Master Plan vs. Organic Order, Programming vs. Environment
A review of the book Organic Community: Creating a Place Where People Naturally Connect , by Joseph R. Myers
Reviewed by: Kacey P. McGowan
[ insert WARNING here: if you read this book, you may be tempted to rethink some of your ideas of traditional church and small group planning as well as what authentic and organic community looks and feels like…and that's okay... its good for us. ]
In his book Organic Community, Joseph Myers offers some ideas regarding the age old questions that many churches have been asking for years – How can we get people to connect? How can we create real community? How can we encourage people to plug in and stay involved? - among many others. While many of the ideas Myers presents at first read seem quite idealistic and difficult to consider and apply, he makes a solid case for shifting our thinking and initiating genuine and healthy conversations about these ideas on community. I was excited to read this book as it has been on my revolving “to read” list for way too long and once I started, I honestly couldn’t stop reading. Myers touches on some challenging church issues in a graceful yet straight forward way and I found myself asking a lot of uncomfortable questions. For ease of reading and clearer presentation of some abstract thought processes, Myers divides the book up into 9 concepts, each in their own stand alone chapter. While I wish I could give a summary of each chapter, I am instead going to highlight a few of my favorite parts of the book.
Myers opens the book by discussing the transition from master plan to organic order thinking which really seems to be at the heart of change in our various instances of community. “In short, master plan tries to manufacture life, whereas organic order is an invitation to live.”(p.28) Master planning seeks to answer the destination based question where are we headed? rather than the organic, journey based question of what are we hoping for? After reading this chapter, I realized that I have definitely over-engineered, over-planned and manipulated at times as a small group leader, as a professional, as a friend, etc… and I probably haven’t let go long enough or stepped back far enough to see the potential barriers that I may be contributing to. OUCH. I am treading lightly here but what would it really look like if we stepped back from our core curriculums, our Discipleship Atlas, our trained ideas of the role of small groups, our ministry plans, etc…what if we just threw it all up in the air and see where it lands? Does that scare anyone else?
Side Note: About mid-way through the book, I realized that Myers was taking a quite scientific approach to the way he navigated through his thoughts – at times a bit distracting and overwhelming but for the most part, my left and right brains fully engaged and were able to interact in a fascinating exchange.
Resuming…
Though initially reading this book through the “I’m a small group and team leader” lens, I found Myers’ ideas on revolving power exciting and inspiring for my professional life as well. As Myers says, “with organic order, not having the power does not equate with powerlessness…what is happening away from the ball is just as important as the point that is being scored or the rebound that is being attempted. What is happening away from the ball is actually helping make the shot or rebound possible.” (p.107) This idea of gaining power by and through the needs of a project or effort rather than merely through position is refreshing!
I was especially challenged by Myers thoughts on edit-ability vs. accountability- or the editor vs. accountant concept if you will. An accountant seeks to audit and reconcile to a set of rules and regulations and insists on compliance. An editor focuses more on communication and collaboration – a healthy back and forth, give and take, a spirit of grace. So many of us have been turned off by the idea of “accountability partners” – infact, it has become a bit cliché in Christian circles. In such labeling, we are assuming that one person has the hierarchy over the other and that we should be looking for each other’s failures and breaking of the rules rather than dialoging about what’s really going on and journeying through the discussion, evaluation, resolution and redemption process together.
Overall, I came away from this read with more questions, more ideas, more conflicts and more challenges revealed in my own life. So I suppose Myers fulfilled part of his goal with me as a reader – for my thinking has been challenged and changed in some ways. I am not going to close by saying “everyone should read this book” because that goes against what Joseph Myers is trying to say. There is no one size fits all approach for community – it is birthed out of the strengths, the unique experiences, the dynamic of the individuals in the community while still maintaining a strong thread of unity and shared interest…and sometimes community just happens…and we need to let it, without trying to make a template for it, without scripting it and without getting in the way of it.
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