Living Systems and The Church

August 15, 2007 | Filed Under books, church, dmin project, missional |

old-church-building.jpgLately I have been involved in several conversations concerning the lack of interest or desire for change in the local church. Others have noted that their church has become too comfortable. Further, in the midst of this complacency they have noticed that the church has begun to decline in effectiveness towards connecting with those outside the church as well as disciplining those within the body.

Last night I was revisiting some thoughts from “The Forgotten Ways.” In chapter eight Hirsch quotes from “Surfing the Edge of Chaos” by Richard Pascale and “Unfreezing Moves” by William Easum in the midst of a discussion on learning from systems theory for the health of living organizations. Living systems theory says that:

Equilibrium is a precursor to death. “When a living system is in a state of equilibrium, it is less responsive to changes occurring around it. This places it at maximum risk.” (Pascale) This correlates to the situation in the organizational lifecycle when organizations tend to over regulate, lose dynamism, inhabit unresponsive structures, and degenerate in terms of output. In this state, they are in effect moving toward equilibrium. When the Christendom mode of church fails to respond to outside stimuli by disengaging from the liminal experience and becomes purely self-referential, then you can be sure it is on its way out.

In other words, it has lost its missional focus, which should drive it outside its own boundaries. In so many churches the mission of the church has actually become the maintenance of the institution itself. This was never Jesus’ intention. Our goal in organizing as a people is not to set up, preserve, and maximize an institution over its life cycle, but to extend God’s mission to the world. Our primary aim is not to perpetuate the church as an institution, but to follow Jesus into his mission in the world. “Christianity is concerned with the unfolding of the Kingdom of God in this world, not the longevity of organizations.” (Easum)

When we keep the mission in mind, the organic ideas about Christianity and church life will flow quite easily. When we have the institution of the church in mind, machine-like approaches are bound to follow, because its innate mechanism of responsiveness (mission) is effectively taken out of the equation. Mission is, and must be, the organizing principle of the church.

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2 comments so far
  1. Ted M. Gossard August 19, 2007 9:11 am

    I am amazed at some folks I know that are connected with some conservative evangelical or fundamentalist circles who insist based on their reading of Scripture, particularly Paul’s letters, that the church exists primarily for itself, the giftings being only for the Body.

    Of course they want more to be added to the Body. But they evidently fail to see that Christ’s Body is in mission in Christ in this world. This thinking is often contributed towards, I think by a throw back dispensational theology.

    At the same time it’s so easy, just kind of natural in a bad way to drift into this state of just maintaining, rather than moving together in the dynamic of God’s Spirit in mission in Christ.

  2. Brad Brisco August 19, 2007 11:54 am

    Ted, so very true. It is ironic that churches say they desire to grow and want “new families” (I heard that today where I filled in) but at the same time it really is all about them. I hope in some circles there is a bit of a new awareness of the sending nature of the church. I have to hope or I will go crazy.