dissertation

135
‘deep’ metaphors, ‘root’ metaphors and ‘abstractions’. 111 Because it connects metaphors
and (macro-)paradigms, the term ‘paradigmatic metaphors’ is preferred in this chapter.
Two influential examples of metaphoric language on this highest level will now be discussed:
chaos and holism.
5.4.1 ‘Chaos’ and Metaphorical Linking & Thinking
Due to a multitude of popularizing commentaries directed at the public, virtually everybody
‘knows’ about chaos being discernable in evolution, popular culture, life-style,
science and religion – up to the leadership style of the apostle Paul. 112 The literature of
the EMC that touches on questions of leadership and organization appears to have been
duly influenced by popular notions of chaos theorizing. For example, Tim Keel advises
his readers to let go of control, since, “while we look at chaos and see only unpredictability,
randomness, and erratic noise, actually patterns and a sort of order exists that,
while not obvious, are nevertheless present.” 113 Likewise, one lesson that Howard Snyder
draws out of complexity theory, 114 is that “out of seeming chaos, order emerges.” 115
Lisa R. Withrow does not stress order as much as she emphasizes change, arguing that
“process theory combined with chaos theory most adequately delineates that nature of
change, particularly at the organizational level.” 116
The most outspoken yet is the Australian church planter (currently living in the USA)
and missiologist Alan Hirsch. His The Forgotten Ways even contains an addendum and
glossary, entitled “a crash course in chaos.” 117 Especially pertinent for him is the “new
paradigm of organic leadership and living systems” 118 as set forth in Surfing the Edge of
Chaos: The Laws of Nature and the New Laws of Business, a book that Hirsch highly recommends.
119 Most churches, he contends, are too institutional, and therefore too clumsy in
their inherited form, to be able to adapt and respond adequately to the missional envi-
111
David Grant and Cliff Oswick, “Introduction: Getting the Measure of Metaphors,” in D. Grant and C.
Oswick, eds., Metaphor and Organizations (London: Sage, 1996), 6-7.
112
Richard S. Ascough, “Chaos Theory and Paul’s Organizational Leadership Style,” Journal of Religious Leadership
1, no. 2 (Fall 2002), 21-43.
113
Tim Keel, Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor & Chaos (Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Books, 2007), 237.
114
The next chapter will explain what ‘complexity theory’ stands for.
115
Howard A. Snyder, with Daniel V. Runyon, Decoding the Church: Mapping the DNA of Christ’s Body
(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002), 39.
116
Lisa R. Withrow, “Change: Exploring Its Implications for Religious Leadership – A Pedagogical Inquiry,”
Journal of Religious Leadership 7, no. 2 (Fall 2008), 55. Kevin Ford aims to “change our ideas about
change” as well, warning that true change is not predictive but nonlinear, and occurring “near the edge of
chaos, and in unexpected ways.” Kevin G. Ford, Transforming Church (Colorado Springs, CO: David C.
Cook, 2008), 211-212.
117
Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press,
2006), 247-271.
118
Ibid., 265.
119
Ibid., 254. The reference is to R.T. Pascale, M. Millemann and L. Gioja, Surfing the Edge of Chaos: The
Laws of Nature and the New Laws of Business (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2000).