Hallmarks of a Genuie People Movement

Section Five To Dream Again – the Nature of Movements

Introduction

At its best, Christianity is a lay movement. Wherever Christianity is growing around the world, whether in South America, Asia, Africa or in Eastern Europe this single characteristic is the most significant element in that growth. That does not mean that there is no leadership, professional or volunteer but it does mean that the goal of leadership is to empower and release the whole body of Christ in such a way that the creation of movement is the result. Mobilisation and multiplication not attraction and addition are the hallmarks of this kind of people movement.

But perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of these various people movements is that in many situations there was little sign of dramatic growth thirty or forty years ago. More than this, if you had talked to any of the long term leaders who were in the field a single generation ago, they would have reported to you that the work was hard, the people unreceptive and the churches lethargic. Few if any would have predicted the outbreak of movement.

That reality is bound to cause us to ask, what is it that causes the generation and growth of movement? Before we address that question it is vital to be clear what we mean by movement.

1. What is a movement?

Not a fad or a fashion. We are not talking about a transient fad or fashion that is here today and disappears tomorrow. Movements do have times of growth and decline but we are talking about something which has a degree of longevity that at least lasts beyond a single generation.

Not a pressure group, campaign or cause. We are not describing a campaign or even a cause which is focussed around a single issue and which ends with the accomplishment of particular goals or outcomes.

A way of looking at the world. Rather we are talking about a change in the way people look at the world such that significant numbers of people are drawn to passionate commitment to a cause which is both significant enough to change their personal world and produces a determination to impact the whole world. Movements, especially spiritual movements, not only change a person’s worldview but have a shaping energy sufficient to impact and change whole cultures. What are the key stages in the development of movements?

2. Components of a movement

Energy - The Divine spark. Movements that impact whole cultures begin with individuals or small groups of people who are somehow transformed by a spiritual encounter that dramatically changes their personal lives. The occurrence of such encounters is probably more widespread than we sometimes imagine. Almost certainly, in every culture and in every generation some people have experiences of this kind. They cannot be planned for, predicted or arranged through a programme but they almost certainly happen unexpectedly and spontaneously.

Conceptualisation - an interpretative framework. For a movement to develop out of such personal experiences it is necessary for someone to offer an explanation of these spiritual encounters to allow others to be part of that experience. They may not themselves have the same experiences but an interpretative framework can allow people to identify with those experiences. Peter did just that on the day of Pentecost. He did not say to the crowd, “this is just one of those things”. Instead he explained that this is that which was promised in the prophecy of Joel. Having been offered such an explanation, and a clear way to identify with the experience, through belief in Jesus, repentance and baptism, others were able to join the movement whether or not they had experienced exactly the same thing that had just taken place. Later, Peter did something of the same when the Holy Spirit descended on gentiles. He offered an explanation, or interpretative framework that allowed that new group of gentiles to identify with the broader Christian movement. Movements are engendered when the initial participants begin to see a wider significance in that which they have experienced.

Mobilisation - the multiplication of many. The capacity to mobilise people such that the interpretive framework can be understood and explained by others represents the moment of take-off for a movement. It is vital that movement not depend on the explanation of the experts or professionals. If it does then multiplication is replaced by mere addition and dynamic growth is not possible. Movements have to be highly transportable and they are only transportable when every member can transmit the core explanation without help from an expert.

Organisation –giving power, permanence and purpose. Formal structures sometimes receive a bad press in relation to movements. There are many who see structure as the antithesis of movement. But in reality the creation of organisation actually adds power to the otherwise undirected energy of the initial movement. Of course, structures without creative energy do cause movements to plateau and then decline and it is often that phase of organisational life that people observe as the death knell of movement. But creative energy well harnessed to organisational skill represents the period of most rapid growth and impact for any movement.

3. Recovering roots

The implication of the above could be that it is always best to begin with nothing. Certainly there are those who are sufficiently disenchanted with existing structures that they simply do not have the heart or the vision or the will to renew that which already exists. That can be a matter of call and gift. Some are not called or able to renew existing structures and have no alternative but to strike out afresh. But it is not inevitable for movements to ossify or to decline to the point of death. It is undeniably true that some movements or denominations are not renewed and do die. But there are sufficient examples of the renewal of movements to believe that decline and death are not inevitable outcomes.

We have paid attention above to what happens on the left hand side of the bell curve. It is also necessary to consider what might happen on the right hand side of the bell curve. Unless there is a significant intervention from gifted leadership, the usual pattern of movements or organisations features the following steps.

Plateau and the beginning of decline. There is a delicate balance required in the harnessing of creative energy to organisational skill. All too frequently, organisational skill will dominate over time at the expense of creative energy. As that takes place the watchword becomes “consolidation”. In other words, the message goes out that we need a more stable organisation following a period of rapid growth so that gains are consolidated. That is a valid argument provided that the consolidation genuinely clears ground for another period of chaotic growth to take place. However, the likelihood is that the bringing of order signals that the creative people who disrupt order are no longer able to survive within the organisation and have already left.

Decline and Conflict. As decline sets in, organisations will generally polarise around two groups – the traditionalists and the radicals. These two groups have very different solutions to the problem of decline. The traditionalists wish to emphasise a return to the way we used to do things believing that this will restore growth. The radicals emphasise the need to adopt new methods and solutions for a new day. They are both wrong.

Division and Death. Growing conflict will lead to some kind of division with either the radicals or the conservatives departing. The outcome of such division is usually the death of the organisation. The death may be long and lingering or much more rapid but in either case the organisation ceases to be effective in terms of its original life and vision.

