The Starfish and the Spirit

The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence—it is to act with yesterday’s logic. —often attributed to Peter Drucker

Hard work is to be expected, but the busyness of church seems to have supplanted the business of church, and there’s an increasing reliance on human power in lieu of heavenly power.

Most churches and faith groups, large or small, already have the inherent competency and capacity to flourish. What is needed is an understanding of how to unleash the latent wisdom, understanding, talents, and joy that will fuel their tasks and journey.

I have always loved the term chaordic to describe authentic movemental ways of organizing. As the word suggests, every organization needs enough order (structure) to provide stability and continuity and needs to engage enough chaos to remain creative. Too much order, the organization dies. Too much chaos, the organization dies. Chaordic is where the balance between order and chaos is struck.

everyone gets in line and follow the same instructions: “Go to church, volunteer, go to a small group, give a tithe, invite a friend, rinse, and repeat.”

the multisite spectrum introduced in the book MultiChurch by Brad House and Gregg Allison. There are seven models along their spectrum: Pillar: one church with a single service Gallery: one church expanded to multiple services or venues Franchise: one church cloned to multiple sites Federation: one church contextualized in multiple locations Cooperative: one church made up of multiple interdependent churches Collective: a collection of churches collaborating as one church Network: individual churches joining together for a common goal and support

margins. As Darin Land states in The Diffusion of Ecclesiastical Authority, the leaders in the book of Acts were “consistently sharing their authority with others, these leaders allowed the diffusion of authority to new individuals rather than the concentration of authority in the hands of the few. . . . They were able to do this because their authority was based on deference and mutual honor, not only on legal rights. Thus, the diffusion of ecclesiastical authority resulted in a net increase of authority, which in turn propelled the growth of the church.”

What is gospel saturation? It is the church owning the lostness of an identified people in a defined place, ensuring that every man, woman, and child has repeated opportunities to see, hear, and experience the gospel in community and then to respond to the good news of Jesus Christ.1

In A Grief Observed, C. S. Lewis noted that “images of the Holy easily become holy images—sacrosanct. My idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it Himself.

In the Bible, shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight—a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed, a state of affairs that inspires joyful wonder as its Creator and Savior opens doors and welcomes the creatures in whom he delights. Shalom, in other words, is the way things ought to be.

First, we must begin by engaging a missional form of imagination. Missional imagination is the blending of courage and creativity. It is more than getting swept up in a daydream; it is allowing the Divine to show you what could be. Missional imagination is sitting down with all your limitations and brokenness yet letting a seed of faith push up a dandelion through a crack in the concrete of your current paradigms. It creates something fresh within you as a response to the Lord’s invitation to us: “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isa. 43:19).

Communion, for example, has been extracted from the context of a feast with an extended spiritual family in a home and turned into paper-thin, tasteless wafers and a thimble-size cup of grape juice distributed by an ecclesiastical professional.

Shared doctrine and practices: helped each other in terms of orthodoxy and orthopraxy (Acts 8:14–25; Gal. 3). Shared leadership: relocated leaders to strengthen other situations (Acts 11:19–23, 25–26; 12:25; 16:1–3); sent individuals and teams on strengthening visits (Acts 11:27; 19:21–22; 1 Cor. 4:15–17; Phil. 2:19–29; 2 Tim. 1:18). Shared resources: sent money to help each other and bless the wider society (Acts 11:28–30). Shared work: helped advance the gospel together and made new disciples; new churches emerged (Rom. 15:24; 2 Cor. 10:15–16).

Petrine apostles remove barriers to authentic ecclesia, in effect mobilizing the church to fulfill its mission and calling in the world.

Now Jesus feeds four thousand gentiles, whereas Jesus previously fed five thousand Jews. How many baskets were left over after the feeding of the five thousand? Twelve. How many tribes where in Israel? Twelve. But when he feeds the four thousand, how many baskets are left over? Seven. Why that number? We find a clue in Deuteronomy 7: When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you. (Deut. 7:1) Seven nations are listed in the conquest target list. Jesus takes the old “destroy the Canaanites” story and turns it on its head. He takes the “no mercy” policy and instead shows mercy to a Canaanite woman. Seven nations are to be destroyed; Jesus leaves seven baskets to feed them. Instead of heading out with swords and spears, we are to head out with bread and fish to serve and heal.

Most church leaders have been obsessed with counting. What is needed is measuring. Counting gives attention to numbers. When counting, the question to be answered is “How many?” Conversations about “How many?” are most frequently conversations about resources. Conversations about resources, in a time of limited resources, are commonly conversations about scarcity—“Do we have enough?” or “How can we get more?” Measuring gives attention to change. When measuring, the question is not “How many?” but rather “How far?” Conversations about “How far?” are frequently about change that can be measured over time, as in “How far have we come, over the past year, toward our goal?”

