This continues our look at the book, The Starfish and the Spider.

Open systems do not rely on a police force.  On one hand, there is the freedom to do what you want; on the other, you have added responsibility because there is no police walking around maintaining law and order.  Everyone becomes a guardian.  You become responsible of your own welfare and that of those around you.  In open systems, the concept of a “neighbor” takes on more meaning.

The reality of an open system is that within it you will have a few odd ducks; that will be normal.  But you also allow people to unleash a world of creativity and innovation.  It appears to be chaos, and to some degree it is, but it is not anarchy.

Rules and law come in when an organization looses its ability to trust those within it.  It is then that leadership develops into coercive leadership.   Because a small group of people have become bad apples, the whole organization goes on lockdown.  Creativity is stiffled.  Administrative work increases, meaning reports and number-crunching and other paperwork.

When churches want to become organizations where creativity is valued, they will have to trust the creative types.  They will have to allow for a bad apple or two.  They will have to give people the freedom to express themselves in appropriate norms and trust that God will work to create the proper boundaries of creative expression.

I remember hearing Ed Stetzer tell a meeting of Southern Baptists this year that all of our creative types have left the denomination.  Could there be any better realization that the SBC has moved from a decentralized system to a coercive, decentralized system?  When creative people do not feel trusted or feel the freedom to express themselves within the domains of a denomination, that means that rules, regulations, and suppressive norms have been established, and trust has been removed.  The rules are trusted, not people.