A brief little interlude with the chaos and church posts.  In my writing I came across this quote today by theologian Richard Neuhaus (who died earlier this year). It is worth considering because of the implied association of the Church with the Kingdom of God. 

Alfred Loisy the 19th century historian was right in saying that Jesus came proclaiming the Kingdom of God but what appeared was the Church.  The disappointment was and continues to be severe.  But the great irony is that today we alleviate our disappointment with the contemporary Church by pointing back to the New Testament Church --which was the great disappointment to begin with!  Our restless discontent should not be over the distance between ourselves and the first century Church but over the distance between ourselves and the Kingdom of God to which the Church then and now is the witness. - -- R.J. Neuhaus, Freedom for Ministry, 33.

It is remarkable to me that the theologically most fertile parts of the Bible are all, yes all, set in the context of the people of God facing significant danger and chaos.  This features strongly in the stuff I did on communitas, but whether it is an Abraham called to leave home and journey, or in the harrowing experiences Exodus and Exile.  Whether it is David’s adventures, Jeremiah’s struggles, Jesus’ ministry, or the book of Acts, none of these were stable situations. They were dynamic and even life-threatening.

But communitas, or at least the questing adventure that is contained therein, is not limited to the Bible or human situation; it is part of the very structure of life itself. The study of living systems teaches us that…

[N]ature is at its innovative best near the edge of chaos. The edge of chaos is a condition, not a location. It is a permeable, intermediate state through which order and disorder flow, not a finite line of demarcation. Moving to the edge of chaos creates upheaval but not dissolution; that's why being on the edge is so important. The edge is not the abyss. It's the sweet spot for productive change. And when productive agitation runs high, innovation often thrives and startling breakthroughs can come about.  This elusive, much sought after, sweet spot is sometimes called ‘a burning platform.’ The living sciences call it the edge of chaos.”

The role of leaders in the equation? Well, once again this goes back to Heifetz’s understanding about the nature of adaptive leadership.  Adaptive leadership moves the system to the edge of chaos, not over, but to the edge of it. As was said before, the leader’s role is to ensure that the system is directly facing up to the issues that confront it.  Issues that if left unattended, will eventually destroy it   Because if people in the organization never seriously face the problem, and stay with it for a reasonable time, they will never feel the need to move to find a genuine and more lasting solution—hence the idea of a burning platform.  We teach the Forge interns this simple formula.  It is the role of transformative leadership to ‘sell the problem before you try evoking a solution’ because it is this being at this ‘edge of chaos’ where real innovation takes place.

When I reflect back to the early days of SMRC and I can see all the signs of livings systems as proposed here.  It was chaotic, fluid, dynamic, and highly missional. And in my time there the church went through at least three adaptive leaps as described in the first chapter. The point is, that we were at our very best when we were on the fringes.  It is when we settled down, and moved away from the edge of chaos, that things went awry.

By and large churches are very conservative organizations and after they have been around just a few years can quickly become institutional, largely because of the Christendom mode and assumptions underlying it, but largely because the leadership style and influence.  On the whole churches seek to conserve the past, and particularly in the historical denominations (e.g. Anglicanism and Presbyterianism) their primary orientation is often backward to an idealized past rather than forward to a new vision of the future. As such they are classic, often inflexible, institutions that enshrine and inherited tradition.  Hence, the historical churches are leading the decline of the Church in the West.  For instance, in some areas, the Uniting Church of Australia is losing members at 20% exponentially per annum!  This would be similar for many liberal mainline denominations, and is due almost entirely to the fact that they are closed systems built squarely on institutional systems story with a liberal theological base—a classic sign of institutionalism (see the chapter on Organic Systems.).

Theological liberalism is an indicator of institutional decline not only because it tries to minimize the necessary tension between Gospel and culture by eliminating the culturally offending bits, but because it is basically a parasitical ideology.  I don’t mean this to be offensive to my liberal bothers and sisters but merely to point out that theological liberalism rarely creates new forms of church or extends Christianity in any significant way: but rather exists and ‘feeds off’ what the more orthodox missional movements started in the first place.  Theological liberalism always comes later in the history of a movement and it is normally associated with its decline. It is therefore a highly institutional manifestation of Christendom.  As such it is deadly to apostolic forms of missional movement.  But most established denominations, including the more Evangelical ones, are also built squarely on Christendom assumptions of church and therefore, like all institutions are facing significant threat and need to be led to the edge of chaos because it is there, by living in the tension that it brings, they will find more authentic and missional ways of being God’s people.  So leaders, turn the heat up, but manage it.

After previously exploring the nature of operational v. adaptive leadership, I am going to track some of the principles of living systems theory.  I love the format of the guys in Surfing the Edge of Chaos and will adapt their framework here.  There are four,  equilibrium is death,  surfing the edge of chaos, self-organization and emergence, disurbing complexity.

