Emergent Networks –
Some Thoughts
Jim Jordan, May 2014
Introduction
The Task Force on Reimaging the Church (TREC) Study Papers
have many references to networks. The
network is the dominant organizational form shaping their discussions. The Study Paper on Networks presents a
taxonomy of networks to describe existing and proposed church structure. The taxonomy, in the most general view,
considers two versions of networks.
Version 1 networks appear to be networks whose origin lies in acts of
General Convention and Executive Committee, in the Constitution and Canons, in
Resolutions, in other adopted motions, and in actions of the Presiding Bishop
and/or the President of the House of Deputies. There is an element of top-down
purposing for these networks.
Version 2 networks appear to be networks that emerge as
groups of individual Episcopalians, or possibly groups of congregations,
deaneries, or dioceses working toward a commonly agreed goal. I call these emergent networks. TREC has asked for worked examples. I can think of four, one church-related and
international in scope, one secular, local, and environmentally-oriented, one
secular and outreach-oriented, one secular and business-related. I find it interesting that each started
informally and grew organically – to a point.
As they grew and were successful, they also became formalized and
institutionalized.
Bible Challenge
The Bible Challenge, a structured program for reading the
Bible in one year that has international reach, is the result of an emergent
process. Begun as a priest’s personal
discipline and driven by his passionate belief that reading the entire Bible
could be a transformative experience for Christians, it spread through his
parish and beyond. As interest grew,
apparently through word-of-mouth advertising, the outlines of a more formal
program emerged. For example, the effort
to extend the program included a book of commentaries written by a network of
Episcopal and Anglican church leaders.
“Grassroots” funding led to the establishment of the Institute for
Biblical Studies, which continues to maintain and expand the program.
Friends of the Gualala
River (FoGR)
FoGR’s most recent incarnation began in 2002, defending the
Gualala River against an audacious dewatering scheme. Several passionately concerned watershed
residents banded together to activate what had been a dormant group. Since then, FoGR has emerged into an advocacy
group for the watershed’s environment, responding to a wide range of perceived
threats to the river’s quality as habitat, especially for threatened or
endangered species. The all-volunteer,
slowly changing, leadership continues to meet and operate by consensus, with
minimal structure. However, the group
has reached a point where additional structure, and probably independent
non-profit corporate status, is needed because of its fund raising activities
and its involvement in legal actions.
Team Rubicon
Team Rubicon started in a bar with some Afghanistan and Iraq
veterans talking about the Haiti earthquake, realizing that they had skills
that could be useful in the early days after a disaster. Three or four determined to go to Haiti and
started off. On their way, they met
other veterans who joined up, ending with a team of perhaps ten – including an
ex-Army doctor, who entered Haiti a few days after the earthquake via the
Dominican Republic. A network of friends
with whom they had contact via social media kicked in money to support their
travel and to help them provide help to the Haitians. One veteran’s father, who managed the
collection and transmission of the money, realized the need for the protections
of not-for-profit incorporation and Team Rubicon was the organizational
result. Team Rubicon has grown and expanded
the scope of its activities beyond Haiti to provide crisis relief in other disaster emergencies.
IBM’s Internal
Electronic Network
In 1969, technology innovators in IBM centers in Palo Alto,
San Jose, and Cambridge used their centers’ computers to establish an
electronic linkage, testing a protocol for electronic data communication. This nascent network was opened to other IBM
centers; the rules were simple – a center joining the network paid its
communication line costs and committed to making ports available to other
centers wanting to join the network. The
network quickly became pervasive throughout IBM as center managers realized the
benefits of electronic communication for many product development applications. Funding was “below the radar,” coming
primarily from each center’s discretionary budget. It was several years before
corporate executives realized how dependent on the network IBM’s operations had
become.
There is a parallel story in the growth of the Internet,
although the Internet grew out of ARPAnet, an effort funded and purposed by the
Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency. The emergent behavior of the Internet and the
evolving networking applications it supports have led to a popular familiarity
with networking concepts.
Conclusions
I conclude that emergent networks provide a useful grass-roots
model for bringing good ideas and projects “to market.” I also conclude that the larger and more
successful an emergent network becomes, the greater the need for formal
structure. Each of the examples started
with a specific, narrowly defined goal that elicited passionate commitment by a
nucleus of founders. Each grew to
include more expansive goals.
At some point, a church-related emergent network will have
to decide whether it wants to organize independently, as Bible Challenge has, or
to organize under the Episcopal Church brand.
If it makes the latter choice, the network will need to fit within the
strategy of the Episcopal Church and in an appropriate place in the Episcopal
Church structure.
I do not think we have a structure now to accommodate
emergent networks with ease. We will have to decide which responsibilities we
should devolve to emergent networks, having faith that all the strategic needs
will be spanned, in time, by networks.
Maintaining the Episcopal Church brand (a shorthand way of saying
maintaining the integrity of the Episcopal Church) will require oversight of
branded networks by agents of the structure.