Rethinking Perspective

Community as a scale free network:

What if the buildings are not the church nor are the people inside the church? What if the church is the interconnectivity between like-minded believers? What if our churchness could be gagged by the amount of unification and organization we possessed as clusters of believers? What if as we began to more closely identify with the gospel we set up small groups of believers that were centered around specific actions that the gospel called us into?

The realization of a new model:
One of the best models that I have seen for what is becoming a new dynamic in community formation is the example of a scale-free network. When researchers went out to map out the way people and pages were linked together in the then newly formed world wide web they found that instead of randomness,

“…a type of dynamic, self-determining, relational order with an uneven distribution of links [was present]. They christened their network discovery a ‘Scale-Fee Network’”

Clusters are the network of people we are connected to that are all involved or interested in diving deeper into a specific calling of the kingdom of God. In essence our churches become our networks (or our networks become our churches not sure witch).

So let me try to create some sort of framework for our emerging culture, who is looking for ways to experience the dynamic ebb and flow of the kingdom of God in everyday community. Gone are they days when all decisions, missions, and thought had to be passed through appointed ministry leaders in a pyramid shaped hierarchal system. Networks of people form in clusters. When a group of people becomes interested, motivated or lead by the spirit they join together. They form a cluster around that activity. A single person may be part of many different clusters. A single person can be connected to a cluster for a long or a short period of time. One person or one cluster can be connected to, as may other clusters as is necessary at that particular point in time.

Power Structures:
Because we now see ourselves as people who are part of clusters and not the bottom rungs of a hierarchal command ladder, our leadership styles change. Dwight Friesen looks at scale-free network situations in order to envision the types of communities and power structures that are created within this next wave of revival.

“To understand churches as Christ-clusters is to be immersed in a radical fluidity. Churches can no longer be seen as “once for all” organizational structures to which people come, attend or join in any formal sense. In this new paradigm, they become co-created relational networks centered in Jesus Christ.”

Leadership is different in this new cluster model. Positions of leadership are not given so much as they are discovered. Each topic of conversation, mission, exploration and community is a group-determined hub that gathers people. People gravitate towards these community hubs because they crave the connections provided. Friesen goes on to state that,

“Whereas leadership within the institutional church relied in part, on titles,
positions and hierarchy to maintain its authority, the scale-free kingdom self- organizes around hubs that give away their authority. Christ-clusters are formed around hubs which provide nodes with the connections they crave.”

In this networked model churches will need to grow, change and adapt. In an article for relevant magazine Andrew Jones talked about how influence and growth occur,

[Communities of Faith are] “not a centralized network but neither is it a distributed network that hands out power equally. There are hubs that attract more links than others, which enable these clusters of nodes to grow exponentially large and influential.”

So who cares right?
Here is what has happened to me over the last few weeks that I have been thinking about this concept. First, I realized that there is no man to fight against. Second, taking even small actions in the direction of Jesus and rallying community members to partake is the main reason I exist. Third, I am bound by no structure other than the ones I have created.

Sources:
Dwight Friesen
“Scale-Free Networks as a Structural Hermeneutic for Relational Ecclesiology” (pdf version; file size= 796KB) »

Andrew Jones
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god_article.php?id=7041