wrestling with these concepts Tony. Alan Hirsch in The Forgotten Ways and Hugh Halter/Matt Smay in the Tangible Kingdom have written about more organic, decentralized church movements in their respective books. Not sure if you’ve read them. Good stuff.
Frankly, I’m with David- it’s biblical and still happening in places like China.
Catch vs Catch and Release – We’d transition from catching and consuming to catching and sending…the product would be an exponential explosion of new churches like the first century church. We are stuck in catching.
These ideas are interesting. I can see the power this could potentially hold, but I am such a very strong believer in the power of leadership. I do not believe that they are mutually exclusive. I think that if leaders do their jobs – train, inspire, delegate, and provide vision, instead of taking control of everything themselves (not the definition of leading) – you can receive the benefits of being united under a leader and of an organic, creative environment where people are empowered to make good decisions.
Our church doesn’t assign small groups either. We try to get people to bump into one another enough so that real community develops between them. It seems to be working.
I think you’re right about the church that embraces this becoming large very quickly…what you described is happening in the Horn of Africa with in the Church of the Nazarene…pastors starting 300+ churches a year…decentralized leadership…unified ideology…discipleship is not a program it’s a lifestyle for the believer.
Great book…awesome summary.
ok, let me jump in real quick…
i don’t think this is just about church planting or multi-site. that may be part of it, but i think it goes beyond that.
leadership is critical to this. but i think it’s a different type of leadership.
the books of acts is my favorite book in the Bible. i can’t explain it, but God uses it to speak to me in ways that get my heart and mind racing.
thanks for being a part of this conversation.
tony
yes, yes, this mode of thinking/being goes way deeper. I am in leadership in a church plant and–while we are doing well by all standards our sponsoring organizations use–we are for sure operating under a traditional structure model vs. a catalytic culture. So, it’s not the “what” we are doing as a church…it is the how…big/deep ideas brewing…all very good.
I have been wrestling with this for several years…Bill Easum and Tom Bandy have been promoting it as well…
But working this concept in the church is hard…it is hard at a leadership level…but even more so with multi-staff…
I have tried on several occasions only to get so far….
I have decided the only way this will work in my mind is if the senior pastor behaves, hires, and manages this way.
Just so you know…i am so stealing this blog post…giving you the credit of course…but it was really good.
one more thing…
I have learned that the problem with any movement…is that at some point and time it becomes an organization…if it doesn’t than it will not survive.
However, when it morphs into an organzation the movement changes
As a movement…it is fast…sleek…and crazy
As an organization…it becomes a church
perhaps someone else already made this comment (I must confess, I’m much too impatient…):
I thought the Church WAS supposed to be essentially a de-centralized organism (see Paul’s comments re: the body)
hey, just for the record, i totally disagree with the thought that churches should be leaderless. that, my friends, isn’t the biblical model.
the question, though, is how should leadership shift in order to be a catalyst for a movement?
carry on.
tony
I think for that kind of movement to happen it would take creating a system that builds those kinds of believers (which sounds an awful lot like centralized organization). This is the tension I am working through as a pastor right now… how do we do church in a way that truly equips people to do what it is they’ve been called/gifted to do without building endless programs to sustain that for them? How do we make it organic and relational, and keep it moving?
On the flipside…
While I want to see that happen I also believe the whole reason God ordained church leadership is because people don’t just naturally wind up where they are supposed to. If they did we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.
I have ideas from my personal experience with people on how to accomplish this, but the problem is reproducing that culture among a large group of people. It seems this type of organization/movement would start slowly but pay off in exponential growth.
I’ll let you know in a few years how it worked out.
Tony – A quick question that you might address. What sort of process do you go through after reading a new book to decide when, how or if you implement any new ideas that you have discovered? – jason
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