Leadership: Life at the Edge of Chaos
Gregg’s Reflection
I’ve spent the last two decades consulting and studying the challenges of churches and denominations that seem to be circling the drain, nearing extinction. As I consider these issues, I have thought back time and again to something I read in Michael Chrichton’s book, The Lost World. The prologue shares the title of this post. In it, Chrichton quotes a mathematician, Ian Malcolm, who is quite renowned in the world of Chaos Theory, as he discusses theories about the extinction of dinosaurs. Malcolm said, at his presentation at the Sante Fe Institute in 1993:
Of all the self-organizing behaviors, two are of particular interest to the study of evolution. One is adaptation. We see it everywhere. Corporations adapt to the marketplace, brain cells adapt to signal traffic, the immune system adapts to infection, animals adapt to their food supply. We have come to think the ability to adapt is characteristic of complex systems.
He continues:
But, even more important is the way complex systems seem to strike a balance between the need for order and the imperative to change. Complex systems tend to locate themselves at a place we call ‘the edge of chaos.’ We imagine the edge of chaos as a place where there is enough innovation to keep a living system vibrant, and enough stability to keep it from collapsing into anarchy. It is a zone of conflict and upheaval, where the old and the new are constantly at war.
Finding the balance point must be a delicate matter--if a living system drifts too close, it risks falling over into incoherence and dissolution; but if the system moves too far from the edge, it becomes rigid, frozen, totalitarian. Both conditions lead to extinction. Too much change is as destructive as too little. Only at the edge of chaos can complex systems flourish.
It’s been nearly thirty years since I read that passage, yet it has stuck in my mind, as I read of one species after another going extinct in this present age. As I think about the challenges facing the American church, this idea has strong relevance when we look at those complex systems as well.
I’ve seen many churches go beyond valuing tradition to an extreme focus on traditionalism. We have wonderful traditions of the church that bring deep meaning from an ancient past. Too often, people confuse form with substance, and reject the kind of adaptation that will allow a church community to remain a living, breathing body of Christ bringing transformation and faith to its community.
Worship wars come out of this mindset of traditionalism. While Martin Luther wrote his hymns to the music of popular bar tunes of the day, many Lutheran churches blanch at using anything but pipe organ music in worship. Yet, only a small percentage of those under 40 are drawn to classical organ music.
When my brother and I were coming up in our family business, we realized that the management structures and style our father had created would not hold up in the current age. In the twenty-five years I worked at the company, I saw the rate of change multiply in the world. While my father could build a company and not make major shifts in strategy or structure for decades, we saw the danger that strategy left us with by the late 1980’s.
After spending more than a decade on a plateau, while all our costs rose and our margins shrank, our father died, leaving us to captain the ship. We created a new strategy, pushed into new businesses, and created a learning organization that equipped people to lead. Our business began to grow again.
We unleashed a decade long spurt of growth, quadrupling our revenues. We reinvented ourselves, while continuing to serve the same customers. We bought a competitor, and created two new businesses in five years time.
When my father started the business in 1952, he could come up with a strategy and vision that maintained its relevance for 25 years. By the time we sold the business in 1999, you needed to reinvent yourself about every five years.
The financial meltdown of 2008 showed us that even the most venerable businesses could crash and burn in less than three years. My decade of consulting in churches has shown me that they can take twenty years to die. Where the end is quick and brutal in the business world, in the world of religion, churches can wither on the vine for decades.
My research in the Lutheran tribe (ELCA) found that 90% of the existing churches had not added one person to their average Sunday worship over five years. In the life stages of organization, they were on a plateau at best, with most of them slipping into decline.
My friend Ron Lee was former churchwide staff and spent most of his Pastorate leading large Lutheran churches. Ron looked at the institutional church and said, “The core of the institution is about orthodoxy and control. Change always happens around the edges.” My observation of the 90% of Lutheran churches that were no longer reaching new people is that they were centered on orthodoxy and control.