While the Old Testament term for repentance is teshuvah, the primary New Testament term for it is metanoia, which literally means “above/beyond mind.”* This is best translated as a paradigm shift or simply “having your mind blown”! While the Hebrew terminology emphasizes shift in direction, the Greek term emphasizes a necessary radical shift in our thinking. Both are necessary for complete repentance to take place.

In his letter to the church at Philippi, the apostle Paul speaks of his companions as fellow workers (Phil. 4:3). The word is also translated as “yokefellow,” a term that expresses collegiality, camaraderie, and partnership. Yokefellow harkens to the tool used to join two oxen in unison. A yoke is a simple mechanism made from a pole with two side-by-side U-shaped devices that fit over the necks of the oxen. The word in Greek means “to pull together in harness.”

Delegation is a leadership development process, not a product. The goal is to replace yourself and to develop others to their maximum influence while maintaining clarity and increasing authority along the way.

Level 1: Do exactly what I have asked you to do. Don’t deviate from my instructions. I have already researched the options and determined what I want you to do. Level 2: Research the topic and report back. We will discuss it, and then I will make the decision and tell you what I want you to do. Level 3: Research the topic, outline the options, and make a recommendation. Give me the pros and cons of each option, but tell me what you think we should do. If I agree with your decision, I will authorize you to move forward. Level 4: Make a decision and then tell me what you did. I trust you to do the research, make the best decision you can, and then keep me in the loop. I don’t want to be surprised. Level 5: Make whatever decision you think is best. No need to report back. I trust you completely. I know you will follow through. You have my full support.*

When an organization has (1) clarity and covenantal commitment at the level of purpose and (2) an agreed-upon set of principles (practices) by which all operate, then leadership can dispense with coercive command-and-control type management. This is because people will know how to behave in accordance with the purpose and principle, and they will do it in thousands of unimaginable and creative ways.

THE SEVEN PRACTICAL STEPS OF EQUIPPING 1. Discover—assess for the needed skill or resource 2. Practice—the skill 3. Debrief—the experience 4. Tweak—fine-tune the skill 5. Play—with the skill 6. Release—freely use the skill 7. Reproduce—equip someone else by walking with them through the seven steps.

Margaret Wheatley writes, “The tension of our times is that we want our organizations to behave as living systems, but we only know how to treat them as machines. It is time to change the way we think about organizations. Organizations are living systems. All living systems have the capacity to self-organize, to sustain themselves and move toward greater complexity and order as needed.”

Pragmatism is the hubris of the West, and too often it is the fundamental driver for church leaders: “Does it work?” Not everything that “works” is holy. All methodology in the church should flow from our theology.

Depending on the translation, at most the word leader is used only six times in the New Testament, while the word servant can be found over two hundred times. Let that sink in. How many leadership conferences have you been to? How many servantship conferences have you been to?

The kick-start question: What’s on your mind? The A.W.E. question: And what else? The focus question: What’s the real challenge here for you? The foundation question: What do you want? The lazy question: How can I help? The strategic question: If you’re saying yes to this, what are you saying no to? The learning question: What was most useful for you?

problems that makes an organization smart. It is the ability of its members to enter into a world whose significance they share. Everyone in the group has to feel that what is occurring is significant—even as they have different perspectives.”

It’s interesting that, given our penchant for titles like “reverend,” “pastor,” “doctor,” and the like, the New Testament knows nothing of using functions as titles. For instance, Paul never uses the term apostle as a title on a business card. It is always used as a function. So it is not “Apostle Paul” but “Paul, an apostle.” It is not “Elder John” but “John, an elder.” When leaders in the church use titles, they set up an inappropriate power differential among the people of God. The only one who gets the titles in the New Testament is the Lord Jesus Christ. All others (Peter, Paul, Mary, John) are known by their names. If your name is not good enough, a title will never help. Rather, it will only bolster insecurity and pride.

“People are used to having a boss. And they do have bosses in a self-managed environment. They are their own bosses. Beyond that, the mission of the company is their boss—it should guide all their actions on behalf of the company. And even beyond that—each and every commitment that they make and the colleagues to whom they make the commitment is their boss for that commitment.”

The contemporary church is in the habit of seeing the so-called Great Commission as an evangelistic mandate. But where do we see evangelism explicitly mentioned there? Rather, we are to read it quite plainly and simply as a disciple-making and missional mandate—pay attention once again to the language and emphasis: “Go . . . make disciples of all nations . . . baptizing . . . teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19–20). It’s all about sentness and disciple-making and obedience to the lordship of Jesus! Evangelism is implied in discipleship, not the other way around. It is time we changed our approach accordingly. Instead of seeing our mission as simply calling people to “make decisions” and come to church, we need to reframe evangelism in the context of discipleship.