Principle #1. Equilibrium is Death
Most churches start out of dynamic and exciting adventures in evangelism and church planting and at the end of their organizational life cycle they are usually miserable, static, institutions.  And it appears that an essential part of the process is the movement from the early, more unstable, disequilibrium to that of a stable environment of equilibrium. The early days of most churches or parachurches experienced as unpredictable and wild but at the same time seem to be filled with a kind of spiritual energy. Why is this the case? What is it about disequilibrium that seems to stimulate life and energy? And what is it about stability that seems to stifle it?  (Remember the story of SMRC.) Is it because life itself is unpredictable and chaotic and that when we establish organizations that seek to control and minimize the dangers of life, these organizations in the end stifle it? The history of missions is quite clear about this: that Christianity is at its very best when it is on the more chaotic fringes.  It is when church settles down, and moves away from the edge of chaos, that things go awry.

The assertion that "equilibrium is death" is a derivative of an obscure but important law of cybernetics called the Law of Requisite Variety.  This law states “…that the survival of any organism depends on its capacity to cultivate (not just tolerate) variety in its internal structure. Failure to do so results in an inability to cope successfully with "variety" when it is introduced from an external source.”  The authors give us a great example as to how this law works in reality. They note that…
[F]ish in a bowl can swim, breed, get food with minimal effort, and remain safe from predators. But, as aquarium owners know, such fish are excruciatingly sensitive to even the slightest disturbances in the fishbowl. On the other hand, fish in the sea have to work much harder to sustain themselves and they are subjected to many threats. But because they cope with more variation, they are more robust when faced with a challenge. 
But we know from nature that “survival favors heightened adrenaline levels, wariness, and experimentation”.   Or we can recognize the same sentiment in the more popular phrase, ‘history favors the brave.’

So what is the role of leadership in all this? “Leaders are to a social system what a properly shaped lens is to light.”  They serve to focus the capacities of the organization and do this for better or worse. If adaptive intention and capacity is required, the organization must be disturbed in an intense and extended fashion if leaders are to break the stifling equilibrium that has overwhelmed it. But this is not achieved quickly, nor without significant wisdom as to human motivations and as to how human communities are activated in a new search for answers. Adaptive leaders must resist the urge to move too quickly or reach for quick fixes or packaged solutions. Rather they must activate a corporate search from deep within the ranks of the organization in order to help plot a way forward. This adaptive activation is achieved by

1. “communicating the urgency of the adaptive challenge (i.e., the threat of death or the promise of opportunity),
2.  stablishing a broad understanding of the circumstances creating the problem, to clarify why traditional solutions won't work, and
3. holding the stress in play until ‘guerrilla’ leaders come forward with innovative solutions.” 

This sequence of activities will obviously generate significant anxiety and tension in the organization but we had better get used to it because if we are going to adapt to the rapidly changing environment of the 21st century.  One of the skills of adaptive church leadership will be to learn to manage the stress and make it a stimulus for innovation in church and mission.  The Christian church ought to be highly responsive to its missional contexts.  I call this missional fitness . And it is in the constant pursuit of this fitness, or innate adaptability, that mission must become be the organizing principle of church.  When we are truly missional, the whole church becomes highly sensitive to its environment and also has a natural, inbuilt, and theologically funded, mechanism for triggering adaptive responses.  A genuine missional church is therefore a genuine learning organization. It was by being missionally fit that the church in the apostolic and post apostolic periods (and in China) not only survived but thrived.  They were forced by sheer external conditions to live by their message and adapt to threats as they came along.  This made them a far more vigorous Christians than their more stable brothers and sisters in more static periods.  They did not live in an artificial environment of a churchy fish bowl, but were the ecclesia in all the dangerous spheres of life. And, just like our own immune system, what didn’t kill them served to make them stronger.

Brian McLaren, a key voice for what is called the Emerging Church in the US, recommends that the churches actually adopt a core value of valuing adaptability itself.  He says “Change your church’s attitude towards change and everything else will change as it should.”  Tom Peters in his book, Thriving on Chaos, insists that this is an indispensable element of successful enterprise in a chaos situation. He has a useful model for developing the ‘love of change’ at every level of business practice.  In this book however, this is called missional fitness—the ability to embed in the church’s working philosophy a willingness to be highly agile and missionally responsive.

For those interested in Simple-Organic Church approaches

About the Conference:

Just giving some the heads up on the CMA conference happening in Minnesota in June.  There will be multiple tracks of workshops on aspects regarding simple, organic and missional church expressions. Topics like: Organic Leadership, Simple Church Basics, APEST Gift Assessments, Taste of Greenhouse, LK10 Principles, Missional Lifestyles, and many others.

