A great book we have been reading and sharing thoughts about here in the office is the Starfish and the Spider- the Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations (Brafman & Beckstrom 2006). It’s humorously and insightfully written and chock full of application for church planting.
One essential element of a decentralized organization cited is the Catalyst, someone who creates or capitalizes on relational networks and gets them excited about an idea. A Catalyst creates these networks around an ideology (vision?) and set things in motion. They rarely get the credit for their work. They step out of the way and don’t seek control.
The authors use the example of the English Abolitionists who tapped into the decentralized Quaker movement. Through the connections and relational networks of the Quakers, eventually slavery was abolished in the entire British Empire. William Wilberforce is generally given credit, but it was actually the man the preceded him who was the catalyst. Can’t remember his name, but that just goes to show you what a great catalyst he was.
My thoughts jumped to the Apostle Paul, who traveled to various towns and tapped into existing relational networks, the synagogues, to set in motion this new ‘Way’. From that network a church was born and gentile believers were added. He moved on and left champions behind to further the work of the churches.
What ready-made networks exist in our communities that we could be tapping into?
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