An organization uses structure and resources and power to make things happen. Organizations hire people, issue policies, buy things, erect buildings, earn market share and get things done. Your company is probably an organization.
A movement has an emotional heart. A movement might use an organization, but it can replace systems and people if they disappear. Movements are more likely to cause widespread change, and they require leaders, not managers. The internet, it turns out, is a movement, and every time someone tries to own it, they fail.
A philosophy can survive things that might wipe out a movement and that would decimate an organization. A philosophy can skip a generation or two. It is often interpreted, and is more likely to break into autonomous groups, to morph and split and then reunite. Industrialism was a philosophy.
The trouble kicks in when you think you have one and you actually have the other.
Very often we refer to ourselves as a "movement" or a "fellowship" but I don't know that anyone knows what those terms mean. And, as Baptist polity makes us a bit cantankerous when anyone claims to speak for all Baptists (for those who may not know - since each congregation is autonomous, there is no hierarchy/synod/presbytery/bishop that makes decisions about "what all Baptists believe"), we tend to be über careful...and I suspect we don't want to define those terms. But we're 20 years old now. And if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck...wouldn't it just behoove us all to call it a duck instead of "NOT chicken"? Let's stop defining ourselves by what we're NOT and start saying what we ARE. Organization, movement, or philosophy?
Very well-said. CBF is not acting like a 20-year old, but a pre-teen, constantly worrying about what the other group is thinking about them when the other group simply isn't thinking about them. We need to find out who we are and move forward with that. We cannot base a philosophy, movement, or organization on simply not being some other group. If that is all we concern ourselves with then we may not live to see 30.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to Tampa. Should be fun.
I too greatly appreciate Seth Godin's blog and continual flow of insightful posts. I too read the above Godin post and thought about CBF.
ReplyDeleteTo me, though, I thought about how CBF fits each of these categories simultaneously. It reminds me of the six blind men describing an elephant. It really depends on one's perspective or perception. I see all of these as very true all the time. I also believe that what people believe and say about CBF often reveals more about the person that the organization/movement/philosophy.
Furthermore, to the above post, I don't hear too many people continuing to define themselves as what they're against anymore. I do think we've moved on past that for the most part. But maybe that's just me personally :)
Excuse me, "than" not that.
ReplyDeleteExcellent reminders. Perhaps, all christians should remind themselves of what some denominations refer to as "the Great Commission."
ReplyDeleteMovement. Philosophy. Premise for a Commission. We should all work together for the common good. If I may, I want to refer to a recent article I posted.
http://plhpublishing.wordpress.com/2011/06/17/relational-thinking-and-the-church/
Would any of you agree or disagree that Movement and philosophy related to Christian service is meaningless unless as any congregation, we choose to be relational outside the walls.