I’ve been studying the concept of living systems as it relates to churches and one of the places which I’ve looked into is Emmanuel Gospel Center pastored by Dr. Doug Hall. Here is a recent post I made, complete with the academic citations, based on the research I’m doing on a national view of churches today. I’m including the citations because this is an important topic for which you may want to do some further reading. I encourage you to comment on this and join in the discussion. Lead well.
In his overview of living system ministry, Hall (2011) states, “The Bible describes the church as a body, an organism. Yet, in our western culture, we have grown accustomed to thinking of churches in terms of organizations [and often will try to] force fruit to happen” (p. 3) when only God can do so. Unfortunately, churches fall victim to this type of thinking because of their desire to grow in numbers and stature. While there is no issue with desiring to increase in impact for the cause of Christ within the community by church leaders (Nichols, 2007), problems arise when growth and notoriety become the driving force behind decisions and behaviors. When this happens, practices become paramount over people, compassion wanes, and raw metrics become the first level of evaluation, rather than a part of the overall view, which first asks if the work done is a reflection of Jesus’ love (Balasuriya, 2006).
Hall & Hall (2010) spoke of getting one’s hands dirty when doing ministry, which is sadly in contrast to many churches that have become proud and self-sufficient. They suffer from what Paul described in 1 Corinthians 13, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (v. 1, English Standard Version). The church is to be the body of Christ, interdependent and flowing with the life’s blood of love (Wells, 2011), not a machine-like organizational set of systems bound together by drive, strategic objectives, and a leader’s ambition. Jesus spoke of how His followers must lose their life in order to gain it. Churches such as Hall’s understand and practice this concept. As a living system, their focus is on the higher order of what God creates rather than the lower things which are created by man’s ego. They share in the spirit of Christ, and in doing so, their living system displays the richest form of Christianity (Meeks, 1986).
References
Balasuriya, F. T. (2006). Companion to the encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI on “God is love.” Cross Currents, 56(2), 229.
Hall, D., & Hall, J. (2010). The cat and the toaster: Living system ministry in a technological age. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock.
Hall, D. (2011). Living system ministry. http://livingsystemministry.org/
Meeks, W. A. The moral world of the first Christians. Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press. pp. 130-131
Nichols, T. (2007). The pastor’s role in vision-based leadership. The Journal of Applied Christian Leadership, 2(1), 20.
Wells, C. (2011). Word of love: The sacramental itinerary of 1 Corinthians. Anglican Theological Review, 93(4), 581-598.