Brad Brisco on The Starfish and the Spider

Last week I read The Starfish and the Spider and had hoped to post on it a bit.  Fortunately, I don't have to say as much as I thought - Brad Brisco at the Missional Church Network has written a marvelous summary of the book.  The book is terrific and is thought provoking on so many levels.  I'll just add my two cents to the discussion, and these two cents will make the most sense if you read Brad's post first.

First of all, the book could be called "In Praise of Decentralization."  That is the main theme, hence the subtitle - "The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations."  Yet, with that being the focus, one might assume the authors think centralization is all bad and decentralization is all good. Not so, the authors rightly point out that there are some cases where extreme centralization is necessary.  For instance, if you are on an airplane, you want a centralized, even coercive, leadership structure, you don't want Johnson in seat 28F to decide he can fly the plane - you want a pilot who is in control.

That being said, there is a chapter at the end on "the sweet spot."  If centralization and decentralization are on a continuum, the sweet spot is somewhere in between them.  The sweet spot is hit when you have the appropriate amount of centralization and decentralization in the organization.  eBay is a good example of a company that is currently hitting the sweet spot - they have extreme decentralization in the buying and selling of products, but extreme centralization in payments - you must go through paypal.  The decentralization allows the freedom which allows it to grow, the centralized payments through paypal provides the security that sellers need to insure they get paid.

Secondly, a lack of centralization doesn't equal a lack of control - the authors remind us to not underestimate the power of a community to control and regulate itself.  While eBay doesn't have a centralized control system, they do have a system of buyer and seller ratings. There is no head honcho that sits on high decreeing who is a good seller and who is a bad seller, the community itself decides that and does a remarkable job of regulating itself.

Third, ideology is the key here.  Decentralized organizations function when driven by their ideology.  I can't remember if the authors identified eBay's ideology, but it seems that excellent customer service is core to their ideology - the community has bought into it and therefore regulates itself accordingly.

Fourth, this brings us to the church.  The reason the church has never been destroyed is that we have an ideology (to borrow the book's term) that drives us, the message of Jesus.  In the midst of all it's ups and downs, the ideology survives and continues to resonate throughout history. 

Fifth, this explains the growth of the early church and the growth of the modern Chinese church.  In fact, I am happy to see that Brad did a follow up post on the Chinese church as a Starfish. In the early church and the Chinese church there was no hope of centralization, yet in both cases the church grew spontaneously and exponentially.

Sixth, this brings us to a problem.  It seems that the natural evolution of an organization is towards centralization and tighter organizational control.  This seems to be the case with the church. After periods of spontaneous and exponential growth, churches will often move to what seems to be the next logical step in the life cycle - centralization - with its emphases on standardization and perfecting the organization.  But I am not so sure that is healthy. 

You'll have to read the book for this, but one of the great stories in the book is of the Apache nation.  The Spanish conquerors defeated every group that stood in their path, but couldn't defeat the Apaches.  The Americans were able to control almost all Indian groups except the Apaches.  The reason is that the Apaches were a Starfish, driven by an ideology with no centralized government, and no centralized leadership.  The way the Americans were finally able to control the Apaches was that they figured out an ingenious way to cause them to centralize.  Once they did this, they got control.

So it seems that, the more energy a church devotes to centralizing and bringing control to the organization, the more at risk it becomes.  Yet, keeping the sweet spot in mind, it also seems to me that there is some role for centralization, yet whatever function that is, the centralized function ought to be more focused on preserving and communicating the ideology than perfecting the organization.

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Comments

[Mike]

It's very beautifully.

[brad brisco]

David, great insights and application of the book. I would like to continue to "talk" about the applications down the road. Also thanks for the links, although the first one is linked to the story of William Lobdell, which is an important story to read but isn't the correct link. I have been enjoying your blog.

[David Wayne]

Brad - thanks for catching that - I have corrected it.

[Matt S.]

Hey Dave,

This is some of the stuffing Kristy and I have been dealing with in trying to find a good church. Where did all the formally organized church stuff come from (specifically, synods and assemblies and up...not the local elders and deacons) and is it truly biblical? Reading JI Packer and John Frame has hit me strongly about the fact that God uses everyone in spite of their errors and that we've really screwed up with our loss of unity over many unimportant details. While good intentioned many times, the "defense of the faith" and the organizations designed "to protect it" appear to be on shaky biblical ground at best in my opinion and in many cases appear extra-biblical. Those same lines drawn BY MAN to protect the "truth above unity" seem to go much too far in their logical conclusions and end up constricting the Spirit's work.

You might want to check out "The Torch of the Testimony" by John W. Kennedy if you have any free time for a thoughtful book that seems to parallel these decentralized lines of thought. It's not a perfect book, but what is other than the Bible right..? I think his overall thrust is on the right track until someone shows me otherwise from the Bible.

Matt

[Dianne]

Thanks for the interesting review. This hits on some of the stuff going through my mind as well.