93. Competition...Good or Bad?

Competition has a always been a two edged sword to me. I am a very competitive person and I love a good challenge. Especially if it falls within the areas of my skill sets or expertise. I have been reading a cool book called Flow: The psychology of optimal experience and it has a really cool section about competition that I dont think I have ever heard any one explain the way he does. Competition can be a cut throat activity where winning is the only goal. This kind of competition borders on being only about us, what people think about us, or more importantly, what we end up deducing about ourselves if we either win or lose. Competition will always put us into the orbit of the "self", but the self is not the enemy. It is how the self interfaces with others, or with the environment, or even how the self interacts with the self.

We have all played games with people who were so intent on winning that the game was not any fun at all. Their competitive spirit sucked out any joy, or personal satisfaction that the game was designed to facilitate, and it became an intensely personal agenda, saturated in ego and insecurity. The outcome of the game merged with their own sense of personal identity, and on a micro level, their own personal destiny. They saw the results of the competition as a commentary on their own person, their own value and competence.

Mihaly makes a really cool observation about competition and how it can contribute or detract from our sense of enjoyment.

"In many ways, competition is a quick way of developing complexity: "He who wrestles with us", wrote Edmund Burke, "strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper." The challenges of competition can be stimulating and enjoyable. But when beating the opponent takes precedence in the mind over performing as well as possible, enjoyment tends to disappear. Competition is enjoyable only when it is a means to perfect one's skills; when it becomes an end in itself, it ceases to be fun."

There are many applications to the wisdom poured out here from Mihaly, but since I am thinking about apostolic leadership now a days, I will allow this piece throw a new shade of light into that area.

Apostles typically have dominant personalities. They have a strong sense of drive and adventure, and thrive in the midst of a challenge. Apostles are definitely prone to competition. Paul is real clear in II Corinthians 10 that he is not into competition, comparing himself with other apostles and their ministries and credentials. My college basketball coach would often tell us when we were competing against a team that all of knew were better than us "We are not competing against this team. We are competing against the game of basketball. Our goal to night is to be the best basketball players we can be" When he said this, it always took the pressure off of us and allowed us to focus on the skill of playing basketball, not the other team.

Apostolic ministry finds its metrics in the gospel, in the cross and resurrection. We are not in competition with other apostles, their ministries and their success and influence. Apostles are called by God, which means they answer to God, and not the standards of some one elses ministry. Competition implies an opponent, and our opponent is the great enemy and the powers of the present evil age. (Galatians 1:4) There is a definite skill set to be learned and perfected in apostolic ministry, but we are not competing in a tournament against other apostles. While there will always be false apostles, apostles are on the same team, though they occupy different locations on the field, different territories as Paul would say in II Cor 10. Apostolic ministry has its ups and downs, but these should arise from two kingdoms colliding, not from a misplaced focus of competition.

92. NT Wright on Social Media from Kennon

This continues my reflections on social media. As always, NT Wright is highly reflective on issues and how they relate to relationships and spirituality.

NT Wright on Blogging/Social Media from Bill Kinnon on Vimeo.

91. Social Media Venn Diagram

I must say, this is quite creative, and yet so painfully true. Social media can easily be the next addiction on the horizon. Who knows how or when we will be able to measure what these social media tools have done to alter the way we humans interact.

You can get a t-shirt of it right here.

90. The Two Structures of God's Redemptive Mission by Winter

This article by Winter was a ground breaking article, especially seeing it was written in 1973! It is a good read and is a major step forward in legitimizing the apostolic function in relation to the localized forms of organization that often characterize the church when it is led primarily by ST's.

89.James Choung 4 Circles

I kind of like this presentation from James Choung. It hits a few of the models of atonement, but leaves out the penal-substitution model, which I am not too excited about these days actually :) I think we need to explore and emphasize other models of the atonement, and dive deeper into Christus Victor for example. Can you tell me what model of atonement this guy is alluding to with his presentation? If no, then you probably are only familiar with the penal-substitution model.

