Monday, June 27th, 2005
Is a ‘postmodern organization’ an oxymoron? Richard Tiplady’s chapter in the book, “Postmission” explores the link between postmodern thought and organizational structure.
Richard’s a consultant based in the UK working with Christian Vocations, Tearfund, Scripture Gift Mission, USPG, Oasis Trust, Global Connections, World Evangelical Alliance Missions Commission, Radstock Ministries, Afrika In Touch. He’s well qualified for his contribution to Postmission’s exploration of the implications of generational and philosophical change for mission organisations.
Tiplady begins his article with a couple of riders. He reminds us that postmodernity is not necessarily a coherent concept that can be pinned down. Some corporations developed or run on postmodern principles have failed. He distinguishes between postmodernity and postmodernism. Postmodernity refers to the social and cultural changes perceived to be impacting the world at this point in history, associated with changes taking place over fifty years. Postmodernism is the thinking and ideas that have developed around those changes.
Tiplady draws on Stanley Skreslet’s description of the 21st century mission organisation:
niche oriented (more specialised with a clear focus in ministry or geography) and networked (an alternative to command and control).
Michael Foucault’s insights on power are used in an exploration of team diversity in the mission organisation. The development of diversity of gender, generation and culture brings to the fore assumptions about what is normal. Foucault identifies a definition of ‘normal’ as a use of power that marginalises. He is concerned that people work out of discourses or world views that know nothing of one another or exclude one another. Tiplady develops a power/resistance matrix to articulate different discourses so as to reveal the arbitrary nature of every rule and norm. For example Jesus healing on the Sabbath reveals the lack of consistency in the ways Sabbath laws favour those in power - male property owners.
Tiplady says that a postmodern organisation will marked by the encouragement of diversity and free exchange of opinions and views. Leaders will allow the exposure and challenge of previously unseen and unintended power plays at work behind all normal operating principles and procedures. The goal is not to arrive at new compromise of norms, but to develop an environment in which continued questioning can happen. The postmodern question: “Who says it has to be that, and not this?”
Tiplady finishes by drawing on the work of Gilles Deleuze on chaos and leadership. Chaos theory provides an alternative to classifying systems as closed or open random. In the 1960s Deleuze noted that fascism came from forcing a choice between disorder/anarchy and state-imposed order. Changes come about because chaotic/complex systems are highly sensitive to initial conditions. A amall change can push a system across the ‘bifurcation point’ into new and radically different behaviour.
Since 2002 Tiplady has published two of his own books on globalisation:
World Of Difference : Global Mission At The Pic’N'Mix Counter
Globalisation and postmodernity are combining to create a world characterised by difference and continual change. My latest book looks at how this will affect the practice of mission, and especially how mission agencies (and all organisations) can change to thrive in such a context.
One World or Many? The impact of globalisation on mission
Globalisation is a major factor in today’s world. This book, which includes chapters by writers from around the world, considers its implications for Christian mission. One of the key arguments of this book is that globalisation will lead to a more diverse, complex and plural world, rather than the homogenised Western one we so often assume that the term describes.
Tags: Mission, Organisation, Postmodernity
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Wednesday, May 25th, 2005
The second contribution to PostMission starts with the U2 song title, “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”. Peter Stephenson WEC Spain UK, Joanne Goode Africa Inland Mission UK and Carolyn Cole, YWAM UK, write on why Generation X struggle to find a place in mission agencies.
A point to note here - the mission agencies referred to in Postmission are Evangelical organisations with an emphasis on global mission. The concerns outlined here could be applied to other parachurch organisations as well as denominational agencies, whether Evangelical or not.
Another point - “Generation X” and “Postmodern” are used interchangeably throughout the book. It would be fair to say that the authors would now have moved on from that point to include ‘millennials’ in the mix, and to acknowledge that not all Gen Xers buy into postmodernist values.
Clue 1: Attitude to Authority
The Holy Island Roundtable remind us that ‘postmodern Christians’ do not have a natural respect for leaders, nor a willingness to turn a blind eye to faults. They are less likely to respond to those they see as ‘strong, confident, aloof’ hero/parent figures. They are more likely to focus on the ‘fellow traveller’. and are prepared to learn from even the most junior co-worker. Xers are not impressed with leaders who are preoccupied with looking the part and holding their own. They would rather link with authentic leaders who are honest about their own failings and open to accountability.
Clue 2: Morality
The authors ask the hard questions:
Are the moral values of your church/mission determined by scripture or by evangelical subculture?”
To what extent can morality be contextualized or enculturated?
With an increased number of potential postmodern recruits with a ‘blotted’ moral history and outlook, how will we assimilate them without marginalization?
They examine the modernist Evangelical focus on individual morality, with its preoccupation with sexual sin. Holiness, they say, has been reduced to personal individual sins linked with sexual behaviour, dress codes, divorce, alcohol taboos, tithing, abortion, swearing, and dirty jokes. Postmoderns are more concerned with moral issues such as weapons of mass destruction, environmental destruction, womens’ rights, Third World debt, racism, exploitation of child labour.
Clue 3: Spirituality
Postmodern spirituality can appear threatening or lax to modernist Christians. Traditional evangelicalism is focused on a ‘personal walk with the Lord’, expressed in a daily quiet time (ideally in the morning), self discipline, church attendance, and learning from teaching. Postmoderns seek to involve God in every aspect and moment of life – at least in principle. They express a longing for an intimate experience of God, privately and in gatherings of the church. They express a distrust of ability of selves and others to faultlessly interpret Scripture.
Clue 4: Truth and Honesty
The Roundtable authors once again pose challenges to mission organisations:
Do we put at risk the integrity of our agency’s ministries by not telling the whole story?
To what extent are agencies driven by the need to appear successful in order to please their donors?
The authors express their concern for integrity in Evangelical mission organisations. Mission agencies, they say, often exaggerate the results of their work. Does this reveal an idol of success? Some agencies have been changing their image without changing the reality.
Clue 5: Reducing Struggle – Unity in Diversity
Is there room for people working from a postmodernist perspective in mission organisations? Could Galatians 3:26-28 be expanded to say that in Christ there is neither modern or postmodern? The authors say that we face a situation similar to the Galatian context. A Jewish majority was imposing their cultural norms on the nascent Gentile churches. In Rome the situation was in the reverse, with Jews returning to Rome being required to fit in with a Gentile church with little respect for Jewish customs. Just like the New Testament church, we need to listen to one another, respecting one another. At times, however, postmoderns and moderns will need to challenge one another about syncretism with the dominant culture.
Tags: Church Leadership, Mission, Postmodernity, Sexuality, Theology, Values
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