The facilitators will be Neil Cole (cmaresources.org), Tony and Felicity Dale (house2house.com, simplechurch.com), John White (LK10.com), Ed Waken (blog), APEST/LVC Consultants, Katie Driver, Brian Williamson (3Dministries.org) and the guys from APEST.org

Click here for full conference brochure (PDF)

Dates:

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 from 7-9pm
Thursday, June 18 from 7-9pm
Friday & Saturday, June 19-20 all day!

Click here for full conference schedule (PDF)

Hosted By:

Bethany College of Missions
6820 Auto Club Road
Bloomington, MN 55438

Registration:

Online at http://www.cmaresources.org/greenhouse/living-the-mission-conference

Last minute registration will be available at the door.  Cash and credit accepted.

Here is a review of the book Business as Mission: The Power of Business in the Kingdom of God.  [HT to David Mays for the review.]  Mike Baer served in pastoral ministry for 15 years before moving to the field of business where he has founded several businesses, including a for-profit business advisory and strategic consulting firm that is his current company.  In addition he is executive director of an international mission organization specializing in microenterprise business development operating in more than 17 countries.
 
Mike has an unusual combination of ministry and business skills that he has employed in both his own culture and other cultures.  The book is a basic theology and rationale for business as mission.  While he cites a number of cross-cultural examples, the book includes little about the special challenges of doing business or ministry in another culture.
 
A kingdom business or kingdom company means "a business that is specifically, consciously, clearly, and intentionally connected to the establishment of Christ's kingdom in this world.  In other words, it is directly involved in making disciples of all nations--beginning at home but with international involvement too." (14)
 
Four characteristics of a kingdom business provide the outline for the book.
•                 vocational - a high and holy calling
•                 intentional - a discovered and executed purpose
•                 relational - a valued set of vital relationships, and
•                 operational - a demand for operational excellence.
 
God has a kingdom purpose for your business.  Do you know what it is? (19)
 
"Whether they know we are Christians or not, people are touched by us in the context of relationship.  And through a vast number of touches, they are influenced toward God or away from him.  Therefore, a kingdom business places great emphasis on how it relates to people and is constantly taking stock of relationships--measuring them by Scripture." (20-1)
 
We begin all training with a one-day session on studying the biblical legitimacy of business.  (27)
 
We have come to think that ministry is sacred but ordinary life is secular, the "sacred-secular dichotomy."  But we must escape this prison and enter the freedom of life in Christ's kingdom.  "All of life is sacred for the Christian, and the realization of that truth sets us free to serve God in all aspects of our existence." (37)  "What were you made for?  The answer is your calling." (38)  "The call of God is an authoritative, divine invitation with a purpose." (39)
 
The purpose of business is commonly thought to be profit or customers.  "According to Scripture, there is a purpose that is beyond profit and beyond customers.  There is a kingdom purpose…." (46)
 
"If God's purposes give meaning to life, the obvious and most pressing quest of your life should be to discover his purpose for you.  Why did he make you?"  "Do you know what God's kingdom purpose is for your business?"  (50)  Discovering and implementing this purpose is the mark of a true disciple. (50)
 
"The knowledge of the will of God is given to those willing and ready to do it.  There is a sequence: submission, then revelation; surrender, then clarity.  You don't get to see first and then decide. (52)
 
God has one overarching purpose from the beginning, "to fill the earth with people who know and honor him." (58)  The command in Matthew 28:19-20 is essentially the same as the mandate give to Adam, "populate the earth with God's worshipers."  "Indeed, the Scriptures, rightly read, are totally consistent on this point.  This is God's purpose--his kingdom purpose." (59)
 
According to Acts 1:8, the disciples were to "begin 'repopulating the earth' with worshipers where they were and from there to gradually move out in every-expanding circles of influence.  The same is true for us--not necessarily geographically but practically."  "We should grasp the principle of starting where we are and moving farther and deeper into connection with God's cosmic purpose."  "The idea of kingdom impact begins with the question, 'What can I do for Christ's kingdom with what is immediately at hand?' and moves over time and maturity to the larger question, 'What can I do for Christ's kingdom in the world?' and ultimately to 'What can I do for Christ's kingdom among those who are unreached?'" (60)
 
"God is a God of relationship, and he has ordered his creation in such a way that above all things, relationships are of primary value and concern." (71)  "The influence of the gospel does not come through organizations but comes through human interaction, through a people-to-people process." (73)
 
"One of the most exciting aspects of business leadership…is the amazing wealth of relationship…that corporate interaction provides." (75)
 