89. Introducing Jesus

88. Template of a Missional Community from Mark 2

Spent a good bit of time meditating on Mark 2 this past month. This is what I came up with.

Four people: Missional communities can be large or small, but they function well in small bands of people. The power of small.

Paralytic: People are unable to make it to Jesus on their own. It takes a community effort, which is contrary to the hero myth of evangelism that it is a one person show. When a small community is involved, it diffuses the needs of the person among the group, lightening the load that would typically fall on one person. "Paralyzed" people are people with strongholds, they are high maintenance. This means one person is not dynamic enough to transport them to Jesus. They need multiple connections for the journey. 

They Uncovered the Roof: Innovation and creativity. They say that necessity is the mother of invention. These four friends created an innovative strategy to get their friend to Jesus. It did not include the crowd or the conventional entrance. They bypassed all of this. They were unconventional, yet highly successful. 

When they had broken through: Innovative strategies take time. Digging through a roof was no easy task, but they were determined to see their friend come to Jesus. In time, a breakthrough will happen.

They let down the bed: Working with "paralyzed" people sets you up for co-dependent relationships. They were willing to let go of their friend once he made it to Jesus. Their role was to get him to the healer. They stayed on the roof, a healthy distance, while Jesus did his work.

Arise, Take up your bed: If you have been paralyzed, the last thing you want to do is carry your mat around. It is the symbol of your hurt and disappointment. Why did Jesus want him to carry his mat? From the paralytics stand point, it showed his mastery over a situation that once mastered him. But you know eventually someone was going to ask him "Why are you carrying that mat around?" Being transparent about our past is what gives us the opportunity to share about what Jesus has done for us. 

Go to your house: Jesus did not extract him from his setting. He sent him back into his oikos, his relational hub, to be a living testimony of what Jesus could do. 

We never saw anything like this: Jesus has the power to transform people in amazing ways. But you have to wonder if part of  their amazement included the innovative and passionate ways in which that small, missional community got him to Jesus. Jesus has the ability to not only transform people, but also our strategies of getting people to him.

87. Ambiguity Tolerance

Whenever you are involved in innovative work, you will be confronted with ambiguity. It is what most people call the "Fuzzy Front End" of innovation. It is a stage when things are not well defined, there are not a lot of answers, and the future seems blurry. Ambiguity tolerance means you have some level of tolerance for this phase. Innovative type people usually have a high degree of ambiguity tolerance because there is no way you will make it past the initial phases of innovation without embracing ambiguity. In fact, the most creative and innovative people have a high ambiguity tolerance. They are able to starve their need to impose structure and delay closure.

Wilkinson has written a really cool book on this called Ambiguity Advantage. In the book he says there are 4 modes of Leadership:

1. Mode One - Technical Leadership. These leaders usually deal with ambiguity by denial or creating their own certainty. They are also more dictatorial and are very risk averse by nature.
2. Mode Two - Cooperative Leadership. The aim of mode two leaders is to disambiguate uncertainty and to build teams around them to mitigate risk.
3. Mode Three - Collaborative Leadership. Mode three leaders have a tendency towards consensual methods of leadership. They prefer to work towards aligning team members values and getting agreement. Their approach to ambiguity is for the group to examine it.
4. Mode Four - Generative Leadership. These leaders use ambiguity to find opportunity. They tend to be inveterate learners and innovators.

Apostolic ministry is saturated with ambiguity. Because it is a frontier based ministry, it will always lack definitive maps and algorithms that give all of us that needed comfort of predictability. Apostolic leaders are generative because they are able to embrace ambiguous environments and scenarios and use this fuzzy dynamic to generate solutions and strategies for starting new communities of the gospel.

86. CRINID

It's always cool when you find an entire site dedicated to innovation. That is exactly what CRINID is. It is not super exhaustive, but it does have a really good section on books to scan through about innovation and creativity.

