dissertation

195
not consider it to be theologically justified, may find it difficult to adopt the Organic
paradigm.
Fourth, organizations operating within an Organic leadership paradigm often have a
structure that is organic, ‘project-like’, 149 or networked. Emerging churches can likewise
be seen as networked agencies that are characterized by direct action strategies, internet
communications, relatively flat organizational structures, and more informal modes of
belonging focused on issues of shared concern. 150 The point to note is that the leader’s
role is different in a network structure from in a more bureaucratic one. In the kind of
ambiguous contexts that networks are, the leader’s role “is to create enthusiasm and
commitment and act as change-agent, cheerleader, coach, teacher and integrator. People
in leadership roles act more like facilitators than directors.” 151 In addition, leaders in
churches that are organized as networks will need to operate through vision and values
which permeate the entire culture at all levels. This demands, among other things, high
relational capabilities. 152
Fifth, Organic leadership is particularly found in organizations that highly value creativity
and innovation, such as marketing or Research and Development departments.
Again, a parallel can be noted with participants in the Emerging-Missional milieu who
belong – at least to a large extent – to what Richard Florida has called the ‘creative
class’. 153 This word denotes knowledge or technical workers, symbolic analysts or professionals
whose work entails creating “meaningful new forms.” 154 The implication is
that Organic leadership may be less suitable for members of Christian communities who
149
Cf. Mady Thung’s opinion on what is needed for a so-called missionary church: “a considerable capacity
for observation of the environment and the ability to shift rapidly from one project to the other, hence our
suggestion of a project-like organisation.” Thung, The Precarious Organisation, 221. Note that this book was
already written some decades ago.
150
Jones, The Church is Flat, 19-20.
151
Avery, Understanding Leadership, 28. Cf. this comment from a Roman Catholic context where new models
of parish leadership are emerging: The “role of pastor or parish life coordinator as facilitator [emphasis
added] and change agent [emphasis added] may reflect an understated, but critically important, reality of the
skill sets and needed organizational abilities that build parish communities.” Jewell and Ramey, The Changing
Face of Church, 118.
152
Sociologist Rosabeth Kanter’s remark about the ‘post-entrepreneurial’ corporation pertains to missional
communities as well: “The post-entrepreneurial corporation...with its stress on teamwork and cooperation,
with its encouragement of imagination and commitment to the process of building the new, brings people
closer together, making the personal dimension more important.” Rosabeth Moss Kanter, When Giants
Learn to Dance (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989), 280.
153
According to Tony Jones, “the ECM has been instigated primarily by individuals who fit into the ‘creative
class’....In the early days of the ECM, leaders verbally associated themselves with Florida’s thesis, considering
their tribe to be the Creative Class among younger American Protestants.” Jones, The Church is
Flat, 42-43. Cf. the discussion of EMC participants as Innovators in 2.2.3.
154
Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and
Everyday Life (New York: Basic Books, 2004), 68. In a more recent book, Florida argues that his thesis still
holds in spite of economic collapse. Richard Florida, The Great Reset: How New Ways of Living and Working
Drive Post-Crash Prosperity (New York: Harper, 2010). This book is referred to in Jones, The Church is Flat,
43n24.