Friday, May 19, 2006

Freedom - the best organizer

Few in the western world would argue with this principle on a political level.  In fact, many of us would die for it.  All over the world we have seen the demise of societies that are over organized, controlled and managed from a tight hierarchy.  Communism was a disaster and most socialist states are synonymous with lame productivity and limited freedoms.  True freedom allows those who desire to organize do so, and allows those who desire for something better to go ahead and build it.

So why do I mention this on a blog about spiritual movements?  Because I believe that the same principle applies to the church at large and it is high time we accessed this power.   In many ways the church at large operates like this (who is gonna stop you from starting something new? - no one!), but organizationally we are caught in an old modern form that, I believe, greatly limits our success.

There are many among us who would say that our problem is that we do not know what to do – and to a degree that may be true.  A better explanation is that we are not organized in a way that allows us to maximize what could be done.  We spend a ton of time managing structures, systems and people.  What if we didn't?  


2 comments:

Steve Van Diest said...

Preach it. I'm waiving my hands in the air and saying in a loud voice, "AMEN!" "FREEDOM!"

Matt Mikalatos said...

Hey Shane-- I'm interested to hear you expand on this. I don't disagree, but wonder how it fits in with the world's largest international (meaning that at least 30% of their adherents live outside of their "core country") denominations:

Catholic Church 1,100,000,000
Eastern Orthodox Church 225,000,000
Anglican Communion 76,000,000
Assemblies of God 50,000,000

Are these organizations that are more flexible and give more freedom than others? Is it that they are more adaptable cross-culturally?

I think you could argue that the orthodox and anglican churches would fall into the "freedom" category (orthodoxy tends to view this along primarily ethnic lines, but the anglican denomination is more of a loose affiliation than a vertical power structure). Catholics certainly aren't known for having a "loose" organization though, I don't think. Maybe they do.

Anyway, interested to hear a more detailed explanation of how freedom organizes, etc.