85. Legos of beauty and hope

This is a great picture of what it means to be salt and light in the world. These pictures are from Tel Aviv, an area that has felt the brunt of violence and war. There is a small movement called Dispatchwork where people go around with Legos and patch up the holes and craters in walls and monuments with a colorful mosaic of plastic art. It is a refusal to let the effects of war brand an area with destruction.

They are filling in the wounds and scars of war with a creative, beautiful touch of art. It is a testimony that beauty can emerge after tragedy. This is exactly what Jesus does in our lives.

84. The Marathon of Project Managemnt Tools

Thanks to someone leaving a comment on the last post, I was able to learn about a whole host of project management/collaboration tools online, almost all of them FREE!

Check out the post entitled The Marathon List of Project Management

83. Cool Information and Citation Management Tool

I was recently reminded about the tool Zotero and re-downloaded it onto my laptop. It is right on time as I am becoming increasingly dis-organized in my writing project. I have read so many books that I am starting to forget where the cool stuff is that I have marked out in these books. Zotero allows me to enter these books and "tag" them with terms that I can later search for, bringing those books back up and reminding me that a particular book discusses, say, contextualization of the gospel. Here is the promo video.

82. Prophet singing about Eschatology

81. Training by Neil Cole on Mentoring

Ran across this video today while searching the internet.

Neil Cole - Mentoring/Leadership from Aaron Snow on Vimeo.

Neil has some real wisdom coming out here.

80. Slide Share and Innovation at IDEO

As a diagram junky, I always love to come across sites that attract and store other peoples innovative drawings and prototypes. I just recently came across a slideshow about innovation at posted in Slide Share. It is like a youtube for powerpoint presentations. A good resource here not only for visual learners, but also for those who like to hear neat, short summaries of ideas and concepts.

Here tis....

Innovation through design thinking

View more documents from whatidiscover.

When it comes to innovation, IDEO is...well...I'm speechless really.

79. Missional Eschatology Part 1

Eschatology, the view of last things is finding a much needed resurgence these days. I have always been drawn to apocalyptic movies as a kid. I love the end of the world movies like Deep Impact, and recently 2012. They have a riveting effect on me and fuel my fascination with the future.

What I see in the gospels is a Jesus that was fueled by a vision of the future that was radically breaking into the present. When Jesus said the Kingdom of God was at hand, he was talking about the rule of God. And the future is the only time and place that the rule of God will be consummated. When Jesus healed someone, he was pointing to the future and saying, when the rule of God is consummated, there will be no sickness. When he fed the 5000, he was pointing to the future when all physical needs would be met. When he forgave sins, he was pointing to the future when relationships would not be fractured and we ourselves would not be fractured by our experience of the fallen nature.

When we talk about being missional, we need to, as Hirsch explains in his book ReJesus, recalibrate back to Jesus. But the conversation must go a bit deeper here. Going back to Jesus is a monumental task in and of itself, but once we get there, I think we will be confronted with another question: Where did Jesus get his mission from? When we are trying to understand what our mission is, we go back to Jesus. He embodies and enacts the mission. He is our paradigm. To be missional means to tap into Jesus as the source and energy of our mission. But where did Jesus get his mission from? What was the paradigm he operated in? We tap into Jesus, but what did he tap into?

I think a better way to ask this question is: What was tapping into Jesus? The Spirit of God is what transported that future, New Creation into the present and infused Jesus with the power to embody and demonstrate the Kingdom of God. The future broke into Jesus through the Spirit in a most powerful, yet graceful way. Jesus was apocalyptic, but he was eschatological too. His message of the Kingdom was apocalyptic because it was charged with hope and judgment for the present context, but it also stretched out to encompass the meta-narrative of history, which means it was eschatological. Apocalyptic is eschatology on steroids. Jesus was both because he had a message for the present, but this message was anchored in a future that had yet to be realized. Jesus message of the Kingdom was both apocalyptic and eschatological because he was a portal through which a future rule found a present expression.