The difference between mechanical and organic change is the difference between striving and yielding.

Jesus is speaking kingdom of heaven language. Often we hear others say something along the lines of, “We’ve got to expand the kingdom.” Or, “We are building the kingdom.” The sentiment is certainly well meaning, but it is also misleading. We don’t expand or build God’s kingdom. No place in the New Testament will you read of such an idea. But we do “receive” and “enter” the kingdom. That is language we hear Jesus use time and again.

The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:17–19 ESV) This is our first overview of the gospel, and it has more to do with life on earth than life in heaven. Jesus’ declaration has five distinct aspects. Any expression of the gospel that lacks one or more of these components is incomplete. 1. Jesus calls his gospel “good news to the poor.” It is good news for those suffering economic defeat. 2. He proclaims “liberty to the captives”—that is, freedom for those held captive to social and political systems and power structures. 3. He announces “recovering of sight to the blind.” Throughout his earthly ministry, we see Jesus restore vision both to the physically blind and the spiritually blind. 4. He is sent by the Father to set free the morally and spiritually bruised and oppressed. 5. He proclaims “the year of the Lord’s favor,” a reference to the Jewish custom of Jubilee, which means a new beginning for those who were enslaved and a restoring of inheritance for those who had lost what was once rightfully theirs.

Helping ordinary folks discover and then be deployed into their calling is an essential part of disciple-making.

Gifts show us what we can do; our passions show us where and with whom we should use our gifts.

Jesus’ life is the ultimate example of the habit-fueled life with a focus on the Spirit’s outcomes. In other words, Jesus engaged in certain practices, and he built the rhythms of his life around these practices. He engaged in solitude by seeking retreat in creation. He rose early to be alone with his Father in prayer to be reminded of his identity. He immersed his mind in the Scriptures to remember the story he alone could fulfill. He engaged in multiple levels of community on mission that provided the support and accountability he needed. He lived to bless others by listening to them, eating with them, serving them, and teaching them. Jesus practiced the habit of work and rest. Jesus’ practices became his habits that fueled the rhythms of his days, weeks, and years. If Jesus felt like he needed to lead a habit-fueled life and he was the Son of God, how about us?

Disciple-making is a team sport.

You can’t be a good missionary in multiple contexts because the incarnational impulse pushes us to go deep, not wide.

Character is becoming like Jesus: more love, more joy, more peace, more patience, more kindness, more goodness, more gentleness, and more self-control. Imagine that gap between who you are and who you want to be closing. Imagine how the quality of your relationships will go up.

Calling is about making the unique contribution that God designed you for.

Disciple: A person who is apprenticed to Jesus in the fully-alive life, experiencing habit-fueled, ongoing transformation in character and calling while moving deeper into community and multiplying disciples.

Brian Phipps, by the Spirit’s inspiration, came up with the following prayer request: “Lord, I’m slow, so please put a lightbulb over the right people’s heads.”

The Engel Scale can be represented like this: +5 Stewardship +4 Communion with God +3 Conceptual and behavioral growth +2 Incorporation into Body +1 Postdecision evaluation New birth -1 Repentance and faith in Christ -2 Decision to act -3 Personal problem recognition -4 Positive attitude toward gospel -5 Grasp implications of gospel -6 Awareness of fundamentals of gospel -7 Initial awareness of gospel -8 Awareness of supreme being, no knowledge of gospel

breathe and BLESS rhythms. Begin in Prayer Breathe in: listening prayer. Breathe out: missional prayer. Listen and Engage Breathe in: listen to the story of your neighbors in your network or neighborhood. Breathe out: engage relationship with them on their terms. Eat Breathe in: eat with your spiritual family. Breathe out: party with your network or neighborhood. Serve Breathe in: let a person of peace serve you. Breathe out: serve your network or neighborhood. Story Breathe in: speak the story of the good news to yourself. Breathe out: share the story of how Jesus has changed you and how the gospel changes everything.

Live as missionaries. We first identify a missional focus: To what people and place have I been sent? Each person needs to identify their primary mission context. Then we identify a person of peace (Luke 10) and live the BLESS rhythms. We have been blessed to be a blessing (Gen. 12). Begin in prayer. Learn the story of the people and places where you live, work, learn, or play. Eat with them. Serve them. Then ask, what would be a meaningful engagement with the gospel for those people?

The following is ascribed to philosopher Epictetus: “It is impossible to teach a man what he thinks he already knows.”

The complexity of systems requires that we engage everybody just so we can harvest the intelligence that exists throughout the organization. —Margaret Wheatley, Finding Our Way