The alternative scenario, difficult though it may be to achieve, is to attempt a process of renewal. Such processes can be accomplished at any point in the decline of an organisation although clearly the greater the decline the more difficult the process of recovery. Renewal can come when creative leadership circumvents the conflict of traditionalists and radicals by asking a different question. The question that needs to be addressed is that of core purpose. Why was this organisation / movement founded? What was its original genius? What was it that God entrusted to the initial participants? What was the Divine deposit that was originally gifted and can that be recast in the present context?

The recasting of the original Divine deposit in a new interpretative framework can allow movement to be rekindled. Such a rekindling assumes a situation in which people are encountering God and coming to faith. If the new vision (interpretative framework) makes sense to these new believers and becomes once again transportable, then movement can be reignited.

4. Stimulating Movements

The rekindling of vision is an art more than a science but the following principles will help.

Realism necessary. Renewing organisations is hard work and history and time tend to be against you. The renewal process requires the presence of creative people who are easily crushed by rigid structures and who tend not to have the patience for the long haul. You may need to protect some of these creative people by developing areas of experimentation where the normal rules of the organisation do not apply.

Spiritual passion. The key issue at the beginning phase of renewal is not large numbers but passion and creativity. A small team with high levels of energy is worth much more than high levels of resource.

Look to the margins. It is very rare for organisations to be renewed from the centre. If you happen to be at the centre, then look to the margins of your organisation for signs of life and nurture them. Give those on the margins permission, encouragement and legitimacy such that eventually the centre can be redefined in terms of the life that exists on the edge.

Live the dream. It is vital to create the kind of teams that manifest in their working relationships something of the dream that they advocate. By living out what you seek to become you establish healthy DNA for the future.

Spiritual strength. The desire to do something different requires that leaders understand what they are up against. Organisations can have a life of their own, a personality that is bigger than the sum total of the individuals involved. Bringing change to organisations requires the spiritual strength to address that developed organisational personality.

Leadership is the key. The recruitment and training of more leaders than you can ever use yourself is the key to the growth of movements. The lack of leadership development operates as the glass ceiling on the growth of every organisation. Developing innovative leadership training systems must be a high priority.

Kingdom focus. The line between the Kingdom of God and personal empire is all too fine a line on occasion. Keep a strong Kingdom focus if you want to attract and keep those who have the capacity to generate movement.

Cheating history. To turn an organisation around so that it becomes again a movement is to cheat history. Be audacious enough to declare that this is what you are daring to do.

5. Achieving much without the many

The Tipping Point. The key to producing movement lies with the principle of multiplication. It is astonishing what can be produced from a very small initial base once multiplication is embedded in a movement. It is an observable reality that the world is constantly changed by committed minorities and not by apathetic majorities. The process by which small groups of people become mainstream influencers is well described in a book that describes the formation of secular movements, called The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell.

The title of the book has begun to enter the vocabulary of politicians and social campaigners on both sides of the Atlantic. Although using very different words, the author describes the operation of key influencers that in Christian terms would be thought of as apostles and evangelists – those who cast the vision, build networks and offer convincing advocacy. At a certain point, a new idea, ideology or even product reaches a tipping point such that it becomes the new orthodoxy. The many enter the scene at a fairly late stage in the process. It is the few that lay the groundwork to allow the many to enter later. The process of multiplication or the production of a tipping point has actually been given a mathematical formulation which Gladwell refers to in his book. He offers an astonishing illustration in relation to the developments of movements by sighting a flu epidemic:

“Tipping Points are moments of great sensitivity. Changes made right at the Tipping Point can have enormous consequences. Our Canadian flu became an epidemic when the number of New Yorkers running into a flu carrier jumped from 50 to 55 a day. But had that same small change happened in the opposite direction, if the number had dropped from 50 to 45, that change would have pushed the number of flu victims down to 478 within a week. And within a few weeks more at that rate, the Canadian flu would have vanished from Manhattan entirely.” (1)

Transportable Movements. Those kinds of statistics indicate precisely why movements need to become transportable in order to achieve significance. Multiple contacts are vital elements in producing tipping points. The church planting teams that operate in the Ukraine are instructed to make 350 contacts each. They recognise that in terms of impact, large numbers of people must be contacted to produce initial momentum. It is for precisely that reason that church planting as an activity often becomes the point of leverage for the development of movement.

6. Time of opportunity

We are living between ages. Living as we do between the close of modernity and the rise of something new we need to remember that the future is still open. In particular it is open to spiritual nourishing.

The consumer narrative is weaker than it seems. The following quotation is taken from one of the leading books on marketing. It is widely regarded by the marketing industry as something of a handbook on understanding marketing and advertising.

“For the first time in human history, a shared mythos has broken down, and commercial messages are now taking the place of shared sacred stories. We know in our hearts that a profession designed to sell products cannot fill this gap. If we take the time to think of how many people are finding the only meaning they have in their lives from consumption of various sorts, we do not feel proud; we feel sad, or even outraged” (2)

Unanswered longing. There are many pointers in our culture to the existence of just a longing for the place of valid sacred reality. The challenge for the contemporary church is whether it can meet that unanswered longing.

What might it take to produce a Christian movement amongst young people in the Western world?

Reading: Starke and Finke, How the Upstart Sects Won America. This article is found in your reader.

Footnotes:
1. Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Difference, Abacus, 2000, p. 261.
2. Mark and Pearson, The Hero and the Outlaw, McGraw-Hill, 2001, p. 359

This paper is chapter 5 of Martin Robinson’s excellent book,
'Invading Secular Space: Strategies for Tomorrow's Church',
which can be ordered at http://www.togetherinmission.org/shop.php.