The trouble is, the Spirit is messy, and cannot be controlled. Lutherans like to talk about needing ‘good order’ in churches. I think this grew from Martin Luther’s experience of the peasants’ revolt during the Reformation. Luther promoted the idea of the priesthood of all believers. When the common people began to take the idea seriously, things got out of control. Luther came down on the side of ‘good order’ and supported the efforts of the princes to subdue the masses.
The trouble is, efforts to create good order can have the effect of stifling innovation and the movement of the Spirit. Churches trying to maintain control lose the ability to locate themselves at the edge of chaos. With that posture, they lose the ability to adapt and thrive in a changing environment. (See my post on the Life Stages of Organizations.)
So, while we have imported democracy into our American church, where we like to vote on everything, we have lost the deep connection to our roots in prayer and discernment of the Spirit’s leading. Show me one example in either the Old or New Testament of a time when the majority of the people came down on the side of what God wanted to do. The Bible is full of stories of how the masses turned from God to worship idols, and it was the few, the prophets, who called them back to the truth. Unfortunately, the prophetic voice is not welcome in many churches. So, we adopt governance mechanisms that over-control, and micromanage the church. These systems are devoid of faith and trust, and try to keep control in human hands. Even when those human hands are well-meaning, they are not the same as the will of God.
I want to live the rest of my life at the edge of chaos, in the midst of the messiness of the Spirit’s work. I hope you will join me there. It is the pathway to abundant life, and to living out God’s plans instead of our own.
What wants to happen? My mentor, Charlotte Roberts, asked me this question repeatedly. I have used this expression a thousand times. I have people I mentor and coach who use the phrase regularly. I recently reached out and asked her: What does that expression mean to you? How did you come upon the idea?
She replied:
It comes from Meg Wheatley as a way to get folks to think about living systems. Because they’re alive, living systems are in constant change and chaos with strange attractors that redirect intention and attention. Living systems oscillate between chaos and order. So to plan the future of your org or family, you have to look out in the environment and inside human consciousness to see trends of what is trying to emerge. In our time, hate is all over the planet — what wants to happen? Another world war? The fight against evil? Avoiding being personally responsible by having a “Strong” leader?
So, wade in and let’s see what it means to live ‘at the edge of chaos.’ Share this with those you know who are struggling with change in this chaotic time.
Blessings, Gregg
Journaling Prompts
How do you respond to chaos in your life? Have you worked to control what cannot be controlled? How does that work out for you? What would it look like for your life and/or your organization to live at the edge of chaos? How might you benefit from embracing chaos?
Scripture
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8: This passage acknowledges the cyclical nature of life, including seasons of chaos and tranquility.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea...
Psalm 46:1-3: This emphasizes finding strength and safety in God amid chaos.
Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!’ He replied, ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’”
Matthew 8:24-26: This passage reveals the tension between faith and fear in chaotic circumstances.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God...”
Philippians 4:6-7: Find peace amid chaos through faith and prayer.
Ancient Writing
In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.
Sun Tzu, The Art of War, translated by Lionel Giles, Chapter 5: Energy.
In the midst of chaos, there is shape. In the midst of confusion, there is a pattern. In the midst of disorder, there is a rhythm.
Augustine of Hippo, paraphrase that aligns with his writings on divine order (e.g., City of God)
In dark night, when the soul feels lost, my soul rests in the divine will; even in chaos, I find peace in God.
John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul
Prayer is an act of love. The one who prays is in the presence of God, even in the midst of worldly chaos.
Teresa of Ávila, The Way of Perfection, Chapter 4
Modern Writing
We live in a rainbow of chaos.
In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.
Carl Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, CW9i, §66
Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man.
Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, Chapter XXV.
Chaos does not mean total disorder. Chaos means a multiplicity of possibilities. Chaos is from the ancient Greek words that means a thing that is birthed from the void. And it was about that which is possible, not about disorder.
Jok Church, You Can with Beakman and Jax, Q&A segment
Peace is not something you can force on anything or anyone... much less upon one's own mind. It is like trying to quiet the ocean by pressing upon the waves. Sanity lies in somehow opening to the chaos, allowing anxiety, moving deeply into the tumult, diving into the waves, where underneath, within, peace simply is.
Gerald May, The Awakened Heart, p. 145.