Gordon points to a Wall Street Journal blog post by Gary Hamel on “Managing the Facebook Generation,” which sounds like a terrible exercise but actually has some good advice about how 20th Century organizations have to adapt if they’re going to be relevant to the online culture. Gordon reflects what this means for churches:
This explains why I often struggle so much with the hierarchical systems I have found myself working within, whether that is a military or denominational context. I think that churches and denominational bodies need to read, reflect and learn from Gary’s thinking. It may well affect how we lead churches and handle church governance. Here below are the main points, with my reflections on what this means for us.
Here are the some of the points Gary Hamel makes in the WSJ:
1. All ideas compete on an equal footing.
2. Contribution counts for more than credentials.
3. Hierarchies are natural, not prescribed.
4. Leaders serve rather than preside.
Read the WSJ blog for the full twelve point annotated list.
Martin’s commentary:
Quakers reading this should be scratching their heads right about now. We actually know about this kind of stuff. We’ve been doing it for 350 years. We’re entering an era when even smart Baptists are asking whether their organizational bodies have to look more Quakerly, an era where some of our most basic cultural values are being taken up by an online generation. How are we responding?