When we talk about returning to Jesus we will inevitably run into this amazing subject of the Kingdom of God and eschatology. This should have major implications for the missional conversation. I am grateful for people like NT Wright who have uncovered the sometimes mysterious connection between eschatology and mission. If the mission is understood in the context of Jesus, and Jesus understood his mission in the context of the Kingdom of God, then we have a sort missional-eschatological helix to run through. Will come up with a diagram on this one later.

78. Verge Conference

Headed to this conference called Verge on the first weekend of February. Should be a really cool gig.

77. Missional Communities

Great Video here from Mark Scandrette.

Mark Scandrette on Missional Community from TransFORM on Vimeo.

76. Symbols and the Construction of Community

Revisited a book I read a while back for the book I am working on about Apostolic Leadership. This guy is so thorough in his analysis about how symbols foster, maintain and hold community together, that it is sort of hard to find a good summary quote. Symbols are those clandestine meaning transmitters and they work in such an ambiguous way that when you stop to look more deeply into how they operate and what it is exactly that they do, you begin to see there power and presence on almost every corner. This quote is from Anthony Cohens book The Symbolic Construction of Community.

"Symbols are effective because they are imprecise. Though obviously not content-less, part of their meaning is subjective. They are, therefore, ideal media through which people can speak a 'common' language, behave in apparently similar ways, participate in the 'same' rituals...wear the same clothes and so forth, without subordinating themselves to a tyranny of orthodoxy. Individuality and community are thus reconcilable. Just as the 'common form' of the symbol aggregates the various meanings assigned to it, so the symbolic repertoire of a community aggregates the individualities and other differences found within the community and provides the means for their expression, interpretation, and containment. It provides the range within which individuality is recognizable. It continuously transforms the reality of difference into the appearance of similarity with such efficacy that people can still invest the 'community' with ideological integrity. It unites them in their opposition, both to each other, and to those 'outside.' It thereby constitutes, and gives reality to, the community's boundaries..."

An interesting question to entertain is, how does the symbol of the gospel function in this way? Symbols are fused with meaning by someone. The strength of symbols is that they can store and communicate multiple meanings at once. Their weakness is that meaning can get away from what produced the symbol in the first place. A good example of this would be the cross. Still a vibrant religious symbol in Christianity, it has been emptied of its original meaning and loaded down with centuries of domestication and cultural baggage. The most vivid display of this would be the prosperity gospel which manages to skirt the cross altogether most of the time, bypassing it for a direct line towards the resurrection, giving it a lopsided theology of naked power and naive triumphalism. Weakness and suffering, non-violent resistance and loving sacrifice seem to escape this particular ideology altogether. Instead, the prosperity gospel liquidates the meaning of the cross and shrinks it down to a purely transactional affair to secure personal salvation and forgiveness. It is a side note to the "power" of "abundant living." The current Protestant versions of the gospel have fallen into this same trap. This is quite a downsizing when compared to the massive implications Paul and other writers of the NT draw from this powerful symbol. Joel green and Mark Baker are quick to point out a foundational source of this tragedy in their book Recovering the Scandal of the Cross.
They say that part of the problem is the way in which we construe the human dilemma. Explanations of the solutions offered by the gospel are directly linked to how we understand the problem. Before Christ the human dilemma was understood within a broad spectrum of categories, including, social, physical, political, emotional, and psychological. The spiritual dimension is always present, but at times it is single voice among many. Explanations of the meaning of the cross need to first wrestle with the entire human situation in relation to God, creation and humanity. The fall reaches into every facet of our existence. It only seems right to expect the gospel, as the power of God for salvation, will speak to these categories. In fact it does. The word salvation is a medical term that is akin to the Hebrew version of shalom. Wholeness and harmony are intimately tied to the gospel, yet they are framed by a crucified messiah. A paradox indeed. The critical flaw in the prosperity gospel is that it approaches the human condition outside the framework of a crucified messiah. It is a contemporary version of the Corinthians "realized eschatology" which wants to live as though the new creation is entirely accessible in the here and now. We live between the times. We have experienced the power of the age to come, but the age to come still has yet to fully "come." We live under the sign of the cross, the spirit transporting the power of the new age into our presence, giving us a foretaste of what is to come. We have to acknowledge this tension. New life has begun, but it has infiltrated a cosmos still suffering from the brunt of the fall.

