In Neil Cole’s “Organic Church” he quotes Dee Hock, founder of VISA, (thanks a lot Dee! – credit-crunched Ed) who states in his book The Birth of the Chaordic Age
Purpose and principle, clearly understood and articulated, and commonly shared, are the genetic code of any healthy organisation. To the degree that you hold purpose and principles in common among you, you can dispense with command and control. People will know how to behave in accordance with them, and they will do it in thousands of unimaginable, creative ways. The organisation will become a vital, living set of beliefs.
Cole is often asked the question about the organisation of his church planting movement which is in his words “a decentralised, rapidly expanding, spontaneous multiplication movement“. The concern? Too much organisation will kill it. Too little might just kill it too.
It’s a question I have been wrestling with as we establish our own fledgling group. Hock’s paragraph is certainly very attractive, and if it can happen in an organisation not governed by the Spirit of God then it surely can happen that way under the Kingship of Jesus. However my friend Matt Malcolm has asked me this perceptive question:
Given that what you’re doing is something quite fresh and ‘from scratch’, are you finding ways in which you can still draw on some of the good traditions that have developed over church history?
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