We can think of people in terms of a continuum from pre-kingdom to the final manifestation of the kingdom in its fullness.  Our activities may thus be categorized as
•      Pre-kingdom activities (establishing and developing relationships)
•      Kingdom announcements (direct communication of the gospel, or evangelism)
•      Kingdom orientation (immediate follow-up activities with new Christians)
•      Kingdom realization and application (activities and disciplines leading to maturity)
•      Kingdom manifestation (the activity of Christ to fully reveal his kingdom to the world in all of its glory) (78)
 
"Business is not charity; it is a means of provision through labor."  "But the concept of provision is greater than just paying wages.  It casts business owners in the role of stewards who are responsible for those placed in their care.  Our employees are our responsibility under God, and as servant leaders, we should constantly be thinking of how we can care for them and for their needs." (Note Boaz and Ruth) (99)
 
"The development of employees, if undertaken in a caring and prayerful way, can be a prime fulfillment of Jesus' command to disciple the nations (see Matt. 28:19).  This is one of the major purposes of a kingdom business." (103)
 
How can one become a servant leader?  "I suggest the following questions as a means of self-examination.  What is the attitude of my heart toward others? How do I think and feel about those I lead? What are my motivations in working as hard as I do or in demanding high levels of performance in others? What am I trying to achieve? What will I gain from all of this? Are others more important to me than I am to myself? Am I expecting others to work while I play? How do I keep score--through income and possessions or through impact on others?" (112)
 
"When a new leader comes into an organization, there are three questions the people ask. 'Does she know what she's doing? Can I trust her? Does she care about me as a person?'" (114)
 
"It matters how we run our businesses."  "Our business affairs reflect our heart attitude toward God--and he cares." (120)
 
"Ethics is nothing more complicated than knowing the difference between what is right and what is wrong and then acting accordingly.  Ethics is about truth and falsehood. Ethics is about justice and injustice.  Ethics is about what is proper and improper.  Ethics is about making decisions.  Ethics is, as politically incorrect as this may be, morality." (129)
 
Phases of integration of faith and business:

• Separation - No connection.  Faith and ministry in the church.  Business provides a living.
• Invasion - Attempting to bring the light of Christ into the darkness of business.  A forced kind of witness.
• Overlay - Add Christian terms, hire chaplains, provide generously for workers, and do good things to provide an attractive surface to a worldly business.
• Seamless integration - Integrity, oneness.  "Every aspect of their lives--home, church, leisure, and business--is under the rule of God."  "Life is a whole and is holistically submitted to God's authority."  "All is sacred.  All is ministry." (142)

This one is more of a interactive learning event.

Sorry all for not posting.  I have been on the road.  In Canada actually.  With various agencies...Forge Canada (which is taking off like a rocket), Christian & Missionary Alliance in Alberta (a great grup of folk who want to put the M (missionary) back into C&MA) and the Apostolic Church of Canada (touching base with my ole Pentecostal roots--which I love). 

I keep having the impression from wherever I go that God's people are about to explode in a wonderful, missional, way.  I find myself very excited and optimistic about the potential futures that are being hammered out all over North America.  This is no triumphalism here, there is much work to be done, but I think we should be thankful to God....Aslan is on the move again!

By taking a permanent hold of the waiting disciples as he had taken hold of Jesus, the Holy Spirit effected a kind of extension of the incarnation bringing them into everything that could be available to them in Christ -- J.V.Taylor

I have been reading Guder's marvellous little book, The Incarnation and the Church's Witness.  A must read.  Shame on me for not reading it before.  Here are some insights.

This focus upon the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Word become flesh, as a way of talking about and understanding mission addresses at least two major and interrelated concerns in the contemporary debate about mission. It responds, first, to the widespread critique of the modern missionary movement which addresses the way that mission has often been done. Many of the missionary methods and strategies have contradicted both the teaching and actions of Jesus as he trained his disciples to continue his ministry. The message may have been the gospel, but the way the message was made known was often not congruent with the gospel. The attempt to interpret mission in terms of the incarnation of Jesus suggests that the earlier European mission strategies should be replaced by a theology and praxis of mission rooted in and defined by the life and ministry of Jesus.

Second, by focusing on the incarnation as testified to in Scripture, this approach suggests a Biblical basis of a mission that addresses its motivation, its content, and its method in direct relationship to the life and ministry of Jesus. The why, what, and how of Christian witness of being explored exegetical in ways that most pioneers of Western mission would not have considered. ...   we find ourselves now able to cut through the centuries of European interpretation and cultural adaptation of the Gospels. We know more about how the early church functioned, and that knowledge is helping us rediscover the character of early Christian mission. Much of what results from the study can be drawn together in the concept of incarnational mission”.

By incarnational mission I mean the understanding and practice of Christian witness that is rooted in and shaped by the life, Ministry, suffering death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Darrel Guder,   The Incarnation  and the Church’s Witness,  (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 1999)  page xii