Apostolic leaders must learn how to embed the gospel in ways that reflect its multiple meanings, guarding and preserving its original potency to speak to the human condition in relation to God, people, systems and the creation.

75. Daniel Pink on Motivation

I recently read a book by Daniel Pink. This guy is worth listening to.

74. One Stop Shop for Innovation

Found this blog post listing the 7 conferences and events in America that focus on innovation.

73. Cool Video on Simple Church

This is a cool little video on Simple Church.

What Is Simple Church? from Expectation Media on Vimeo.

72. The Idea Camp

I was just thinking the other day it would be cool if we had a Christian version of www.ted.com well.....here are two sights I have seen of late that sort come within the same atmosphere of TED.

The Idea Camp

and

Q

Innovation is catching on in a lot of circles these days in the Christian community. We desperately need forums like this to explore, share and inspire us into beautiful ventures of love and good news.

71. Conductor as metaphor for Apostolic Leadership

I love this video from TED because it points to the exact dynamics of apostolic leadership. As a conductor, you help the potential come alive. But there are many ways to be a conductor, some healthy, and some unhealthy.

A spin off this metaphor is that every community has certain instruments in it. It is the task of an apostolic leader to make music with the instruments available in the community. You work with the DNA in the community to cultivate a masterpiece. This involves creativity, innovation and thinking outside the box. It also means you respect the make up of the community, allowing it to develop into its own sound and feel. Asking a 14 member orchestra to play Beethoven is ludicrous, but how many people lead under the impression that they have to s0me how sound like Beethoven when the DNA of the community is equipped to play Rae Gae, or Indy music. The goal is not to cut a record label, the goal is to make music! Check it out.

70. The Nations

This being the 70th post I think it only right to do something about the Nations. As early as Genesis 10, the nations have been on Gods mind. Living in a global village like we are today, it is still astounding that some parts of the world are still insulated form the technological advances that sweep across and entire nation like America but can somehow not make it into the places that need it the most. In his book about poverty, .... says that it is an anomaly that we can get the book "Harry Potter" half way across the world and released on the same day but we can not get mosquito masks to Africa to prevent people from dying from malaria.

Jesus commanded us to penetrate the nations in Matthew 28. In the old testament, the nations would flow into Jerusalem. The holy city was the mecca of the Jews and as such the Jews constructed an ethnocentric view of themselves. Jesus shatters this ethnocentric identity and pointed the church towards a boundary crossing adventure. The disciples were to bring a great reversal and flow into the nations with the good news of the Kingdom. God has always had a heart for the nations.

However, we should not get confused about this word "nations." In the Greek it is ethnos, which is where we get our word ethnicity. There is a difference between culture and ethnicity, but they do share some common space. Jesus was not just referring to geographic boundaries on maps. There are multiple ethnicity's and cultures shoved up against each other in urban centers and the outlying regions of the megalopolis'. Jesus points us towards these ethnic groups, subcultures, races and says "MAKE DISCIPLES"!!!!!.

In order to live into this calling, we need a specific form of leadership. A boundary crossing, multi-cultural, ethnically equipped leadership. Jesus knew it would take a specific category of people to carry out this task of infiltrating the different ethnic centers with the god news. he called the people apostles. Apostolic leadership is at the enter of God's heart for the nations.

70 has always been the representation of the Nations and finds its origins in the table of nations in Genesis 1. It is interesting that the 2nd Temple period was characterized by a form of leadership that had as its characterizing number ...70. The Sanhedrin was a doctrinal and moral council in the matters of the law. How ironic that the group who was formed around the symbolic table of nations had not intentions on being a light to the nations. They morphed into an exclusive style of leadership that narrowed its focus to the concerns of its own people. It is very analogous to the Shepherd-Teacher system of leadership in the church today cant help but have its eyes on the flock.

We need to recapture this vision for the nations and re-activate a missional posture towards the world. There are more ethnic groups than 70 in the world right now, and this is true probably true in Yuri own city!

May apostles flood the nations with the good news!

69. The Ten Faces of Innovation

Been reading a really cool book on Innovation by one of the founders of IDEO, a cutting edge design company. They list ten persona's of innovation. Here are they are in readers digest version. I especially like the first 2 sections.

The first 3 are Learning Persona's

1. The Anthropologist - brings new insight by observing human behavior - i.e. your insightful incarnationalist
2. The Experimenter - Prototypes new ideas by trial and error
3. The Cross-Pollinator - Explores other organizations and cultures and translates into unique revelations that fit their context

The next 3 are Organizing Persona's - savvy about the counter intuitive process of how organizations move ideas forward.

4. The Hurdler - develops a knack for outsmarting the road blocks to innovation
5. The Collaborator - helps bring eclectic groups together and often leads from the middle of the pack to create new combination's of multidisciplinary solutions
6. The Director - gathers together a talented cast and crew and sparks their creative talents.

The next 4 are the Building Persona's

7. The Experience Architect - designs compelling experiences that go beyond mere functionality to connect at a deeper level
8. The Set Designer - creates an environment/stage on which innovation team members can do their best work
9. The Caregiver - builds on the metaphor of a health care professional. They anticipate needs and create solutions before there is a problem
10. The Storyteller - builds internal morale and external awareness through stories

My favorite quote so far is:

"The devils advocate may never go away, but on a good day, the innovative types can keep him in his place. Or tell him to go to hell."

68. Dunbars Number and Intimacy in Community

Ever thought to take a step back and look at your social network from a numerical stand point? The diagram below groups people into various numerical segments. With the technology of facebook, twitter, and all the social networking tools out there, the number of friends eventually blends into the number of acquaintances. The question is, just how many friends can you have? I know for myself I love having a lot of friends. y wife on the other hand is more of a smaller cluster of friends type person. I am an extrovert and she is an introvert.

Seth Godin in his blog highlights the curious, but intuitively accurate concept of Dunbars Number. I think there is something to be said for larger gatherings. However, we must ask our selves, Whats the Point? If we are supposed to be making disciples, and this involves cultivating authentic relationships, why would we want to go any higher than 150 people?



It is a proven fact that any larger than this leads to the breakdown of the collective interpersonal capacities of the people in the tribe. I think a lot of churches settle for ambient intimacy and try to cultivate true intimacy in their small group ministries. I think the idea of Missional Orders being at the 5-15 level, Missional Villages at 15-35 and Missional Tribes being at the 35-150 mark is a good place to start on how to organize an organic simple church network. I would personally love to have a group of 150 people to hang out with once a month and synergize for the Kingdom. God willing, we will multiply our small missional band/order into a group this size. But the goal is transformation of people into the image of God and mission.

67. Back Yard Theater

Being a missional-incarnational community requires creativity and outside the box thinking. Once you see yourself as someone who is sent into your neighborhood, it forces you into a whole new set of questions like: How do we get to know our neighbors? How do we cultivate menaingful relationships with those in our context?

I came across this cool site today that helps you turn your back yard, or front yard for that matter, into a theater. What a great idea! Need to get to know your neighbors? Want to meet some kids from the down the street? Put on a free movie night in your front or back yard. Check out this site: Backyard Theater

A few more ideas to facilitate relationships with those in your immediate geographic community:

1. Buy a bottle of wine and leave it on your neighbors door step with a note attached saying: Would love to get to know you. Give us a call and we will do it over this bottle of wine. (Ripped from Hugh Halter:-)

2. Facilitate a neighborhood wide yard sale.

3. Conduct a door to door survey about how well people know their neighbors in your neighborhood.

4. If you are into gardening, pass out a flyer letting people know you will help them grow a garden or plant a few flowers or veggies in their yard...for free of course!

5. We have found that Prayer Walking your neighborhood before doing any of these things is crucial to God helping you find ways to engage your neighborhood.

6. Anyone else out there have any ideas about facilitating community and relationships in your neighborhood? Please leave a comment. I will add them to the list.

There are multiple spheres to connect with people on. Neighborhood, Workplace, social networks etc. I am all about connecting with people in a 3rd place like Starbucks. But what about our own neighborhoods? These kinds of ideas I listed can go over in an urban or sub-urban neighborhood. Take a stab at it.

66. Prophesying

You know, I have always been creeped out by this word because it has always been used in a context that was spooky or full of drama. I have only within the past few years been embracing this gifting within the body. The problem has of course been abuse. Last night someone operated in the gift of prophesy towards one of the people in our group and it was a beautiful picture of how the gift of prophecy is to be used to build up the body. I had to stop the group after it was done and say "This is what prophesy looks like by the way." There was a revealing of God intelligence, there was building up of someone in the body, and there was a sense of Gods presence there in the room. No shock and awe, no flashy drama, but it was definitely a God thing. So thankful for this gift in the body! A really cool book I have read lately on prophecy is The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Bruegemann.

65. Self-Organization

Ran across this description of Self-Organization in a really cool book called "The Unshackled Organization". It is a good easy read but has some amazing insights into organization. Here are their bullet points about self-organization. I will let you make the application :)

1. Self-Organization is a self-generated and self-guided process. This means change is neither a hierarchically controlled nor an externally driven process.
2. Self-Organization moves beyond the idea of a system as an inert mass characterized by an innate resistance to change. Instead, change is the activation of a systems inherent potential for transformation…
3. Self-Organization results from the utilkization, even the enhancement of random, accidental and unexpected events. Change, then, is not the suppression of chaos; it is order emerging out of chaos…
4. Self-Organization represents a system undergoing a revolution prompted by far-from equilibrium conditions. This is vastly different than the trasditional model where change is nothing more than a mere shift in system functioning and a subsequent return to equilibrium.

64. Organizations as an Escape from our Mortality

Been Reading Morgan Gareth's book Images of Organization. One of his chapters entitled Organizations as Psychic Prisons. I was immediately all ears on this one. Check out this quote:

"...they encourage us to understand many of our symbolic acts and constructions as flights from our own mortality. In joining with others on the creation of culture as a set of shared norms, beliefs, ideas, and social practices, we attempt to locate ourselves in something larger and more enduring than ourselves. In creating a world that can be perceived as objective and real, we affirm the concrete and real nature of our own existence. In creating symbol systems that allow us to engage in meaningful exchanges with others, we also help to find meaning in our own lives. Although we may in quiet times confront the fact that we are going to die, much of our daily life is lived in the artificial realness created through culture. The illusion of realness helps disguise our unconscious fear that everything is highly vulnerable and transitory."

Basically, from this angle organizations can function as a distraction mechanism aimed at avoiding our mortality. Listen to some more of his jewels.

"This perspective suggests that we can understand organizations and much of the behavior within organizations in terms of a quest for immortality. In creating organizations we create structures of activity that are larger than life and that often survive for generations. In becoming identified with such organizations we ourselves find meaning and permanence. As we invest ourselves in our work, our roles become our realities, and as we objectify ourselves in the goods we produce or the money we make, we make ourselves visible and real to ourselves. No wonder that questions of survival are such a high priority in organizations, for there is much more than survival of the organization at stake."

Wow! this guy is touching on some very core issues facing churches and their institutional arrangements. As I stated in an earlier post, organizations can be a form of idolatry, and this guy really spells that out for us. I guess we see this in Genesis 11 with the Tower of Babel.

He goes on to talk about how the act of organizing ourselves is not neutral, but a reaction to our values, fears, insecurities and interests. It reminds me of the quote "Organization is the mobilization of bias."